MANILA, 13 August 2006 — In one of the toughest actions taken so far by the government against illegal job recruiters, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) yesterday ordered the closure of 18 travel agencies which it found to have engaged in hiring Filipinos to work abroad.
An advisory posted in the POEA’s website yesterday also named 50 persons included in its blacklist for involvement in illegal job recruitment.
Ordered closed werethe Grandeur Travel and Tours in Mabalacat, Pampanga; Easy Travel Agency, Mandaluyong City; 1021 Travel and Tours, World Flight Travel and Tours, ASA Ventures and Enterprises, ASL Express Travel, Inc., American Dream Travel and Tours, CSEJ Travel and Tours, all in Quezon City.
Topaz Travel and Tours and RCC Travels and Tours in Pasay City; Lagundi Travel and Tours, Rymek Enter Inc./Melon Travel and Tours, Embassy Travel and Tours, Gem Travel and Tours, Top make Agency/ Roman Travel and Tours/Corinthian Travel and Tours, Fernandez Travel and Tours, Mt. Sinai Travel and Tours and Denmark Travel and Tours, located in Ermita and Malate, Manila.
“Under Article 26 of the Labor Code of the Philippines, travel agencies and airline companies were prohibited from engaging in the business of recruitment and placement of workers for overseas employment,” said the advisory.
Named in the POEA blacklist were:
Rosario Calunsod, Arturo “Bong” Benlot, Genalyn Salvan-Matulac, Emily Gaje, Rita Espiritu, Alicia bagtas, Rhina Mizutani, Josefina Santos Kurusawa, Merly Santos Yamamoto, Elsie Estrada, Apolonia Real, Felicidad Asuncion, Asbjorn Brekke/Brekke Helsevikar, Joy Tomomac, Rolando Garcia, Edita Garcia, Maria Ines Costale/Ma. Inez Costales, Flocerfina T. Molina, Marissa Tiongson, Dolor Gomez, Lily Mercado, Rossini P. Calunsag, Teresa Laviña.
Vila Guce, Meriam Usop, Ahmad Marzooq, Fely Flores, Aida Lalu, Aime Gene U. de Jesus, Gloria Sialana, Evelyn de Leon, Rosemarie Liwanag, Hamed Hamdi, Capt. Pedie H. Loresto, Mercedita T. Ramirez, Bienbien Cristobal, Tess Gatchalian, Remy Rempillo, Virginia Ignacio, Jenny Lyn Ignacio, Renz Miranda, Aurora Baltazar, Capt. Kamarudssaman bin Mohamad/Capt. Kamar, Capt. Jeselit C. Gelvero, Elizabeth Dizo-Paolo, Thess Duran, Niel Maullon, Lulu Garcia, Sadjid Panansar and Zoraya Lazaro Pananzar.
The advisory warned the public against dealing with the persons in its blacklist.
POEA Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz earlier ordered a crackdown on travel agencies deploying jobseekers abroad amid the increasing number of Filipinos getting stranded in the countries where they are sent with the promise of getting jobs that turned out to be non-existent.
Even licensed recruitment agencies have been demanding a crackdown on travel agencies which have been sending people with tourist visas who want to work abroad.
Philippine officials in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had earlier warned Filipinos not to accept any offer to work in the Mideastern country using tourist visas, warning that the authorities were getting stricter in view of the mounting number of overstayers especially in Dubai.
Unscrupulous travel agencies are also being blamed for deploying most of the estimated 30,000 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in Lebanon, two-thirds of whom reportedly went there using tourist visas. “The trouble with finding work abroad using a tourist visa is that you usually don’t get a fair deal and you are not covered by OWWA benefits...” a Labor official told Arab News.
Many Filipinos are said to be working also in Iraq, Japan and Singapore using tourist visas. Because of the government could not prevent anybody from leaving as long as they have a valid passport and visa, Baldoz said the POEA is pushing for bilateral agreements between the Philippines and countries frequented by the so-called “tourist workers” to stop the illegal deployment of workers.
Upon his assumption of office last month, Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said he wanted the department to intensify its campaign against “escort services” that were illegally transport workers for abroad.
Brion, a former official at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), expressed concern that these escort syndicates remained active particularly at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) despite the campaigned launched in the past by the government.
Brion said running after these tourist agencies “might result in a tremendous decrease in the social and economic ill effects of illegal recruitment, the harm done to individuals and their families, as well as the damage and drain on the country’s economy.
