BAGUIO CITY – Officials of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) padlocked the office of an alleged Baguio-based illegal recruiter along Mabini Street here Thursday morning.
Lawyer Romelson Abbang, chief of the POEA operations and surveillance division at the central office, identified the alleged illegal recruiter as Evangeline Torres alias Evangeline Antonio who is holding office at Room 309 Samson Building, Mabini Street, Baguio city and also has a cubicle at a computer shop along Lakandula St., Baguio City.
Abbang disclosed the alleged illegal recruiter had been recruiting individuals from La Union and the different parts of the Cordillera for direct hiring at the Kerin Dairy Farm in Japan over the past several months but no one was yet deployed for the desired job.
According to Abbang, upon verification with the Japanese embassy, the said dairy farm actually exists but it does not have any job order authorizing any recruiter from the country to recruit workers for employment in the said company.
“We call on those who were recruited by Ms Torres and Ms. Antonio to file the appropriate charges against her so that she will be made to answer for her illegal recruitment activities in the La Union and Cordillera areas,”Abbang stressed.
It was learned that she was able to convince more than 50 individuals to be deployed in Japan and that she was able to get from them initial payments ranging from P20,000 to P50,000 but she was not able to provide them with their travel and employment documents.
Abbang said interested complainants against the said illegal recruiter must already file their complaints with concerned law enforcement agencies or the POEA so that the suspect will be issued the appropriate warrants by the court in order to justify his arrest.
By Dexter A. See
