Woman indicted for large-scale illegal recruitment

CEBU, Philippines - A woman was charged with large scale illegal recruitment before the Regional Trial Court for allegedly recruiting workers to work abroad without authority from the government.

The Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office has indicted Elsie dela Cura for violation of Sec.6 of the Republic Act 8042 or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 after finding probable cause that she is probably guilty of the complaint filed by three of her alleged victims.

Dela Cura, owner of EA international placement and general services, failed to fulfill her promise to deploy the complainants abroad despite them paying P100,000 each.

Rizalie Maglinte,Winnie Anonat and Helly Damgo said they applied to work abroad during a jobs fair at the Capitol grounds where the company owned by the accused was one of the participants.

One of the complainants, Maglinte, said that they were interviewed by one of the company’s representatives and were asked to submit their requirements. They were told to wait for a telephone interview to be done by dela Cura.

Maglinte said an employee of the company told her to deposit P50,000 in the first week of October 2006. Upon instruction of the accused, Maglinte said that she deposited in a bank account and was later told to wait for three months before she could start working in the United Kingdom.

On January 2007, Maglinte said she received documents from dela Cura like working permit, application terms of business and accommodation, and offer letter. She said that she filled it up and sent the documents back to the accused. A week after, dela Cura reportedly called her and asked her to deposit another P50,000, which the complainant did.

But months after, despite being told to wait for her Visa, Maglinte said she started to worry because the accused was already giving a lot of excuses every time she makes a follow-up.

The complainant said she sought help from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration to recover her expenses but was disappointed since dela Cura eluded her despite their agreement before the POEA adjudication office.

Similar incident was also reported by the other two complainants.

Dela Cura denied the allegations. She claimed to have known the complainants as walk in applicants.

According to her, she never recruited them for a job in UK. She said that she merely accommodated the complainants’ plea for help in looking for a job but were not deployed for work since they were not qualified.

The accused said that she is an accredited recruiter and was never involved in any illegal activities.

But because of her failure to reimburse the money paid by the complainants, the prosecutor’s office found probable cause to charge her with illegal recruitment. — THE FREEMAN