Oversight committee created to supervise Jaylo task force

President Arroyo has formed an eight-member committee to oversee the participation of government agencies in anti-illegal recruitment operations of the newly formed Presidential Anti-Illegal Recruitment Task Force (PAIRTF).

The PAIRTF will be under the command of retired Manila police colonel Reynaldo Jaylo.

Labor and Employment Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas, meanwhile, heads the task force’s oversight committee.

The oversight committee members are Foreign Affairs Secretary Delia Albert, Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) general manager Edgar Manda, National Bureau of Investigation Director Reynaldo Wycoco, Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño, Philippine National Police chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., administrator Rosalinda Baldoz of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, and Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez.

Mrs. Arroyo also ordered the MIAA to provide PAIRTF with an office at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

Meanwhile, Labor Undersecretary Manuel Imson is confident that the government will win the war against illegal recruiters after the President created the PAIRTF.

"With chairman Jaylo at the helm of the presidential task force, we at the Department of Labor are confident that we would win the war against illegal recruitment," Imson said in a statement.

"With our intensified campaign against illegal recruitment, especially after the creation of PAIRTF, we will make sure that illegal recruiters will land in jail," he said.

Jaylo presented to reporters yesterday two suspected illegal recruiters believed to be involved in the deployment of Filipino workers to Japan and the Middle East.

He said the two — Mariano Garcia and Roger Salazar — were arrested in Malate, Manila after they received a complaint from their victims.

Garcia was also accused of manufacturing fake visas and passports. — Mayen Jaymalin, Marichu Villanueva