POEA probes case of stranded OFWs in Dubai

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) will look into the case of 137 Filipino bus drivers who were recruited by a licensed agency but ended up jobless in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

POEA anti-illegal recruitment division chief Rosemarie Duquez said the agency would call the owners of CYM International Services and ask them to explain why the bus drivers were left jobless in Dubai.

Yesterday, the wives of the stranded bus drivers filed a case of illegal recruitment against CYM International.

They also went to the Department of Foreign Affairs to seek help for their husbands and the immediate release of the drivers’ passports by the agency’s counterpart in Dubai.

Also yesterday, former labor undersecretary and Blas Ople Center head Susan Ople warned aspiring overseas
Filipino workers (OFWs) against accepting offers to work as bus or taxi drivers in Dubai.

She noted that the stranded bus drivers applied with CYM International after receiving flyers distributed at various terminals announcing the availability of 4,000 jobs for bus drivers in Dubai.

Upon arriving in Dubai, however, the workers learned that their supposed employer was not aware of such recruitment efforts and is not hiring workers at this time.

“It is outrageous that a licensed recruitment agency would resort to illegal recruitment practices to dupe these bus drivers out of their hard-earned money. We would also like to ask the government to assign a specific agency that would be in charge of monitoring and regulating lending companies that offer loans specifically to OFWs,” Ople said.

The bus drivers, most of whom come from Central Luzon, were promised good-paying jobs in exchange for a placement fee of P150,000.

Ople said the drivers and their families are deeply worried about the outstanding loans they have to pay to the lending agency referred to them by CYM International Services.

“The effect of this scam on the victims’ families is tremendous. The wife of one of the bus drivers was forced to ask her son to stop going to school because they have no more money. The wives are very anxious about the living conditions of their husbands and the future of their families,” she said.

Ople urged the government to allot part of the 220,000 job commitments obtained by President Arroyo for the stranded bus drivers.

“This is a good test case for the commitments obtained. The drivers are highly professional and well-experienced, and most of them really prefer to work in the Emirates so they can pay back their loans,” she said.

Due to lack of funds, the drivers have resorted to raiding the dumpsite near their living quarters for tin cans and metal scraps that they can sell so they could have money to buy food.

The living conditions of the drivers are also horrible – their building relies on a generator set that delivers electricity only three to four hours a day; water supply is scarce; and it is located in front of a smelly garbage dumpsite, Ople said.

‘Extend assistance’

President Arroyo has ordered Labor Secretary Marianito Roque to immediately extend assistance to Filipino workers stranded in Dubai and other concerned agencies to file criminal charges against their recruiter.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said Mrs. Arroyo directed Roque “to process them (Filipino workers) for employment in Dubai or elsewhere in the Middle East.”

Remonde said the labor official should also repatriate those who want to come home.

The President also ordered an investigation and filing of charges, “if warranted,” against government officials found to have connived with the recruiter.

Roque assured the wives of the stranded drivers that their husbands would be transferred to Qatar and hired as bus drivers there.

Ople said Roque called her yesterday noon and informed her that the government would pursue the case against CYM International and that he had already given instructions to suspend the agency’s license.

POEA director Melchor Dizon said the preventive suspension order against CYM is now awaiting the signature of the administrator.

“A preventive suspension is being issued pending the investigation of the case against CYM which means that the agency will be closed down at this time and will not be able to recruit workers,” Dizon said in an interview.

Meanwhile, Eastern Samar Gov. Ben Evardone, who is also presidential adviser on LGU and public policies and secretary-general of the League of Provinces, defended Mrs. Arroyo from criticisms on her recent trip to Dubai.

He said the Philippines “has been able to firewall itself from the unprecedented job losses now sweeping much of the globe because of the Arroyo administration’s intense efforts at job generation.   – WIth Paolo Romero