US government reports 'erring' RP-based manpower agency

MANILA, Philippines – The US State Department has raised with the Philippine government the continued operation of a local manpower agency that allegedly collects recruitment fees from Filipinos it sends to the US, according to a report of the Philippine Consulate General in Guam.

The Consulate General reiterated the “no recruitment fee” policy of the US for foreign workers as it continues to receive reports that Filipino applicants paid manpower agencies substantial amounts for placement or recruitment fees.

Consul General Bayani Mercado, in a report to the Department of Foreign Affairs, said he met with US State Department acting fraud prevention manager Clay Allen, who said Topline Manpower Services continues to operate as a labor recruitment agency despite the US embassy’s notification to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.

The agency allegedly collected recruitment fees despite the US Government’s no recruitment fee policy for workers under the H2-B classification bound for the US and its territories.

Allen was accompanied during the meeting by Reynaldo Beltran, consular investigations assistant at the US embassy in Manila and Douglas Carter of the Consular Security Service.

Mercado said his office continues to process applicants bound for Guam who admit they paid manpower agencies placement or recruitment fees.

Allen expressed his willingness to meet with Philippine government officials, including the Philippine media, for an information campaign on the US policy. He added that his office is looking closely at applications for H2-B workers.

The US embassy’s anti-fraud division has been working closely with the labor department and other federal agencies in Guam to ascertain that workers coming from the Philippines are employed in the jobs they were hired for, and at the salary scales stated in their applications.