LAW is created to regulate behavior.
The freedom to act can sometimes impact negatively on others. Society responds by enacting laws that penalize errant behavior.
Illegal recruitment, for instance, has required a legal definition backdropped by the Filipino’s dream of a better life for his family.
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Why do Filipinos want to work abroad?
Economic reasons are the usual excuse. Filipinos migrate because the pay in more advanced countries is more commensurate to their toil. Jobs overseas provide higher salaries than what they can get in this country.
Families back home are fed better. Children live in cozier houses and are admitted to better schools.
The higher social standing that jobs overseas afford has become a magnet to illegal recruitment.
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There are people who take advantage of these dreams. Illegal recruitment is a modern scourge that Philippine law has seen fit to penalize heavily.
The law targets recruiters who entice people for jobs abroad in exchange for a fee.
Lately, illegal recruiters have even invaded the online community.
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Late last year Migrant Workers Secretary Susan Ople warned against an online recruitment scheme offering jobs for Filipinos to work in Chinese-operated firms along the border of Thailand and Myanmar.
Secretary Ople has issued an advisory against “online offers for temporary work in Myanmar for POGO-run establishments that are really forced labor and human trafficking hubs in disguise.”
Filipinos were rescued from a call center based in a remote area in Myanmar. They recounted that they were recruited online via Facebook.
The promised salary was forty thousand pesos per month to work as data encoders when in truth they were made to join dating apps and other social media platforms to develop relationships with potential bitcoin investors.
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It was the office of Senator Risa Hontiveros that was responsible for linking up the victims with the Philippine government.
Hontiveros had announced that POGO-type operations in Myanmar and other parts of Asia are luring Filipinos to work there for six months on high salary.
Ople said she “will not be surprised if there are syndicated also operating in remote areas here in the Philippines.”
The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration had earlier suspended further deployment to Myanmar.
Aspiring OFWs were warned against applying for jobs in Myanmar due to the continued violence and armed conflict in the country. Incidents of illegal recruitment and human trafficking were noted to be on the rise.
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According to the Supreme Court, illegal recruitment has two essential elements:
First, the offender has no valid license or authority required by law to enable him to lawfully engage in the recruitment and placement of workers.
Second, the offender undertakes any activity within the meaning of “recruitment and placement” defined under Article 13 (b), or any prohibited practices enumerated under Article 34 of the Labor Code.
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An online recruiter must be scrutinized if it is licensed to place people for employment.
Supreme Court decisions refer to a “nonlicensee or nonholder of authority” as a person, corporation or entity without a valid license or authority to engage in recruitment or placement from the Secretary of Labor, or whose license or authority has been suspended, revoked or cancelled by the POEA or the Secretary of Labor.
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Consumer spending accounts for 75% of the Philippine economy.
OFW remittances are major turbines that spur and support that spending.
Economic stability for OFW families translates to a healthier Philippine economy./PN
