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MANILA, Philippines?They were forced to live in dumps, often foraging for rotten tomatoes and competing with camels for their next meal while waiting for jobs that were not there in the first place.
These were the stories told by 22 bus drivers who testified at a Senate hearing Wednesday about their three-month ordeal in Dubai where they were left to fend for themselves by their recruiters.
They were part of a batch of 137 drivers who had come home after finding out too late that there was no place for them at Dubai?s Roads and Transport Authority.
?Many of us only had the equivalent of P600 in pocket allowance while the rest had none,? Santos said, adding that they scavenged mostly for tomatoes which they cooked for their meals. ?We had to start our hunt early, otherwise the camels would beat us to the tomatoes,? he added.
The drivers, who left in three batches in January, asked the Senate labor committee how they could recover the P150,000 in placement fee they paid or how to file cases against their recruiters. Borrowing money from RJJL Lacaba Financing, the firm that provided loans for some of them, the drivers had issued post-dated checks to pay back their loans.
To pressure them to surface, the Senate labor committee under Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, said they would publish in newspapers photographs of Connie Paloma, operations manager of CYM International Services and Placement Agency and Elmer Lim of RJJL Lacaba Financing, after the two did not show up at the committee hearing Wednesday.
Authorities could not find the two because their offices had closed down, the senator added.
Estrada said his committee would get CYM?s articles of incorporation from the Securities and Exchange Commission to find out the addresses of its officials so they could issue an invitation and subsequently, a subpoena to them.
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration officials told the committee that CYM was now under preventive suspension. But this early, POEA deputy administrator Viveca Catalig said the firm was facing possible cancellation of its license to operate.
