Recruit firm license revoked for misrepresentation

POEA Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine Overseas Employement Administration (POEA) has revoked the license of a recruitment company for trying to send four female migrants to Lebanon, where the government has banned the deployment of overseas workers.

In a news release issued on Saturday, POEA Administrator Hans Cacdac said the license to operate of Experts Placement Agency Inc. was canceled on July 28 after immigration authorities discovered the company’s attempt to send four women to Lebanon through Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

Wrong job orders

Cacdac said the recruitment agency aimed to deploy the four women as household service workers in Lebanon by having their papers processed at the POEA using the agency’s existing job orders approved for Dubai.

The travel ban prohibits the deployment of new hires to Lebanon.

A total ban on the deployment of migrant workers to Lebanon was imposed in 2007 due to the volatile peace an order situation in that country.

But the ban was lifted in 2012, keeping it only for new hires.

Complaints filed

The four women had filed complaints against the agency after they were barred from boarding their plane at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport by officers of the Bureau of Immigration’s Travel Control and Enforcement Unit (TCEU).

Cacdac said the TCEU intercepted the workers because they initially presented travel papers for Dubai but upon further inspection and questioning, they admitted that they were actually bound for Lebanon.

Documents retrieved from the workers showed that two of them were supposed to work in Dubai as domestic helpers, and the other two as archives clerk and sewer, respectively.

In his decision, Cacdac found Experts Placement Agency liable for misrepresentation.

Destination, employer different

POEA rules prohibit misrepresentation such as furnishing or publishing any false notice, information, and document in relation to recruitment and employment.

“This is a clear case of reprocessing, which constitutes misrepresentation considering that the workers’ destination and employer are different from what appears on their POEA-processed documents,” Cacdac said.

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