Antipolo firm faces raps for duping job finders

Philippine Overseas Labor Employment office. Photo from www.poea.gov.ph

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) is set to file an illegal recruitment case against the top executives of an Antipolo City firm for allegedly hiring an undisclosed number of prospective overseas Filipino workers for nonexistent jobs in Japan.

POEA Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac has identified the erring company as Jomhadz International Corp. (JIC), said to be owned by Joan Sigua.

The charges against Sigua, as well as her staff identified as Jefferson Flores, Charton Villanueva, Renalyn Cuevas, Renato Padilla and Jason Cabus will be filed by the POEA’s legal office.

Last week, operatives of the POEA’s Anti-Illegal Recruitment Branch and the Anti-Transnational Crime Unit of the Philippine National Police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group raided the JIC head office in Antipolo and its satellite office at 1660 Neptuno St. in Paco, Manila.

Seized during the operation were the work and travel documents of several job applicants.

The POEA earlier “verified from the applicants that Jomhadz International Corp. was recruiting Filipino workers supposedly for a wine factory in Japan and charging placement fees of P150,000 per applicant.”

Cacdac advised victims of the company to “proceed to the POEA Anti-Illegal Recruitment Branch for the filing of formal complaints against the illegal job recruiters.”

Meanwhile, the agency has ordered the suspension of another job recruitment firm—Raysa International Smart Employment Services (Rises), which has offices at the Ranedor Building on Leon Guinto Street in Ermita, Manila—for deploying hotel workers to Saudi Arabia where they ended up as household service workers.

Aside from illegal recruitment, the company is also facing charges of misrepresentation, falsification of documents and deploying OFWs to foreign principals not accredited by the POEA.

The agency cited, among others, a report from the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (Polo) in Jeddah, saying the Al Jahora Al Raqia Hotel had complained about the firm’s use of its name to hire female workers.

One of Rises’ victims reported to the POEA that she was “brought her to Jeddah to work as a domestic helper.”

“After 10 days, her employer released her because she could not speak or understand the Arabic language,” the POEA said.