A composite team composed of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) has shut down two recruitment agencies reportedly operating illegally.
Groselex Manpower Services located at Taft Avenue, Pasay City operates inside a cellphone accessory shop and a sari-sari store and is not registered by POEA to recruit jobs abroad and interview workers for overseas deployment. It reportedly recruited for applicants for jobs such as quality inspector, civil inspector, equipment inspector training officer allegedly for Kuwait, Saudi Arabia (Jeddah), United Arab Emirates (Dubai and Abu Dhabi), Qatar, and Bahrain; “urgent hiring” for entertainers to Japan; factory workers for Taiwan and Korea; and domestic workers for Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
Groselex charged a P500 “initializing fee,” an undisclosed amount for training fee, and a placement fee of one month’s worth in salary deduction.
The agency’s personnel — Nancy A. Arcasa Nengasa also known as Mahinay Villafuerte, Ma. Christina Mendioro Isar, and Danilo Gucela Bingero — will be charged with the crime as they were caught in the act of recruitment without obtaining prior license. Licensed agencies that received referrals from Groselex will also be charged by POEA.
The second offender, Rovejane Manpower Services with offices at the third floor of Gisselle Park Plaza at the corner of EDSA and Taft Avenue, also in Pasay City, is reportedly a recruiter for local jobs. But it has allegedly been involved in recruiting for fruit pickers for Japan; factory workers for Taiwan; and domestic workers for the Middle East, Singapore, and Thailand.
Rovejane also charged its victims a P500 “initializing fee” and then refers them to a training center in Cavite. Its arrested employee Phing Pumaraya will also be charged for the crime of illegal recruitment.
