LABOR Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III on Saturday ordered the immediate prosecution of an alleged large-scale illegal recruiter who was arrested by Criminal Investigation and Detection Group agents, in cooperation with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) personnel, in an entrapment operation last week in Quezon City.
“I commend the government operatives for their successful manhunt operation against this illegal recruiter who has been preying on hapless Filipino jobseekers. We have to get rid of these nefarious individuals, and we have to stop their operations. As I have emphatically stated in my assumption into office at the Dole [Department of Labor and Employment], stamping out of illegal recruiters, illegal-recruitment agencies, as well as those involved in human trafficking, will be one of my priority policies,” Bello said.
POEA Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac reported to Bello that the Anti-Transnational Crime Unit (Atcu) of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group arrested Antonio Garate Toca Jr. for alleged violation of Section 6 (Large-scale Illegal Recruitment) of Republic Act (RA) 8042 (Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995), as amended by RA 10022, and Swindling under Article 315 of the Revised Penal Code.
Toca, 49, of 13 East Fairview, Quezon City, was arrested in an entrapment operation conducted on July 25 at about 1:30 p.m. in a fast-food chain in Quezon City.
Cacdac said the arrest resulted from the case-build-up referral by the POEA’s Anti-Illegal Recruitment Branch (POEA-AIRB) to the police.
“The complainants sought the assistance of the POEA in verifying information about the recruiter. Our initial investigation disclosed that Toca promised complainants jobs in Canada under the ‘direct hire’ scheme. Each of them was collected an amount ranging from P15,000 to P40,000 for the processing of their travel documents,” Cacdac said.
Cacdac added that Toca is not licensed nor authorized to recruit workers for overseas employment. Verification also revealed that Toca was a recruitment staffmember of OFW Recruitment Agency from March 1, 2013, to June 28, 2013. The license of said agency was canceled on June 13, 2013, for recruitment violations.
“We have promptly advised the complainants on the proper way of applying for overseas employment and the courses of action they could take against their recruiter,” Cacdac said, adding that the complainants decided to file a case against their recruiter; hence, it was endorsed to ATCU-CIDG for an entrapment operation. Four complainant-victims were present during operation.