Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III put on Wednesday a P50,000 bounty for informants who will lead to the successful arrest of illegal recruiters.
“Illegal recruitment has to stop and its perpetrators jailed. Whoever will provide information which will lead to the arrest of illegal recruiters will be given the P50,000 reward,” Bello said in a statement.
Bello said the P50,000 bounty for the successful arrest of suspected illegal recruiters will come from an association of private recruitment agencies and will not come from the government’s pockets.
He said the public may start reporting illegal-recruitment activities once the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) upcoming 24/7 hot-line number is activated.
“There will still be a validation, which will be conducted, because we also have to take precautions to guard against false alarms,” Bello said.
Bello added that the Duterte administration recognizes the role of about 10 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the economic development of the Philippines.
In 2015 the remittances from OFWs, from whom the bulk of the Philippines’s foreign reserves comes from, amounted to more than P1 trillion. The expenditures of the families of the OFWs are also considered as one of the biggest drivers of the economy, since their consumption cuts across many industries, such as retail, real estate and the services sector.
“So if you ever find yourself or someone you know as a victim of illegal recruitment, encourage them to report the matter to DOLE,” Bello said.