File charges vs recruiter of drivers--Arroyo

By Christian V. Esguerra
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: April 15, 2009

MANILA, Philippines—President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered the filing of charges against the agency that recruited 137 Filipino bus drivers now stranded and rummaging for scraps in the United Arab Emirates.

Arroyo also wanted haled to court government officials who would be found to have “confabulated” with CYM International Services and Placement Agency Inc., according to Press Secretary Cerge Remonde.

“The President has ordered (Labor) Secretary (Marianito) Roque to attend to them,” he told reporters.

Arroyo also instructed Roque to find new jobs for the stranded workers in Dubai or “elsewhere in the Middle East.” Just last Tuesday, she returned from Dubai where she claimed there were at least 200,000 jobs available for Filipino workers.

Quoting Roque, Remonde said the Department of Labor and Employment was now shopping for new jobs for the stranded Filipinos in Qatar.

"(I) will arrange their transfer from Dubai to Qatar," Roque said.

While the Filipino drivers were awaiting employment, the Philippine Overseas Labor Office was told to attend to their welfare, Remonde said.

The plight of the drivers was made public by the Blas F. Ople Policy Center, which also noted that the workers were victimized by a recruitment agency licensed by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).

“The thing is we keep telling the public to deal only with licensed recruitment agencies. In this case, the drivers followed that advice. We believe that the POEA must cleanse its records of unscrupulous agencies like CYM,” said Susan Ople, head of the center.

“The sheer number of victims involved constitutes an act of economic sabotage by this licensed agency,” she added. “We urge immediate action and for the owners of the agency to be barred from leaving the country.”

Drivers reportedly each shelled out P150,000 in placement fees only to find no work in Dubai as had been promised to them.

They said they got the money through a loan from a lending agency in Dubai purportedly recommended by the Philippine-based recruiter. The loan was supposedly payable in 15 months.

But with nothing to do in Dubai, the hapless recruits were forced to settle for leftovers at a nearby dump site, according to Ople.

She said the group could not find alternative employment because their passports were being kept by the Dubai counterpart of CYM.