Recruiter of Dubai drivers suspended—POEA

DoLE chief assures jobs for 137 drivers

By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
Posted date: April 15, 2009

MANILA, Philippines—The recruitment agency that deployed 137 Filipino drivers to Dubai and left them to fend for themselves by scavenging for food over several months has been suspended, Administrator Jennifer Manalili of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration said Wednesday.

Manalili, who is in Dubai and has interviewed some of the drivers, said she has their affidavits.

POEA Deputy Administrator Viveca Catalig, who is officer-in-charge in Manila, has already signed the suspension order, Manalili said in a phone interview with INQUIRER.net.

In a related development, Labor Secretary Marianito Roque has assured the stranded Filipinos’ wives that their husbands will be redeployed to Qatar where they will be employed as bus drivers.

Blas F. Ople Policy Center president Susan Ople said Roque, who is in Qatar for a series of meetings with his counterpart and prospective employers, called her around noon and assured her that charges would be filed against CYM International Services and that he has already given instructions for the agency to be suspended.

CYM International Services is a licensed agency.

Ople said some of bus drivers are expected home Wednesday night.

Citing her discussions with the drivers’ wives, Ople said they welcomed this new development and vowed to run after the recruiter. They said Roque's assurance was a source of relief as this means that their husbands will start earning soon.

According to Fe, wife of driver Claro Oliver, their eldest son had to stop going to school as a result of the recruitment scam. Another wife said she and her husband had to use their house and lot as collateral just to obtain a loan to pay the P150,000 placement fee charged by CYM International.

The center called on the Senate labor committee to look into the practices of lending companies that exploit the desire of jobseekers to pay their recruiters.

The center provided the wives of the bus drivers free legal assistance. “They have a very strong case against CYM International Services and even the lending company involved. I asked them if they will pursue the case even if their husbands are already employed in Qatar, and they were firm and united in giving me a resounding yes,” Ople said.

The men were hired as drivers of the UAE's Road and Transport Authority on a three-year contract that would give them 5,200 dirhams (about P67,600) as monthly salary. They arrived in Dubai in January but were unable to get the jobs they were promised.