Stranded drivers in Dubai to sue recruiter

By Jerome Aning
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted date: May 10, 2009

MANILA, Philippines -- The Filipino bus drivers who were stranded for three months in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, will file a class suit against their recruiter before a Manila court on Monday morning, an official of a non-government organization said.

The drivers will seek damages against CYM International Services and Placement Agency and will ask the court to nullify loans they incurred, amounting to P1.9 million each, said Susan Ople, president of the migrants welfare advocacy group Blas Ople Foundation, which has been helping the drivers.

"This is a team effort for justice," Ople, a former labor undersecretary, said in a statement sent to the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net) Sunday afternoon.

Ople said the wives of the bus drivers sought their permission to join the suit.

Lawyer Reynaldo Robles, whose assistance the center sought for the OFWs, said the drivers were hoodwinked by the defendants into signing the documents, contracts or agreements, according to Ople.

"Thus, complainants' consent in such transactions is clearly vitiated ... the said transaction as well as all of its consequences including all undated checks must be annulled and or set aside," Ople said.

The suit would also seek actual, compensatory damages amounting to P100,000 each; moral damages amounting to P100,000 each; and, exemplary damages amounting to P100,000, or a total of P300,000 per complainant, she added.

The 137 drivers left their jobs in the Philippines to apply for jobs with the Road and Travel Authority in Dubai, through the CYM International. They were offered a monthly salary of P67,000 in dirhams. CYM referred the applicants to RJJ Lacaba to obtain loans to cover the placement fee of P150,300 each.

The drivers were asked to sign other papers that resulted in their original loan, together with other fees, being bloated to P1.9 million.

Some of the drivers have already returned to the Philippines while others remain in the United Arab Emirates after the labor department reportedly found new jobs for them in Dubai as well as in neighboring Qatar.