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| Visiting Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III meets with representatives of Emry’s victims. |
Hong Kong government officials have given assurance that an employment agency said to be behind a multi-million dollar jobs scam to Britain and Canada that victimized hundreds of Filipino workers will be prosecuted.
This was according to Labor Attache Jalilo de la Torre, who said the assurance came during talks on Sept. 23 between Philippine Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello IIII and his Hong Kong counterpart Matthew Cheung.
The recruitment agency in question, Emry's Service Staff Employment Agency, along with its former owner, Ester P. Ylagan, have beenx identified by more than 200 Filipino complainants as being behind the fraud.
Bello, who visited Hong Kong between Sept 23-25, was grilled, along with key members of his delegation, on the issue of Emry’s and other agencies that offered non-existent jobs to OFWs in places like Britain, Canada, Russia, Turkey and Saipan.
“The (Emry’s) issue has been discussed with Labour Secretary Matthew Cheung and he assured us in no uncertain terms that there will be prosecution in the Labour Court by the Employment Agencies Administration and summonses will be issued,” De la Torre said.
However, a criminal prosecution is still not in the cards as the Hong Kong police are still said to be investigating.
POEA Administrator Hans Cacdac said his office is also on top of the case.
“To show our resolve to look into this matter, we have suspended Emry’s from the Philippine employment program both from the POEA and on their (Hong Kong) side. We are starting with the first significant step and we’ll dig deep into this matter,” he said.
He also hinted that a human trafficking case could be filed as a result of investigations from the Philippine end.
"As you know there is also an Inter-Agency Council Against Human Trafficking and … so there will also be a coordinated effort with IACAT at home. And definitely we are also coordinating with Labatt De la Torre who, in turn. coordinates with the Hong Kong side,” said Cacdac.
De la Torre added that POLO is seeking to consolidate the cases for easier monitoring, as they are currently being heard individually by the Small Claims Tribunal.
He also introduced two of around 600 claimants in the case, Ronia Benalio and Elvira Balajadia, who showed up at the press conference to appeal for help from Sec. Bello.
Bello stood and walked over to Benalio and Balajadia, both domestic workers, as they handed a letter signed by several jobseekers who claimed to have paid Ylagan between $10,000 and $15,000 for the fake jobs.
He spoke with them a few minutes about their case and endorsed their letter to his legal staff, Atty Allan Ty. At the same time, Bello assured the two women that Labatt De la Torre would look after their case
Bello and his team were put on the defensive by Filipino journalist Jun Concepcion, who implied that the Philippine government was not doing enough to prevent such scams.
“It is a case of too late the hero. People have already been victimized (and) the government is hard-pressed to help the victims,” said Concepcion, who said that there was no way for workers to verify at the Consulate if the job offers were real.
But De la Torre replied that in the case of Emry’s, his office had verified with POLO London that there were no job orders.
“Particularly with Emry’s, we did our jobs. We checked with POLO London and POLO London certified that there are no existing jobs for nannies, caregivers, whatever. So, we did our jobs as part of the data checking out,” the labor attaché said.
He received support from Consul General Bernie Catalla who said the workers were also to blame.
"The problem really is with our Filipino workers because they believe recruiters who promise them big salaries," said Catalla.
She cited the case of a Filipina who had just sent her an email saying she had been duped by another agency that offered her a job in Russia. The woman, who arrived in Hong Kong in March this year, paid the agency $6,000, before realizing that she had been tricked.
“Again it’s really information dissemination. Some people are really hard-headed. Even if they know it’s really illegal recruitment they still believe all these promises,” Catalla said. “I’m sure there are still lots of them who believe that there are jobs out there in Russia, in Turkey, in Saipan, in Canada and in the UK.”
Bello said that while cracking down on agencies engaging and recruiting OFWs based in Hong Kong is the responsibility of local authorities, “it is also incumbent upon us to educate our overseas workers here, so that they don’t (become) easy prey”.
Apart from Bello, Cacdac and de la Torre, the Philippine delegation included Overseas Workers Welfare Administration head Rebecca Calzado and Vice Consul Fatima Quintin.
The Hong Kong side included Cheung, Police Commissioner Stephen Lo, and Permanent Secretary for Labour Annie Tam.
