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| Scam victims and Migrante supporters call on govt to speed up its investigation |
One applicant from the Philippines spoke of how he tried to get his money back immediately after being given a document he was meant to sign, stating that he could not ask for a refund whatever the outcome of his student visa application – to no avail.
Another in Hong
Kong balked when told she needed to present her own proof as to why she had
Php1 million pesos in her bank account –money the main recruiter had promised
to lend applicants to show their capacity to pay for expenses while studying in
Canada.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE! |
A third
recounted how she had to withdraw all her savings, borrow from a friend, and
pawn her jewelry just so she could pay the $18,700 processing fee to the
recruiters, only to learn later on that she needed to pay hundreds of thousands
of pesos more to get into any of the schools in their list.
A fourth spoke
from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to share how he and his partner paid the Php104,000
asked by the recruiters during a recruitment drive in Ilocos Norte, only to be
left stumped afterwards when told they needed to present proof of financial
capacity to support their visa application.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
These were among
the stories shared by Filipino jobseekers during a press conference held on Sunday
and organized by Migrante Hong Kong to draw attention to the student visa
recruitment scheme offered by the Cebu-based PinoyCare Visa Center/Opportunities
Abroad Visa Processing Services and its chief executive officer Prisca Nina
Mabatid.
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| Complainants in Riyadh and Manila share their stories online |
All the
disgruntled applicants called on the Philippine government to take immediate
action to stop what they said was a scam, and order the two companies and
Mabatid to return their money.
Migrante
International chairperson Joanna Concepcion said they now have 15 sworn
affidavits from complainants in the Philippines and abroad to support the
petition they filed with the Department of Migrant Workers and the National
Bureau of Investigation on July 14.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
These are apart
from the 11 complainants in Hong Kong who had submitted their statements to the
police and the Consulate earlier, on June 18 and 25.
All complainants
are asking the DMW to hold PCVC-Opportunities Abroad, Nina Mabatid and others
in her group, liable for large-scale illegal recruitment, despite their claim
that they had offered only student visa processing.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
Separately, the
complainants in the Philippines are asking the NBI to prosecute the recruiters
for syndicated estafa, which occurs when five or more people work together to
gain money or property from unsuspecting victims through fraud or
misrepresentations.
Both offences
are non-bailable, and offenders face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
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| Migrante International's present and past heads join the presscon |
Concepcion said
she plans to ask for a meeting with DMW Undersecretary Hans Cacdac to discuss
the complaints, noting his statement last week that there had been a rise in
the number of recruiters enticing Filipino jobseekers to apply for student
visas abroad instead.
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| BOOK YOUR FLIGHTS NOW! PRESS FOR DETAILS |
USec Cacdac was appointed by Secretary Susan Ople to look into the alleged student visa scams which was initially brought to their attention by the Hong Kong victims, with help from the Mission for Migrant Workers.
In a new twist
to the recruitment saga, Migrante International’s founding chairperson Connie
Regalado revealed that the Cebu office shared by PCVC and Opportunities Abroad
appears to have been shut, and their signage taken down.
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| BASAHIN DITO |
Regalado said their
search showed that Opportunities Abroad obtained a business permit only on
March 16 this year, which meant that it had been operating without a licence when
it conducted the relevant recruitment seminars, and collected money from the
victims.
The complaints in Hong Kong stemmed from money collected within three days after Mabatid’s group held a recruitment seminar on February this year. The other complainants were recruited months earlier.
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| PADALA NA! |
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