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Thursday, November 27, 2003
POEA says jobs offers of couple don’t exist
By Linette C. Ramos
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
NO JOBS are waiting in the United States and Australia for those recruited by a doctor and her husband last Tuesday, which could mean that their operation is a fraud, authorities said.
Aside from not having a recruitment license to show the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), Egedio, 42, and Dr. Maria Laarni Villanueva, 35, also do not have job placement orders for apple pickers in the two countries.
The Villanuevas, residents of Balagtas St., Cebu City, were charged with violation of Republic Act 8042 or the Illegal Recruitment Law last Tuesday afternoon.
No job order
“There is no job order for apple pickers approved by the POEA or the agency that they claim to represent, so their operation is not real.
There are really no jobs for those they recruited,” said Evelia Durato,
POEA-Visayas regional center officer-in-charge.
At the Waterfront Police Station last Tuesday, Maria Laarni, who is six months pregnant, told police investigators that they have already sent at least 20 individuals to Australia to work as apple pickers.
They interviewed at least 10 others at the time of their arrest inside a room at the Pacific Tourist Inn on Manalili St., Cebu City past 11 a.m. last Tuesday.
The arresting officers quoted the couple as saying they will ask for the help of their friends, including Regional Trial Court Executive Judge Pampio Abarintos and Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz (Cebu, 6th district).
At the Palace of Justice, Egedio and Maria Lourdes requested the policemen that they be escorted to the sala of Abarintos, who officiated their wedding.
Abarintos reportedly asked if the policemen had a warrant of arrest when they took the Villanuevas into their custody.
Procedural
Durato and policemen of the Waterfront Police Station did not need a warrant of arrest since the couple was caught in the act of recruiting workers without a license.
For his part, Abarintos assured that he will not interfere in the case since the complaint against the couple is not within his jurisdiction.
He was on his way out of the office when the police arrived with the Villanuevas.
“It is true that I asked for the warrant of arrest when they arrived because that is what judges usually ask first, it is the usual procedure but of course, I cannot interfere because the case will go to another court. I don’t even know what the case is about,” he told Sun.Star.
Durato and her staff placed the Villanuevas under surveillance the whole morning last Tuesday after receiving a telephone call from one of the applicants, who inquired about the hiring.
They proceeded to the inn to check if the couple had a POEA recruitment license or a special recruitment authority.
The Villanuevas did not have any of the two documents, which is required to be able to recruit and conduct interviews with workers who are applying for overseas employment.
A special recruitment authority is needed if a licensed recruitment agency wishes to conduct hiring outside their registered office.
Maria Laarni, a cardiologist, said they do not need the documents that POEA asked for since they are operating on a direct hiring basis.
But Durato said there is no such thing as direct hiring since all application for overseas employment must pass through the POEA.
(November 27, 2003 issue)
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