The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) has shut down a maritime consultancy firm in Sta. Cruz, Manila after operating without a permit.
Acting on orders of Migrant Workers Secretary Susan Ople, the DMW’s Migrant Workers Protection Bureau, formerly the Anti-Illegal Recruitment Branch, padlocked the office of JCB-Success Maritime Consultancy Services on Thursday.
Under Republic Act No. 8042, as amended by Republic Act No. 10022, any act of hiring Filipino workers, undertaken without license or authority from the DMW, is considered illegal recruitment.
In a sworn testimony, Manuel Jericho Ramos, one of the victims, said he applied for the position of engine cadet posted by JCB in September 2021. He and three other applicants were promised deployment within a three-month period which never happened.
They were asked to pay P75,000 each as placement fee and received a tampered visa. After months of waiting for his deployment and growing suspicions over the agency’s questionable actions, Ramos decided to report the matter to the DMW in October 2022.
Surveillance operations revealed that JCB had been recruiting and offering jobs as deck seafarers, able engine seafarers, oilers, engineers, and yacht stewards without a permit from the DMW. The agency claimed that they have been deploying applicants since November 2022.
With its closure, JCB, its owner, employees, and officers will be included in the DMW’s list of persons and establishments with derogatory records and will be barred from participating in the government’s overseas recruitment program.
Meanwhile, Ople encouraged victims of illegal recruitment and human trafficking to report these crimes, emphasizing that “workers’ protection is one of the core functions of the DMW.”
