Former president of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Global E-Human Resources Incorporated, the recruitment agency that deployed slain overseas Filipina worker (OFW) Joanna Dimafelis to Kuwait, faced National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). According to Engineer Adrian Briones, he sold his shares of the recruitment agency in 2012.
He also said that he no longer had any connection with the agency afterwards.
“From 2012, wala na po akong koneksyon sa ano, yung operation wala na,” Briones said.
Briones also clarified that he is not hiding from the law as rumors say.
“So ayun nga, when this issue came about 2014 so sabi ko wala naman akong dapat ipag-alala dito kaya nga lang siyempre I have to face people who are asking about this issue kaya nandito ako, ano? Hindi po tayo nagtatago,” Briones explained.
Another high-ranking official of the agency, former assistant general manager Mary Gay Canlas Abrantes, submitted a sworn statement to NBI.
Abrantes’ lawyer, Jude Marfil, said that the responsibility on monitoring Demafelis in Kuwait should have been on the government and not on the recruitment agency since the license of the recruitment agency was already revoked months after they “legally” deployed Demafelis to Kuwait.
Marfil explained that the agency closed in 2014, thus operating under the 2002 Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) rules. It was only in 2016 that POEA revised its rules and regulations on the recruitment and employment of land-based OFWs. One of the revisions stated that the licensed recruitment agency is responsible to “monitor the status or condition” of its deployed OFWs. The revision also stated that the agency should submit a quarterly report on the situation of the OFW deployed.
Abrante’s lawyer wishes that rules regarding recruitment agencies’ liabilities be clearer especially in cases of revoked agency licenses with OFW clients still abroad.
