The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) has issued a preventive suspension against the recruitment agency which sent overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Jullebee Ranara to Kuwait.
DMW Undersecretary Bernard Olalia said they will also file a recruitment violation case next week against Catalist International Manpower Services Company and Platinum International Office for Recruitment of Domestic Manpower, the Philippine and Kuwaiti recruitment agencies, respectively.
Preventive suspension denies the local recruitment agency to deploy OFWs to Kuwait and other countries it caters to.
The two recruitment agencies, he said, facilitated the deployment of Ranara who was burned and found dead in Kuwait desert on Jan. 21--the suspect is the 17-year old son of her employer.
"Upon of review of the case involved and with the existing facts, we already issued an order preventively suspending the employer of ofw Jubellee Ranara. We also called upon the representative of PRA (Philippine Recruitment Agency) Catalist International Manpower Services Company and after examination of the facts involved, by next week, there will be a recruitment violation case that will be filed against the PRA and the FRA (Foreign Recruitment Agency) involved," said Olalia in a press briefing on Saturday, Jan. 28.
Olalia explained that based on an initial investigation conducted by his office both agencies failed to comply with the mandatory monitoring required of recruitment agencies to ensure the well-being of their deployed workers.
The violation that Olalia mentioned was based on the order of DM Secretary Susan Ople last year which mandates local and foreign recruitment agencies to appoint welfare desk officers (WEDO) that will not only ensure the arrival of the OFWs they deployed in Kuwait, but also regular monitoring of their condition.
Based on the information received by the DMW, Ranara has been complaining to her family about the violent tendency of her employer's son.
In effect, the case of Ranara would have been known early had the mandated monitoring of OFWs been done properly.
Meeting
Olalia also disclosed that the DMW will meet with all local recruitment agencies that are sending OFWs to Kuwait.
He said the meeting will be done on Monday, Jan. 30 at the DMW office.
"The issues that will be discussed are issues and concerns relating to HSW (household workers service) deployment in Kuwait," said Olalia.
Currently, there are around 265,000 OFWs in Kuwait, around 195,000 of them are household workers.
The DMW monitors active welfare cases in Kuwait, most of the OFWs involved are currently housed in a shelter provided by the government.
Assistance
For his part, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA )Administrator Arnell Ignacio said the DMW has already extended all the necessary assistance to the Ranara family.
One of them is the scholarship of all the four children of Ranara, the first beneficiary is her eldest child.
Ignacio said they are now working for the early release of insurance and other financial claims due the family of Jullebee, who was an active OWWA member at her time of death.