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Noting that illegal recruiters are becoming more creative with their evil schemes, Davao City 1st district Rep. Paolo Duterte has reiterated the need to pass a law that would classify two or more persons engaged in illegal recruitment as a "syndicate". 

This, in turn, would make it easier for authorities to hand down the maximum penalty of life imprisonment for such recruiters. 

Such a measure, outlined under House Bill (HB) No.8360 that Duterte filed, would serve as a deterrent to persons resorting to predatory practices to scam overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).  

The current law, Republic Act (RA) No. 8042 or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act, defines illegal recruitment committed by a syndicate as an act of three or more persons and deemed an act of economic sabotage punishable with life imprisonment and a fine ranging from P500,000 to P1 million.  

These same penalties would be imposed against at least two conspirators involved in illegal recruitment scams once HB No.8360 gets enacted. 

“By amending RA No.8042, we would be strengthening the law against these predators who with as few as two conspirators, can commit massive illegal recruitment using technology and the Internet,” Duterte, also known as "Pulong", explained. 

The Mindanaoan noted that llegal recruiters have continued to conceive of new schemes to dupe OFWs, as shown by recent cases uncovered by the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) of persons hiding behind so-called immigration consultancy firms to deceive jobseekers into paying them exorbitant fees, supposedly to process their overseas work visas.  

The DMW recently shut down the operations of 11 Seas Immigrations Services in Pasay City after finding out that the consultancy firm charged excessive processing fees and illegally recruited Filipinos looking for work in Poland. The company was not accredited by the DMW to recruit workers. 

Last week, the Philippine Consulate in Milan also warned OFWs seeking employment in Italy not to fall for the ‘decreto flussi recruitment’ scam after it uncovered the illegal operations of another immigration consultancy firm--Alpha Assistenza--which was able to defraud at least 200 Filipinos of as much as €3,000 each. 

According to the consulate, some individuals and agencies have began to charge “reservation fees” ranging from €500 to €5,000 to process non-existent work visas soon after Italy unveiled their decreto flussi program, which allows the hiring of as many as 452,000 foreign workers in the next three years. 

Benguet lone district Rep. Eric Yap and ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Edvic Yap, co-authored HB No.8360.