A man pinpointed by four Filipino human trafficking victims as the person who facilitated their travel to Laos to work as scammers has been arrested in Pasay City by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
In a statement, the NBI identified the arrested person as Jarwin Satinitigan who has been charged with large-scale illegal recruitment under Republic Act (RA) No. 8042, the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 as amended, and qualified trafficking in persons committed in large-scale under RA No. 9208, the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 as amended.
It said that Satinitigan committed qualified trafficking in persons by recruiting and transporting his countrymen under false pretenses, exploiting their socio-economic vulnerability, and forcing them to work under coercion and abuse for labor exploitation purposes, while facilitating their movement across borders.
It also said it received a certification from the Licensing and Regulation Bureau of the Department of Migrant Workers (LRB-DMW) which showed that “Subject Satinitigan is neither authorized nor licensed to recruit workers for overseas employment.”
It added that Satinitigan was among the four Filipinos who were repatriated from Laos.
Satinitigan recruited his victims as online customer representatives (CRSs) in Laos in March 2025, the NBI said.
It said the victims landed in Laos where they were trained not as CSRs but as scammers, it also said.
“The victims were instructed to chat with people from America, France, UK, Malaysia, and Indonesia, encouraging them to invest in a fake TikTok Shop that sold various products,” it added.
The NBI said the victims sought the help of the Philippine Embassy in Vientiane that led to their repatriation to the Philippines.