POEA ordered to tap LGUs in fight vs illegal recruitment

Bring the fight against illegal recruitment to the grassroots by forging alliances with local government executives. This was the order of Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), which she said should “cover more ground and expand its reach." The POEA is an attached agency under the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). “There is a need for the POEA to cover more ground and expand its reach in the fight against illegal recruitment to heighten the protection and welfare of the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). This is a very specific agenda of the DOLE as enunciated by the President," Baldoz said in an article posted on the DOLE website. “We must engage more [local government units] and forge more agreements with them," she added. She said forging cooperative alliances with LGUs and private sector organizations in the anti-illegal recruitment (AIR) campaign is a strategy that the POEA has developed due to its limited manpower and financial resources. The strategy called for the POEA to sign memoranda of understanding (MOU) that formalized the participation and involvement of its partners in waging AIR through sharing of resources and information, public awareness drives, training, and joint investigative and other coordinative efforts to halt the proliferation of illegal recruitment in the countryside. Baldoz said that as a result of the intensified AIR efforts, the number of AIR cases the POEA has handled expanded by more than threefold from only 573 in 2000 to more than 1,600 last year. To date, the POEA had signed close to 300 MOUs with local government units, 60 percent of which have been forged during Baldoz’s time as POEA administrator. “Through the MOUs, LGUs were able to incorporate aggressive AIR strategies as part of their local programs, in sync with the POEA’s efforts which included regular and timely updates on licensed recruitment agencies, AIR and pre-employment orientation seminars, and the establishment of help desks in local government units," Baldoz said. “This means that we must keep pushing forward our efforts to stamp out illegal recruitment to cover all municipalities and barangays in the country by actively linking hands not only with LGus but with all other sectors of society," she added. Meanwhile, the DOLE urged the public to report information on illegal recruitment activities to the nearest POEA regional office or the POEA headquarters at the Blas F. Ople Building along Ortigas Avenue in Mandaluyong City. They can also call POEA through telephone numbers 721-0619, 722-1192, or 722-1189. - JMA/KBK, GMANews.TV