At least 60 sugarcane workers, seven of them minors, were "rescued" from three suspected illegal recruiters at the Banago wharf in Bacolod City last weekend. The three suspects had promised the 60 workers jobs in Batangas province, according to a report on Visayan Daily Star Monday. Visayan Daily Star said acting Labor Department regional director Crispin Dannug Jr. identified the suspects as:
Alicia Deocampo, 55, of Brgy. Malibo, Batangas City; Teotimo Apolo, 54; and Rolando Somibig, 41, of Brgy. Lineo, Escalante City. The three suspects failed to present permits from the Department of Labor and Employment that would have allowed them to recruit the sugarcane workers. They are now detained at the city's Police Station 3, the report said. But the suspects claimed they only recruited 37 workers, three of them minors. Deocampo said they did not force the workers to go with them and that she was only tasked to pick them up. She did not comment on the absence of recruitment permits from DOLE, however. For his part, Somibig, who was allegedly Deocampo’s contact in Negros, said he has worked for Narciso Eguia, said to own several hectares of sugarcane fields, for three years. He said the workers, most of them his neighbors, wanted to go with him to Batangas because they saw he had a stable income. Labor officials acted on a tip that the illegal recruiters were bringing several workers to Batangas. Investigation showed the workers were to work in some 150 to 200 hectares of sugarcane fields belonging to Eguia in Calaca, Batangas. Dannug said the suspects violated a Department Order issued in 1974, against recruiting migratory workers without proper authority from DOLE officers. Police were to file illegal recruitment charges against the three suspects Monday. — KG, GMA News 
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