The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) has closed down a Quezon City-based technical vocational institution (TVI) for allegedly conducting illegal recruitment of Filipino caretakers and factory workers with bogus job offers in Taiwan.
The DMW’s Migrant Workers Protection Bureau (MWPB), with the help of the Quezon City police, padlocked the office of Match Trend Training Assessment Center located at 145 Biak na Bato, St., in Quezon City.
Match Trend is neither licensed by the DMW to recruit and place Filipino workers overseas nor an accredited assessment center with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) even with a registered program on Caretaker Level II.
“Match Trend, under the guise as a technical vocational institution, preys on the hopes of aspiring Filipino workers to work in Taiwan by charging exorbitant training and processing fees and illegally referring them to foreign employers. This is a clear case of illegal recruitment,” DMW Officer-in-Charge Hans Leo J. Cacdac said.
Surveillance operations revealed that Match Trend promises overseas employment to female caretakers in Taiwan in exchange for a Php 30,000 training fee with an initial payment of Php 6,000 for enrollment. Applicants are referred to a lending institution in case they cannot afford the required payment.
When the applicants finish their training, Match Trend will then refer them to foreign employers who collect processing fees amounting from Php 40,000 to Php 45,000, depending on the agency chosen by the foreign employer.
MWPB also disclosed that the training center offers employment as factory workers in Taiwan.
Cacdac reiterated his warning to Filipino overseas jobseekers to never engage with training centers or firms promising jobs abroad without the appropriate license and approved job orders from the DWM.
Filipino overseas jobseekers may visit the DMW website (www.dmw.gov.ph) for the list of licensed agencies with approved job orders.
The closure of Match Trend results in the inclusion of the training center and its staff in the DMW “List of Persons and Establishments with Derogatory Record” to prevent them from participating in the government’s overseas recruitment program.
They will also face charges of illegal recruitment and revocation of its Technical and Vocational Education and Training, or TVET, Program Registration certificate with the TESDA.
The DMW encourages the victims of Match Trend to contact the MWPB through their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/dmwairtip, email at mwpb@dmw.gov.ph or through their hotline number +63 2 8721-0619 for legal assistance in filing cases against the training center.
