MANILA — Philippine authorities on Monday shuttered an unlicensed recruitment office in Manila’s Santa Cruz district that allegedly defrauded job seekers with false promises of overseas employment in Taiwan, Canada and New Zealand, demanding fees of up to 260,000 pesos for positions that never materialized.
The Department of Migrant Workers said it ordered the closure of Polaris Manpower and Documentation Services following complaints from at least three applicants who said the firm recruited them without a valid government license.
“They have a modus operandi where they pretend to have connections with the DMW,” said DMW Undersecretary Bernard Olalia, referring to his agency by its acronym. “Their modus operandi is supposedly a government track.”
The operation marked the agency’s 11th closure this year, carried out in coordination with the Migrant Workers Protection Bureau and law enforcement authorities. Officials said the bureau conducted weeks of surveillance before executing the order.
According to Olalia, the alleged scheme targeted applicants who discovered the job offers online. Victims were then instructed to pay placement fees of as much as 260,000 pesos — roughly $4,500 — for hotel positions abroad that purportedly offered monthly salaries of up to 170,000 pesos.
The recruiters allegedly bolstered their credibility by claiming ties to the DMW and marketing the placements as part of a “government-to-government” arrangement — a legitimate program under which the Philippine government directly negotiates employment deals with foreign governments.
Olalia was unequivocal that the scheme bore none of the hallmarks of a genuine government program.
“There should be no placement fee when it is a government-to-government deployment,” he said, adding that private recruitment agencies have no role in such programs. “The DMW should be your only point of contact when it comes to government-to-government transactions.”
DMW Assistant Secretary Jerome Pampolina urged aspiring overseas workers to verify the credentials of any recruitment agency through official DMW channels before entering into any transaction.
“This Polaris is unlicensed — it has no connection whatsoever to the Department of Migrant Workers,” Pampolina said. He also cautioned job seekers that agencies collecting large placement fees without contracts are a “big red flag.”
Under the closure order, Polaris Manpower and Documentation Services, its operator Yolanda Naag, and other responsible officers will be added to the government’s List of Persons with Derogatory Records, effectively barring them from any future involvement in overseas recruitment. The DMW said it would also pursue criminal charges for illegal recruitment against those behind the operation.
The Philippines is one of the world’s largest exporters of labor, with millions of Filipinos working abroad. The government has long struggled to combat illegal recruitment syndicates that prey on workers seeking better opportunities overseas.
