The Philippine Overseas and Employment Administration warned Filipino workers against jobs being offered by a Macau-based recruitment agency for supposed employment in mainland China.
The warning was issued after the POEA received an endorsement from the Department of Foreign Affairs on the case of a Filipina household service worker in Macau who was allegedly recruited by another Filipina named Pia Ciabacal.
According to the DFA, the OFW, whose name was withheld, went to Macau as a tourist and was able to land a job as a housemaid.
Ciabacal allegedly offered the woman a job in Beijing for the same position with a monthly salary of 7,500 yuan (about P62,000) a month. The domestic worker was able to enter and work in China, but her employer refused to pay her any salary. They even confiscated her passport and cellular phone, the DFA reported.
The POEA warned that Ciabacal and other Filipinos in Macau work as agents for a certain Chinese recruiter known only as “Fancy.”
“Fancy allegedly owns an establishment called MMC Enterprises, located at Beleno Shop, Red Market in Macau. The Beleno shop acts as a front for MMC, which clandestinely operates as a recruitment agency targeting unsuspecting Filipinos and Indonesians,” the agency said.
The POEA has also received reports of Filipino househelp in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Cyprus who were lured into transferring to another country like Dubai, Mongolia, Turkey, and Russia.
The OFWs later found out the conditions of employment were deplorable or non-existent. Their recruiters were mostly foreign nationals who have Filipino partners in their illegal activities, the agency said.
These Filipino workers also pay exorbitant fees to be able to travel to the third country using a tourist visa, and even without the assurance of employers waiting for them, the POEA said.