Manpower firm in Lapu raided; 3 workers nabbed

Three employees of a manpower recruitment agency, Feljobs Manpower Services, are brought to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group office in Cebu City after their Basak office was raided for illegal recruitment and for operating without legal documents. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

A manpower agency with office at Barangay Pusok, Lapu-Lapu City, was raided yesterday morning by a joint operation of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 7 and Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) 7 for operating without legal documents.

Heidi Geraldez, Edmund Sayloon and Ruth Arcega, who are employees of Feljobs Manpower Services, were arrested after they failed to show their legal documents of their operation to the raiding team.

Lawyer Roy Buenafe, chief legal officer of DOLE-7, said that Feljobs Manpower Services is an illegal recruitment company.

Buenafe said that DOLE-7 had been monitoring Feljobs since October last year after they received complaints against the company from more than 20 persons.

“Duna tay nakuha nga advertisement sa usa ka local newspaper nga kaning Feljobs nag-conduct og recruitment,” Buenafe said.

“Atong gi-verify unsay status sa Feljobs ug atong na-determine nga expired ilahang authority to recruit since 2014,” the lawyer added.

Buenafe claimed that the Feljobs had been endorsing manpower for Mactan Export Processing Zone through another agency, but Feljobs did not renew their permits, which had expired on 2014.

Lawyer Fritz Baguio of Feljobs and FIT TO JOB Inc. explained that they have the legal documents, but it is currently on the process after DOLE prohibited sole proprietorship for the manpower agency.

“We absorbed Feljobs to FIT TO JOB and incorporated them as required by law to operate an agency, but some documents are on process,” said Baguio.

But according to Buenafe, they should have stopped operating while their papers are on the process and they should never collect fees from applicants.

“We are not only monitoring those Endos as our current focus, but we also act on complaints after hundreds had been victimized by these undocumented agencies,” added Buanafe.

They also found out that as per collection records of Feljobs, they can make an estimated of P11,000 collections per day from their applicants coming from IDs worth P300 and medical fee worth P550.

Supt. Fermin Armendares, CIDG-7 deputy director, said that they would file large-scale illegal recruitment charges against the three on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Buenafe is also calling on those who were victimized by Feljobs to report what happened to them to DOLE.

Buenafe said that they will issue a closure order to Feljobs and padlock the said company anytime today (Wednesday).