By DANNY O.SAGUN
PIA-Pangasinan Infocenter

ILLEGAL recruiters continue to victimize unwary people particularly from far-flung areas, a labor official said Friday.

Labor district officer Adonis Peralta said that despite wide and aggressive information campaign against illegal recruitment, at least two to three victims go to their office every week to complain.

He said smooth-talking recruiters convince their victims to part with their money for alleged downpayments for placement and processing fees.

“Say problema, ipacheck damay recruiter no akabayar lara” (The problem is, they report the recruiter’s activities only after they have already paid him), Peralta rued.

He lamented that the bahala na (take your chances) attitude of Filipinos continues to prevail among the people particularly in the countryside.

Illegal recruiters offer alleged job placements in Japan, Canada, United States, Netherlands and other European countries.

Peralta advised the public to first consult DOLE offices if any recruiter comes around to entice them.

Recruiters, coming mostly from outside the province, use local contacts to go door to door to convince would-be victims.

It was also gathered that even some legally operating firms abuse their authority by offering job placements that are not available.

Barangayfolk are not the only victims of illegal recruiters though. In a recent case, some schoolteachers of Urdaneta City were so gullible to hand P5,000 each to a recruiter as downpayment for supposed teaching jobs in Canada and the U.S.

Luckily for the mentors, authorities were quick to arrest the recruiter and slapped him with charges of large scale illegal recruitment before he had a chance to flee.