Illegal recruiter who offered dubious Macau jobs draws life sentence

The POEA main office in Mandaluyong City (Photo: Google Maps)

Manila—The Quezon City Regional Trial Court has convicted a woman for duping a woman for duping three job applicants into non-existing jobs in Macau.

Judge Arthur O. Malabaguio of Regional Trial Court Branch 93, Quezon City, found defendant Felisa Areola Caadiang guilty of illegal recruitment in large scale and two counts of estafa. He sentenced her to life imprisonment and ordered her to pay P1 million as a fine.

The POEA’s Anti-Illegal Recruitment Branch successfully prosecuted the case after discovering that the accused had no license to recruit Filipino workers for overseas employment.

Caadiang was initially charged with three separate cases of estafa and one for illegal recruitment. The four cases were consolidated since they were closely related.

According to the prosecution, Caadiang recruited one male and two female applicants to work overseas in November 2007 and January 2008. He promised the three applicants jobs in Macau as cleaner and waitresses.

The applicants each paid the recruiter amounts ranging from P30,000 to P40,000 as processing fees. The applicants left the country as tourists but found themselves jobless upon arriving in Macau.

Upon expiration of their tourist visa, two of the workers crossed the border to Shenzhen upon the instruction of the accused.

Arriving back in Macau, they sought the assistance of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) and filed a complaint against Caadiang.

They also filed a complaint at the POEA when they returned to the Philippines in 2008 and the case was endorsed to the city prosecutor of Quezon City.

The latter filed the case in court, which issued the warrant of arrest against the accused. Caadiang went into hiding and was only arrested in January 2015.