Agency fined $100k for illegal placement fee

PHILIPPINE Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) chief Hans Cacdac Jr. cancelled the license of a recruitment agency in Manila and ordered it to pay P650,000 for collecting
an illegal placement fee from a Filipina domestic worker in Hong Kong.

In an order on June 25, Cacdac also banned the officers and directors of Kan-ya International Services Corp. from recruiting overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) for collecting a placement
fee of P85,000 from complainant Sarah V. Nievera.

The POEA pursued the case even after Nievera issued an affidavit of desistance.

“As a consequence of the penalty of cancellation of license, the officers and directors of the respondent agency at the time of the commission of the offense are hereby disqualified from participating
in the business of recruitment and placement of (OFWs),” Cacdac said.

He also ordered Kan-ya and its insurance firm to refund the amount of P85,000 that was collected from Nievera. In her complaint, Nievera said she applied with Kan-ya for overseas employment
in June 2012. That same month, she signed an employment contract for the position of household service worker “but the spaces for employer and date were left blank.”

“Complainant categorically stated that she paid a placement fee to the respondent agency in the amount of P85,000 which was received by the cashier. No receipt was issued for the said payment as allegedly, it is not the policy of respondent agency to issue receipt,” Cacdac said.

“Since she was only able to produce… P20,000, respondent agency referred her to EPCL Global Lending Corporation from which she was able to procure a loan amounting to P60,000,”
he added.

Cacdac said Nievera gave the P60,000 to Kan-ya but, when she arrived in Hong Kong in December 2012, she learned that the placement fee collected from her was illegal.

A certain Maggie from Kan-ya then informed her that the placement fee allegedly covered her “airfare, insurance, and the salaries” of Kan-ya employees.

Nievera filed her complaint when her agency in Hong Kong refused to have her loan with EPCL waived.

The Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Hong Kong forwarded the complaint to POEA in Manila. Kan-ya denied collecting the fee or any wrongdoing.

“Instead of submitting evidence to controvert the allegations of the complainant, respondent agency, through its corporate secretary, informed (POEA) that they already assisted the complainant in the settlement and the waiver of her loan balance amounting to P64,000,” Cacdac said.

After the loan was waived, Nievera filed an affidavit of withdrawal of complaint with retraction, waiver, and desistance in favor of Kan-ya on Sept. 1, 2014. However, the POEA proceeded
with the case.