THE Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) has padlocked a Quezon City-based technical vocational institution (TVI) involved in illegal recruitment activities, promising fake jobs as caretakers and factory workers to Taiwan.
Surveillance operations of the Migrant Workers Protection Bureau (MWPB) revealed that Match Trend promises overseas employment to female caretakers in Taiwan in exchange for a P30,000 training fee with an initial payment of P6,000 for enrollment.
If applicants cannot afford the required payment, they will be referred to a lending institution affiliated with the training center.
According to DMW, when the applicants finish their training, Match Trend will then refer them to foreign employers who collect processing fees amounting from P40,000 to P45,000, depending on the agency chosen by the foreign employer.
Match Trend is neither licensed by the DMW to recruit and place Filipino workers overseas nor an accredited assessment center with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda), not even with a registered program on Caretaker Level II, the DMW added.
DMW’s MWPB, with the help of the Quezon City police, padlocked the office of the Match Trend Training Assessment Center located at 145 Biak na Bato St., Quezon City.
“Match Trend, under the guise as a technical vocational institution, preys on the hopes of aspiring Filipino workers to work in Taiwan by charging exorbitant training and processing fees and illegally referring them to foreign employers. This is a clear case of illegal recruitment,” Migrant Workers Officer in Charge Hans Leo Cacdac said.
Cacdac reiterated his warning to Filipino overseas job seekers to never engage with training centers or firms promising jobs abroad without the appropriate license and approved job orders from the DWM.
The closure of the said training firm resulted in the inclusion of the training center and its staff in the DMW’s “List of Persons and Establishments with Derogatory Record” to prevent them from participating in the government’s overseas recruitment program.
They will also face charges of illegal recruitment and revocation of their Technical and Vocational Education and Training, or TVET, Program Registration certificate with the Tesda.
Filipino overseas job seekers may visit the DMW website for the list of licensed agencies with approved job orders.
The DMW also encourages the victims of Match Trend to contact the MWPB through their Facebook page, email at [email protected] or through their hotline number +63 2 8721-0619 for legal assistance in filing cases against the training center.
