Govt exec tagged sex-jobs recruiter

By G. de los Santos, Today, Saturday 3 July 2004 9:47 PM

A big-time syndicate, reportedly backed by some Philippine consulate officials in Japan, was tagged as behind the recruitment of young Filipinos to Japan as entertainers, with most of them ending up as prostitutes.

This was learned over the weekend after several Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) complained about the alleged shenanigans of the officials.

Reportedly heading the syndicate is an official, who, for the past years, has been recruiting Filipino women, mostly minors, to work as entertainers in Japan.

On Friday, operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) had swooped down on a recruitment agency in Makati City and rescued several young girls, some of them minors, who were reportedly being flown to Japan on the promise they will work as entertainers.

The official concerned, a protegé of an influential politician from the Visayas, had allegedly been the subject of complaints during an earlier stint at the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.

The syndicate, which allegedly counts as members some employees of OWWA and the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency, reportedly rakes in millions of pesos from the illegal-recruitment scheme.

A reliable source told Today that the gang could easily earn up to P150 million a month from hundreds of Filipino women who enter Japan as entertainers in night clubs.

The official heading the gang is allegedly also in cahoots with several recruitment agencies that hire only entertainers for Japan.

The syndicate's modus operandi is this: it forges the passports and other pertinent documents of the recruited young Filipinas, who mostly come from depressed provinces in Davao and the Visayas.

Upon arrival in Japan, the official there reportedly handles all the necessary assistance for the safe entry of the recruited young girls and later assigns them to bars and nightspots.

Some 500 minors who were promised jobs in Japan were rescued by the police during Friday's raid.

The operatives conducted the raid on two medium-rise buildings being occupied by Marick Artist Placement Service on Marconi Street, San Isidro, where the girls were being kept.

Jun Villar, Marick administrator, was identified as the one who brought the girls to Manila. The minors, aged 14 to 17 years old, were recruited to work as entertainers in Japan but ended up in prostitution dens and night clubs in Metro Manila, according to the raiders.