By Vir B. Lumicao
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| HK-bound workers doing hands-on training in an elderly home in Manila |
The oft-repeated story about overseas Filipino workers being neck-deep in debt even before they came to Hong Kong due to exorbitant employment agency fees has been resurrected.
This has re-emerged as domestic workers who were charged by agencies or their partner training centers huge sums are speaking out following Labor Attaché Melchor Dizon’s recent statement that they shouldn’t have been required to train in the first place.
On Sunday, an initial group of about 30 workers went to the Philippine Overseas Labor Office to claim back money they said were charged them by their recruitment agencies in the Philippines.
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One worker, Judy (not her real name), who arrived in June this year for her first job in Hong Kong, said she had to take out a Php99,000 loan from a lending company in Manila at an interest rate of 4%, money that was all paid to the agency before she could fly out.
She said she had to pay Php16,500, or $2,500 per month for a
total of six months, to her recruiter in
“Wala, for six months ko tiniis…Php99,000 hindi ko man lang natikman,” Judy said regretfully. She said her proofs are receipts of her monthly remittances to the lending company.
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On top of this, Judy said that a day before the flight, she and her batchmates were made to pay $10,000 each by her agency, for which no receipt was given. They were made to write a statement that they did not pay the agency a single peso.
“We couldn’t get evidence kasi bawal magdala ng phone sa office,” the worker said, who said she hoped the agency and its staff will reap karma for ripping off workers.
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| A receipt for the money Judy paid a lending company in the Phl, which all went to her recruiter |
Another helper, Lai Siarot, who came to
“Hindi ako umutang sa lending, sa tao po ako umutang (I didn’t borrow from a lending company, I borrowed from people),” said the worker from Pangasinan.
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Siarot said she had worked in
She said she paid up her debt in 2019. Asked whether she would file for a refund, she was pessimistic: “Baka po masayang lang and pagod at wala din maibalik, (The effort might go to waste and there might be no refund)” she said.
Bernadette (not her real name said the first time she left
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She said her recruitment agency told her she had to go to
training again even if she had a valid NCII and was a returnee from
“Sabi ng agency, ‘training uli ha, di ka makakaalis kung di ka
mag-training uli,” she said, notwithstanding your being an NCII holder and a
former
Another FDW who commented in a Facebook post of The SUN’s article on Labatt Dizon’s remarks claimed she paid $70,000 – Php30,000 for training and Php40,000 for processing, aside from the Php3,500 medical.
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Even the four helpers who were treated in hospitals here
after testing positive for Covid-19 on arrival from
Ermalyn Deno, the first to be sent
back home after treatment, says she paid Php31,000 to her agency for her
training back in the
As she was from Palawan, she also
had to incur a lot of expenses for board and lodging as she was made to go to
The 35-year-old mother of four said Php45,000 of what she
borrowed went to pay fees charged by her agency in
Meanwhile, at least two FDHs asked if they could still claim a refund of the more than Php100,000 they paid their recruitment agencies several years back. One said she came here in 2011, and the other, in 2012.
Rochelle echoed the question, saying she borrowed part of the huge placement and training fees she paid her agency back in 2012. Unlike the others, she said she got the loan from a relative at 10% interest, which took her several months to repay. But like most of them, she was not issued any receipt for any of her payments.
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