A jarring scandal
in Ireland placement

My Junior told me yesterday of the biggest ongoing scandal in Ireland over the activities of a Philippine placement agency. This time it involved a cosmetician who had to be deported after the recruiting agency had refused to acknowledge further questions about its exploitation of the employee.

Rolando Jr., incidentally, has been named the first Pinoy nurse supervisor of a Dublin hospital. And he had no reason to peddle gossip. As a matter of fact, it pained him to recount to me what had happened to the Pinay beautician.

Not because of what happened to that particular individual. But more important was the poor impression about local recruitment agencies and how they exploit their recruited workers.

As was the usual practice by Irish would-be employers, they paid the recruiting agency all the needed expenses of the overseas Filipina worker. The agreed fee - three Euros per hour. But later, the employer found out that the recruit was being paid by the recruiter only one Euro per hour.

The employer ordered an investigation into the anomaly. They found it correct. And they asked the recruiter to pay the difference to the employee. The reason - they had already advanced the money. The Irish government reportedly made its own inquiries. Later, the recruiter refused to answer telephone calls. So, they had no alternative but to repatriate the employee back to the Philippines. But they paid her 25,000 Euros.

Now Irish firms are wary about local recruiters doing the search for potential employees for them. Instead, they prefer Indian and other Asian countries. These usually involve one-on-one transactions.

Here we have a classic case of how our own Filipino labor recruiters are responsible for the exploitation of our own overseas workers. Luckily, in the case of Ireland, the Irish employers now send their officials to transact directly with their potential employees. That does away with similar incidents in the future. But that also dries up the bulk of potential OFWs.

It's time for the Philippine government to crack down on such anomalies. We cannot allow our OFWs to be victimized by our own Pinoy recruiters. In this case, what happened to that Pinay beautician was really ghoulish.

***

I spent New Year's Even in Kabankalan City. The reason is that I had to attend the birthday celebration of my granddaughter, Daniela, as well as the dinner of the Cabile family whose daughter, Mercy, is married to my Junior. Both arrived only December 31 after a harrowing tale of having been bumped off in Paris, returned to Dublin then taking a Lufthansa flight to the Philippines.

Anyway the point is that Kabankalanons remained gripped by the same mindset as most Pinoys - firecrackers to greet the New Year. But as pointed out by locals, the volume had gone down somewhat. And there were also a lot of imported fireworks and pyrotechnics.

A bad signal for local pyrotechnic makers. By next year, most likely, they may find themselves trying their best to survive unless they can improve their products so that these will no longer pose threats to the lives and limbs of celebrators of New Year's Eve.

A warning to both the government and the producers. Unless things are improved, local fireworks manufacturers may soon be out of business and imported pyrotechnics will dominate the local market.

***

This is a special self-serving message. I am appealing to the key officials of the Graciano Lopez Jaena Clan to attend an emergency meeting on Friday at the Robinsons bowling lanes at 1 p.m.

The reason - I just received a call from Mrs. Graciano (Lorna) Lopez of Iloilo City that Manila Mayor Lito Atienza had informed the Dr. Graciano Lopez Jaena Foundation that he intends to join the January 20 commemoration here of the Ilonggo national hero's death anniversary. The reason - Mayor Atienza intends to honor Lopez Jaena with a statue in Manila. That's one for the books.

This invitation is for the school principal of the Graciano Lopez Jaena Elementary School, Councilor Anne Marie Palermo, City Supt. Mila Gonzales, Bing Pahilanga for the Freemasons of Bacolod and Negros, and to Pancho Uytiepo, the president of the Graciano Lopez Jaena Elementary School Alumni Association, Bert Espina of the Capitol Lions Club, Provincial Hospital director Maritel Ledesma and the other members of the Clan.

It is important that we come up with a truly memorable commemoration. And we expect something very important to come out of that meeting.

I do hope all members of the Clan will not hesitate to pitch in their bit to make the commemoration a historic one. So please attend the Friday emergency meeting at Robinsons bowling lanes on the second floor.

Thanks for the use of this column to issue this call for the meeting.*

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