Ople Center Helps 137 Bus Drivers File Charges Against CYM International and RJJ Lacaba
April 29, 2009
News Release
Blas F. Ople Policy Center
April 29, 2009
CYM International, RJJ Lacaba financing company in hot water over recruitment
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A licensed recruitment agency and a private lending company must now appear before the Senate and House of Representative and face a class suit from a local NGO after it swindled 137 bus drivers out of their money and fervent dreams in a massive illegal recruitment scam.
The Blas F. Ople Policy Center, a non-government organization that assists distressed overseas workers, announced today that it is filing a class suit against CYM International Services and Placement Agency and RJJ Lacaba financing company for committing illegal recruitment practices that led to the swindling of 137 bus drivers in Dubai.
“We will sue for millions in damages and more importantly, for the court to immediately nullify the exploitative and onerous terms and conditions attached to the loans amounting to P150,000 per driver,” Ople said.
ABAKADA party-list representative Jonathan dela Cruz, for his part, announced that he filed House Resolution No. 1118 calling for a House inquiry into the recruitment scam. He also castigated the POEA for the undue delay in hearing the case. “The evidence is staggering and each of the 137 bus drivers have similar
accounts of what happened. Why is the POEA taking so long to hear this case and in moving for the immediate cancellation of the license of CYM International?” dela Cruz said.
Dela Cruz told media that ABAKADA and its allied group Social Justice Movement will join the Ople Center in filing a class suit against the erring recruitment agency and the lending company. “We will support the bus drivers and the Ople Center in this legal battle,” dela Cruz said.
The drivers appealed to the government for assistance in looking for alternative jobs overseas and in meeting the expenses needed to pursue justice and keep their households afloat.
“Mahirap po ang katayuan naming lahat. Nagresign kami sa aming mga trabaho kasi POEA-accredited naman ang ahensya namin ‘yun pala wala namang totoong trabaho sa Dubai at binaon pa kami sa napakalaking pagkakautang,” Claro Oliver, one of the drivers said.
The owners of the company and lending agency failed to show up at the Senate hearing conducted by Senator Jinggoy Estrada, chair of the committee on labor and employment. Estrada instructed the committee secretariat to seek a hold departure order against the management and owners of both companies.
Former labor undersecretary Susan Ople said 22 bus drivers who have recently returned from Dubai as well as the wives of the drivers still at Ajman Camp recently met with the Ople Center’s legal counsel, Atty. Reynaldo Robles of ChanRobles & Associates to discuss the case.
Atty. Robles said that more than a hundred bus drivers remaining in Dubai have started sending forms to delegate powers of attorney to their wives. “The documentary evidence is overwhelming, and we are pursuing this case precisely to send a strong message to unscrupulous licensed agencies and abusive lending
companies that they should stop exploiting the vulnerabilities of our workers,” he explained.
In a press conference held today at a coffee shop in Quezon City, the bus drivers issued an appeal to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration to act with dispatch on their case.
“Narinig po naming na may balak umalis ng bansa ‘yung mga may-ari ng ahensya. Kung ito po ay totoo, sino pa po ang mananagot sa nangyari sa amin?” the drivers said.
The POEA has scheduled its first hearing on the case of the 137 bus drivers on May 5.
END
Ople Center Calls Attention of Government Agencies to 137 Bus Drivers Stranded in Dubai
April 12, 2009
News Release
Blas F. Ople Policy Center
April 12, 2009
Filipino community rallies around 137 stranded bus drivers in Dubai; Ople Center seeks immediate probe and suspension of licensed agency involved in their recruitment
In keeping with the spirit of Lent, the “bayanihan” spirit was alive and well in Dubai as Filipinos pitch in canned goods, water, toiletries, and other food items to help 137 bus drivers stranded and looking for jobs after being deployed there by a licensed recruitment agency.
The stranded drivers were overwhelmed by the show of hospitality and generosity by Filipino community leaders who traveled in a convoy yesterday (Black Saturday). According to Ares Gutierrez, sub-editor of XPRESS, the Dubai-based paper that broke the story about the stranded bus drivers, most of the victims were confused as to what they should do next.
One of the drivers, Claro Oliver of Rizal province, contacted the Blas F. Ople Policy Center yesterday for help in pursuing justice against their recruiter, CYM International Services, a licensed recruitment agency. The agency promised the Filipino drivers good-paying jobs at Dubai’s government transport agency known as Roads and Transport Authority (RTA). Some of the drivers, some of who quit their local jobs despite years of service, have been waiting to be hired by RTA since January of this year. Desperate for food and cash, the stranded drives have resorted to scavenging a dumpsite for scrap food.
Former labor undersecretary Susan Ople, who heads the Blas F. Ople Center, urged the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration to immediately investigate and if possible, suspend the said agency and its counterpart in Dubai, Al Toomoh Technical Services. “The sheer number of victims involved constitutes an act of economic sabotage by this licensed agency. We urge immediate action and for the owners of the agency to be barred from leaving the country.”
The bus drivers, nearly half of who hail from the province of Bulacan, complained to the Ople Center that their passports were being held by the foreign counterpart of their local agency in Dubai. This prevents them from applying for new jobs. Majority of the victims are professional drivers who have worked for years in reputable transport companies such as Baliuag Transit. The Center said the Philippine Consulate should intervene and obtain the passports of the stranded workers.
The plight of the 137 bus drivers were first exposed by Filipino journalists Jay Hilotin and Ares Gutierrez of Xpress publications based on a tip from a fellow Filipino journalist working at Gulf News. Word quickly spread through e-mail and soon, an assembly time and place were designated to enable Filipinos to join an aid convoy leading to the camp where the bus drivers were staying. A Filipino association of Airsoft aficionados whose game was suspended last Friday, pitched in by giving cash donations.
Aside from lack of food, the drivers were sharing living quarters near the Ajman garbage dumpsite. Their building’s electric power is sourced from a generator, giving them only 3 to 4 hours of electricity. The building also has inadequate water supply.
According to the drivers, they paid as much as P150,000 to CYM International Services in exchange for jobs at RTA. Some of the drivers have been staying in Dubai waiting for the promised jobs to come into fruition since January.
Based on interviews with XPRESS, driver Max Sumulong, 34, one of the victims, said last year CYM had offered him a job as a driver for Dh5,200 a month and he had given the agency 10,000 pesos (Dh1,000) as “processing fee”.
“The agency had asked each one of us to take out a 150,000-peso (Dh11,418) loan from a lending agency recommended by them and made us sign undated cheques worth 405,000 pesos (about Dh40,000) addressed to a bank and the lending agency, payable in 15 months,” he said.
Eliseo Maximo, who has worked for 11 years as a bus driver in Manila, said: “We’ve been collecting aluminium cans, selling them at Dh4 per kg in Ajman, just to have something to eat.”
The stranded bus drivers are hoping that the Philippine Consulate can help them look for jobs in Dubai rather than be sent home. “Their biggest worry is on how they can repay the lending agency. If they come home, whatever they earn as bus drivers won’t be enough to pay off their loans and still sustain the needs of their families,” Ople explained.
Ople said she is awaiting documents from the bus drivers that would help speed up the POEA’s investigation into the alleged illegal recruitment practices of CYM International Services and its counterpart in Dubai. The Filipino community has lent the drivers a photocopy machine so they could consolidate and reproduce all the documents needed to bolster their case.
The former labor undersecretary also hoped that the 137 drivers would be able to meet President Arroyo, Vice-President Noli de Castro and other high-ranking officials in their visit to Dubai.
Photo: Donations for the stranded bus drivers pour in
Picture courtesy of Ares Gutierrez of XPRESS, a Dubai-based paper
