Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) Secretary Susan Ople has ordered the closure of a maritime consultancy firm JCB-Success Maritime Consultancy Services, a maritime consultancy firm in Sta. Cruz, Manila.
The closure of the firm came after Manuel Jericho L. Ramos, one of the victims, complained that the firm was able to deliver their promised deployment after asking “him and three other applicants to pay P75,000 each as placement fee and encouraged to convince other colleagues to apply for positions offered by JCB.”
In addition to the filed complain, JCB is operating without any permit from the DMW. JCB operations is to offer jobs as deck seafarers, able engine seafarers, oilers, engineers, and yacht stewards. When a potential applicants/victim submitted the requirements like Seafarer’s Identification and Record Book (SIRB), passport, resume, skill certifications, etc. They (victims) are then referred to an “international manning agency” for deployment. This is where the applicants are duped in “gettug” an offer and deployment, this is where the collection of fees are initiated.
It was determined that even those unqualified applicant were “promised jobs.”
JCB claimed that they have been deploying applicants since November 2022.
With its closure, JCB-Success Maritime Consultancy Services, its owner, employees, and officers will be included in the DMW’s list of persons and establishments with derogatory records. They will be barred from participating in the government’s overseas recruitment program.
The DMW will file illegal recruitment cases against the firm’s owner and officers.
Under Republic Act No. 8042, as amended by Republic Act No. 10022, any act of hiring Filipino workers, undertaken without license or authority from the DMW, is considered illegal recruitment.
Illegal recruitment victims may contact the DMW’s Migrant Workers Protection Bureau directly through their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/airbranch/ or email them at airbranch@dmw.gov.ph.
