Guv wants employment for illegal recruitment victims, OFWs

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO - The provincial government yesterday  vowed to provide employment opportunities to the victims of illegal recruitment and former overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) including their skilled family members.

Governor Lilia Pineda said that they had been consistently working in partnership with the concerned government agency to ensure employment for every Kapampangan who is able and willing to work in any capacity both in local and foreign market. 

However, she initially noted that only those who coordinated with the Pampanga Action Center for Overseas Filipino Workers’ Concern (PACOC)  will be given priority in this initiative. 

PACOC is under the supervision of its Chief Eliza Rey Munoz whose main office is located at the side of the  capitol building near the provincial jail. 

Pineda added that target individuals will be absorved by the provincial government offices tasked to implement various programs  including infrastructure projects, and delivery of basic services among others. 

The governor believed that most of the victims of illegal recruitment and Kapampangan  OFWs are skilled workers who can contribute to bring the best projects for the people in the province. 

Earlier, fifteen persons from Lubao town had sought the assistance of Pineda through PACOC invloving the filing of a case in court for large scale estafa and illegal recruitment against a suspected group of illegal recruiters who enticed them to work in Africa.

These illegal recruitment victims  were identified as Ruben Larioza, Robert Chavez, Rody Evangelista, Romeo Manalansan, Arnold dela Cruz, Joel Manalansan, Marcos Manalansan, Ramil Sangalang, Alvin Dela Pena and other five more individuals. 

It was also learned that there were 8 other individuals who also went to PACOC office  concerning the illegal activity but in the end opted not to be included in the list of the complainants in the said case. 

Meanwhile, based from the Provincial Engineering’s Economic Statistics Report on Infrastructure Projects, some  4,806 Kapampangans  were alrady employed under the infrastructure projects of Governor  Pineda implemented within the first 30 months with a total labor cost of P117,734,636.53