Man arrested, charged for illegal recruitment

CORDOVA police yesterday arrested a former overseas contract worker accused by illegal recruitment in his home in barangay Tagtoy, Naga town, south Cebu.

At least 15 people accused 55-year-old Luciano Aliganga of promising them jobs in the US that never materialized in exchange for P15,000 processing payment.

Charges of illegal recruitment and estafa were being prepared against him.

Police said Aliganga, who worked as a pipe fitter in Iraq for three years back in the ’80s, doesn’t have a license from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). His wife and daughter are jobless.

The complainants who went to the Cordova police precinct where Aliganga was detained were fuming over how he allegedly swindled them of their hard-earned money.

An emotional Gema Pacaldo confronted Aliganga and told him how they ate little and loaned much so they can pay the P15,000 processing fee.

Her husband worked as a security guard while she sold bananas for their family.

Pacaldo said they met Aliganga who is a brother of their female relative’s husband.

She said Aliganga claimed to have sent the husband abroad for a construction job.

“You don’t know how we suffered. My children had to make do with just table salt as viand because we trusted you and you just make a fool out of us,” Pacaldo told Aliganga.

Rudyard Rama said he paid P13,150 for a job in South Africa.

He said he trusted Aliganga because he knew his sister-in-law.

Rama said he went to the POEA to learn that Aliganga wasn’t connected to any recruitment agency.

Romeo Regencio, 67, a resident of barangay Matab-ang Cordova, Cebu, paid P13,000 to Aliganga in exchange for a construction job in Venice Island, Mexico.

Rama and other victims went to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to file a complaint against Aliganga.

The suspect claimed that he was also a victim since his contact named Elmer failed to help him secure the jobs for the applicants.

He said Elmer was missing since last year. “I went to his (Elmer) rented home but was told that he is no longer there,” said Aliganga.

Senior Insp. Noli Cernio, Cordova police precinct chief, urged other victims to come forward and file their complaints. With Correspondent Norman V. Mendoza