Foreign recruitment agency suspended over rape case

MANILA, Philippines — Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III has ordered the suspension of foreign recruitment agency Home Comfort Recruitment Office/Home Comfort Manpower Services after it was found that an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) was allegedly raped by the Saudi Arabia-based owner of the company.

The OFW, who has since been repatriated, also said she was molested by one of her employers. Bello also directed the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Riyadh to file cases against the suspects, and penalize SAMA International Recruitment Agency, the local agency, which hired the victim.

—PATRICIA DENISE M. CHIU