The police are looking for the marketing manager of a recruitment agency in Ermita, Manila, who allegedly lured applicants to nonexistent jobs in Austria and used the collected fees to settle complaints from other applicants who were promised jobs in Canada.
They are tracking down Florie Angeles of Marhaba International Management Services, who reportedly handled the job orders from Austria, processed the applicants’ papers and collected their placement fees.
Angeles apparently gave fake visas to job applicants to Canada and used the placement fee paid by applicants to Austria to settle the former, according to Robert, a complainant from Quezon province who asked that his full name be withheld.
Angeles had asked P130,000 in placement fees from applicants who were told there were 800 jobs available in Austria. They were given the option to pay P50,000 as down payment and the balance would be deducted from their salary abroad.
Complainants against the agency from various provinces have been streaming into Manila City Hall Public Assistance office following the arrest of the owner’s son, Dennis Abellon, and three employees.
Complainants Retchelle Labayandoy and Mildred Trinidad recalled that they first learned of Marhaba through agents who handed out flyers at SM Lucena and that they were eventually recruited in August last year by Manuelito Panganiban, a pastor who has a small chapel behind the Candelaria municipal hall.
Grief-stricken
Labayandoy said she was later dismayed to see a notice at Marhaba’s office that Panganiban was no longer connected with the agency when she went there last month to demand a refund of the P25,000 fee she had paid.
According to her, some complainants have been refunded by Connie Palisoc, who told them that Angeles had run off with their money.
Robert said he paid P50,000 in July last year and was given back P25,000 in September.
Another complainant, Boyet Cramen of Quezon City, said he paid P25,000 and was refunded a total of P9,000. He came to Manila City Hall grief-stricken on Friday, a day after the death of his diabetic mother based in the Bicol region.
He blamed the agency for his failure to send enough money for her mother’s maintenance drugs.
In an interview with the Inquirer, the detained Abellon broke into tears as he belied the allegation against him and the agency.
He said Marhaba had been operating for about two years and it initially offered jobs in Dubai before Angeles began processing applications for jobs in Austria.
He said the agency encountered problems with job orders from Austria in September and yet Angeles continued collecting fees. That’s why she was fired, he said.