Signs of OJT irregularities surface after student turns whistle-blower

PANGASINAN State University student Dahrel dela Cruz has been confined at the Pangasinan Doctors Hospital in San Carlos City for a sickness linked to his supposed on-the-job training work for a Laguna company. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

SAN CARLOS CITY—A business administration student of Pangasinan State University (PSU) here may have blown the whistle on alleged anomalies in the implementation of his school’s student internship program.

Dharel de la Cruz, who is now confined in the hospital for a respiratory ailment, said he was one of 43 PSU students who worked as contractual employees of a pharmaceutical firm in Laguna province while undergoing on-the-job training (OJT).

This was facilitated by a local employment firm, JIF Manpower and Referral Services, De la Cruz said, with the understanding that the students would not be identified as OJT recruits.

De la Cruz, a self-supporting student, was required to complete 400 hours in the OJT so he could graduate on June 22.

On Tuesday, PSU president Dexter Buted said De la Cruz would not be joining this year’s graduates because of the mess. “We are declaring his practicum null and void,” Buted said.

But he said he had directed JIF to explain why De la Cruz was getting paid for an OJT assignment. He added that passing off students as workers, instead of as company trainees, was “beyond our control.”

It was not clear why JIF would deceive the Laguna firm, or how it would benefit the manpower company. JIF could not be located on the address it gave in San Carlos City.

CHEd requirement

The Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) regulates student internship programs by requiring schools to sign a memorandum of agreement with a “host training establishment (HTE)” and to draw up an OJT manual to be used to the students’ work supervisors.

Allowing student trainees or interns to undergo a student internship program “without a valid training order or contract” from the HTE, or collecting unapproved fees, puts a school in hot water, the CHEd said.

Both CHEd and the Department of Labor and Employment said they would investigate the OJT issue.

At its last regular session on Monday, the provincial board formed an ad hoc committee to investigate the PSU student training mess, which was also cited in a letter addressed to outgoing Gov. Amado Espino Jr. The letter was signed by 11 PSU teaching and nonteaching personnel.

 Human trafficking

Board Member Raul Sison said the committee was looking into the possibility that the OJT students were victims of human trafficking.

De la Cruz said Adonis Bautista, PSU student affairs director, introduced the 43 students to JIF Manpower during an OJT orientation in December last year. He said he and his school mates signed up with the agency because of the promise of good pay.

On Jan. 27, he said the OJT recruits reported for work. De la Cruz was first assigned as a stock person, taking charge of organizing boxes of pharmaceutical products.

De la Cruz said he began feeling ill two weeks after he was assigned as a “feeder” in the pharmaceutical company. His work required him to manually introduce capsules to the production line.

When his condition worsened, he ran away from the company and returned home. He was confined at the intensive care unit of Pangasinan Doctors Hospital.

“My doctor said my lungs had collapsed. That is why I have these oxygen tubes in my nose … . I cannot even stand now and I have difficulty sitting,” he said.

Job recruits

De la Cruz said he was surprised when a JIF employee informed him that all 43 students were being asked to pay P100,000 for concealing their identities as OJT recruits.

“But the agency told us that they would shoulder P50,000 so that we would just have to pay P50,000 as a group,” he said.

Buted cited reasons to doubt De la Cruz’s account. For example, he said, the student had forged his father’s signature on the parental consent form required for the OJT program.

Citing De la Cruz’s OJT report on April 29, the PSU president said it did not refer to any problem involving chemicals.

Bautista also refuted De la Cruz, saying his only role as OJT coordinator was to endorse the local employment agency and other PSU partner companies.

“It was the students’ choice to sign up with JIF because of the pay. What happened after that, I have no knowledge anymore,” he said.