‘Get them’: Duterte orders DOLE, DSWD to run after illegal recruiters

MANILA, Philippines—President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to beef up their crackdown against illegal recruiters.

Speaking at the awarding ceremony for the 2018 Presidential Award for Child-Friendly Municipalities and Cities at Malacañang, Duterte asked DSWD Secretary Rolando Bautista to come up with a “structure” to eradicate illegal recruiters.

“I’m sending him a message now that you have to do more. Since you are a military man, then I hope you can come up with a structure— a bigger one —to go after itong (illegal) recruitment. And so goes for the Department of Labor (and Employment),” he said.

“My order is to really get them. You should know where to fish for them,” he added.

Duterte even recalled how parents of three illegally recruited teenagers, ages 16 and 17, sought his help as they were unable to contact them after falsifying documents to work in the Middle East.

The President also lamented the sexual abuses and slavery experienced by overseas Filipino workers.