An example cited was that “many illegal recruiters, despite being issued multiple warrants of arrest, manage to evade arrest and continue to recruit unknowing OFWs desperate for work overseas. The Task Force Against Illegal Recruitment (TFAIR), an inter-agency body tasked to coordinate the efforts of different government agencies in the arrest and prosecution of illegal recruiters, currently has 20,000 unserved warrants for over two hundred large-scale illegal recruiters in the country. As the TFAIR is unable to arrest these large-scale illegal recruiters, they continue to swindle many OFWs of excessive placement fees and deploy OFWs to hazardous jobs overseas.”68 The DOJ Prosecution Statistics on Illegal Recruitment for the period 2009- 2015 show that the total DOJ illegal recruitment case load or cases received was 18,885 cases (see Table 8 below). Of this total figure, only half (49%) or 9,345 were actually filed in court while other cases (15%) were either dismissed or referred. Over the years the percentage of illegal recruitment cases that were filed in court by the DOJ has fluctuated, reaching the lowest at 43% in 2012 and the highest at 57% in 2014, and then after dropping again in 2015 (53%). It can be observed that the rate of case disposition by the DOJ of illegal recruitment cases increased from 60% in 2009 to 77% in 2015, rising steadily except in year 2012 when it dropped to 57%. Table 8: DOJ Illegal Recruitment Prosecution Statistics, Total Caseload and disposition of cases, 2009-2015 Year Total Case Status Total Case Load (Number of Incoming) 2009 2766 2010 2767 2011 2551 2012 2752 2013 3458 2014 2764 2015 1827 18885 Total Disposition (Number of Outgoing) 1661 1755 1733 1564 2148 1979 1398 12238 9,345.00 Breakdown of Disposition: Filed in court Rate Others (Dismissed, Referred) Rate 1,204.00 1,392.00 1,328.00 1,185.00 1,695.00 1,575.00 966.00 44% 50% 52% 43% 49% 57% 53% 49% 457.00 363.00 405.00 379.00 453.00 404.00 402.00 2,863.00 17% 13% 16% 14% 13% 15% 22% 15% Year Total Case Status Total Case Load (Number of Incoming) 2009 2766 2010 2767 2011 2551 2012 2752 2013 3458 2014 2764 2015 1827 18885 Total Disposition (Number of Outgoing) 1661 1755 1733 1564 2148 1979 1398 12238 9,345.00 Breakdown of Disposition: Filed in court Rate Others (Dismissed, Referred) Rate 1,204.00 1,392.00 1,328.00 1,185.00 1,695.00 1,575.00 966.00 44% 50% 52% 43% 49% 57% 53% 49% 457.00 363.00 405.00 379.00 453.00 404.00 402.00 2,863.00 17% 13% 16% 14% 13% 15% 22% 15% Source: DOJ Illegal Recruitment Prosecution Statistics 2009-2015 As for the POEA, the disposition rate has been on a decline from 45% in 2004 when 650 complaints out of 1,462 received were acted upon to 11% in 2009 and 17% in 2010. 69 68 69 Ambito, Julyn S. and Melissa Suzette L. Banzon, "Review of Philippine Migration Laws and Regulations: Gains, Gaps, Prospects," Philippine Institute for Development Studies, Discussion Paper Series No. 2011-37, December 2011, https://dirp4.pids.gov.ph/ris/dps/pidsdps1137.pdf legacy.senate.gov.ph/press_release/2018/0226_recto1.asp 43

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents