The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) on Thursday ordered the shutdown of a Japanese Language Learning Center due to its suspected involvement in the illegal recruitment of Filipinos to Japan.
The Migrant Workers Protection Bureau (MWPB) closed the head office of the learning center in Panabo City, Davao del Norte, and its branches in Manila, Rosario (Cavite), Davao City, and General Santos City.
The learning centers allegedly offered jobs to Filipinos without the proper license to do so.
An initial investigation revealed that the training center provides a four-month language course for P33,710, with the option to pay in installments. Applicants who pass the JFT/JLPT N4 and PROMETRIC Specified Skilled Worker Tests (SSWP) may then be illegally referred to their partner agencies.
The applicants would enter Japan through the Technical Internship Training Program (TITP), a temporary labor program that allows Japanese businesses to accept trainees for work.
“The closure of this learning center is a product of our intensified campaign to combatting illegal recruitment as among the directives of the President. We reiterate this warning to our kababayans, especially those who aspire to work abroad: Please, do not deal with recruiting entities that do not have license or authorization from the DMW to recruit and deploy workers for overseas jobs,” said DMW Secretary Hans Cacdac.
The management of the learning center will be charged with illegal recruitment, and all its officers will be added to the DMW’s “List of Persons and Establishments with Derogatory Records.” They will also be permanently barred from participating in the government’s overseas recruitment program.