Voting overwhelmingly 247–0, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading a legislative measure aimed at tightening laws against illegal recruitment and protecting Filipino job seekers from predatory recruiters.
Under House Bill No. 9805, two unlicensed recruiters acting in concert will be classified as a syndicate and prosecuted under economic sabotage laws.
The proposed measure amends existing provisions of the Labor Code and the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 governing illegal recruitment practices.
“With President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. leading the national government and Speaker Bojie Dy at the helm of the House, our job is to make the law catch up with the way illegal recruitment actually operates. Two unlicensed recruiters working together can already destroy several families, so the protection of the law should not depend on waiting for a third conspirator,” said House Majority Leader Sandro Marcos.
Under the revised bill, syndicated illegal recruitment will continue to cover three or more individuals conspiring with one another, but the threshold lowers to just two offenders when those involved operate without a valid license or authority.
Illegal recruitment on a large scale will remain defined as offenses committed against three or more persons individually or as a group. Both syndicated and large-scale illegal recruitment will retain their classification as non-bailable offenses involving economic sabotage.
The measure empowers the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and law enforcement agencies to initiate complaints against illegal recruiters directly. Concurrently, it eliminates archaic Labor Code provisions that authorized administrative arrests, detentions, searches, and seizures by non-judicial entities.
The legislation preserves the broad statutory definition of illegal recruitment, encompassing any canvassing, enlisting, contracting, transporting, utilizing, hiring or procuring of workers including referrals, contract service offers or promises of overseas employment undertaken without appropriate licensing or authorization.
Prohibited recruitment acts are likewise maintained under the bill, including the failure to reimburse documentation and processing expenses when deployment fails through no fault of the worker, as well as allowing foreign nationals to head or manage licensed Philippine recruitment agencies.
Proponents designed the reform to prevent smaller, coordinated pairs of unlicensed recruiters from escaping the severe legal penalties attached to syndicated crimes simply because only two conspirators executed the operation.
The bill incorporates a standard separability clause ensuring remaining provisions remain in full force should any section be declared unconstitutional or invalid.
Principal authors of HB 9805 include Speaker Dy, Majority Leader Marcos, Agimat Party-list Rep. Bryan Mercado-Revilla, Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado-Revilla, Cavite Rep. Ramon Jolo Revilla, and TINGOG Party-list Reps. Yedda Marie Romualdez, Andrew Julian Romualdez and Jude Acidre.