8 Filipino trafficking victims rescued from Myanmar 

EIGHT FILIPINOS have returned to the Philippines after being rescued from a trafficking scheme in Myanmar, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Monday.   Among the eight, four males were recruited online from Dubai to supposedly work as customer support representatives in Thailand. Instead, they were brought to Myanmar and forced to scam individuals […]

Several Filipinos in Turkey still unaccounted for in earthquake’s aftermath 

THE PHILIPPINE Embassy in Ankara on Thursday said it is still receiving reports of affected Filipinos, with some out of reach, after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck Turkey on Feb. 6.  “The embassy continuously receives a steady stream of confirmed and unconfirmed reports of Filipinos experiencing varying degrees of distress,” it said.   “These included […]

Employment numbers don’t reflect job-market dropouts — think tank

By John Victor D. Ordoñez, Reporter THE decline in the 2022 jobless rate masks the number of workers who have stopped seeking formal employment, IBON Foundation said. “Reported unemployment doesn’t count jobless Filipinos who may have dropped out of the labor force after a long time of seeking but not finding work,” the think tank’s Executive […]

Filipinos trafficked as crypto scammers in Cambodia

FILIPINOS have been victimized into becoming online scammers by an alleged Chinese group operating in Cambodia, a senator reported on Wednesday.   “Filipinos are becoming the main target of human trafficking syndicates,” Senator Ana Theresia “Risa” N. Hontiveros-Baraquel said in a statement. “After we helped some Filipinos in Myanmar who were abused and forced to work […]

Marcos vows to boost quality of jobs as Filipinos seek more work

PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. on Wednesday vowed to boost the quality of jobs in the Philippines, after underemployment continued to worsen in September at 15.4%. The president vowed to improve job quality “to address underemployment while bolstering job opportunities in the country,” the presidential palace said in a statement.  “Ever since we started with […]

PHL waives Singapore employer bond, guarantee requirements

THE PHILIPPINES has waived the performance bond and bank guarantee requirements for Singapore employers seeking to hire Filipino workers, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) said on Wednesday. In a statement late Wednesday, Migrant Workers Secretary Susan V. Ople said she informed her counterpart, Singapore Manpower Minister Tan See Leng, of the waiver at a […]

Fake job text scams likely to persist as joblessness worsens

By Arjay L. Balinbin, Senior Reporter FILIPINOS can expect more phishing attacks as unemployment in the country continues to worsen, experts said. Cybercriminals use text messages to trick mobile phone users into visiting malicious websites to obtain their personal information, including banking information, credit cards, and addresses. “The phishing machinery relies on urgency or something […]

Editorial: Reexamining Edsa

Seethe. Do not forget. Let Edsa be more than a “page from history.”Last February 25, Indonesian teacher Reny waited online for 30 minutes before concluding that the Filipinos studying Bahasa with her was not turning up. After Reny messaged, her students replied that Feb. 25 was a public holiday in the Philippines, a “long weekend.”Reny […]