The marketing director of Alpha Assistenza SRL yesterday spilled the beans in Daily Tribune's digital show Usapang OFW that the immigration consultancy company — accused of duping over 400
job-seekers in Italy — sponsored Philippine Independence Day celebrations in Milan last 18 June.
In a studio interview, Jeffrey Villalon revealed that co-CEOs Krizelle Respicio and Frederick Dutaro pledged to pay 29,000 euros, or roughly P1,750,671.07, for the huge video wall used in the event organized by the Philippine consulate in Milan.
Villalon, who had worked in Italy in the past, admitted creating Alpha Assistenza's website while in the Philippines after Respicio promised to facilitate and pay for his return to Italy so he could be with his two children.
He said the website he created announced job openings that Alpha Assistenza used in luring Filipinos working in Italy to act as sponsors for their relatives in the Philippines.
A number of the sponsors had talked to Usapang OFW to reveal that the consulate had sat on their complaints, forcing them to file their cases directly with the Italian police.
Respicio, they said, had also boasted of having a high official of the consulate as a "tatay-tatayan" or father figure. Screenshots of Respicio's conversations with her agents and the job-seekers confirmed her claim of being close with the official.
Apparently reacting to the Usapang OFW show and the series of Daily Tribune articles that detailed the horror stories of the "victims," the Consulate General of the Philippines in Milan issued a statement on Tuesday, saying it has been acting on the complaints.
Headed by Consul General Elmer Cato, it said that it "has been made aware of some concern regarding what several kababayans believe is the slow pace of its ongoing investigation of the cases of fraud, illegal recruitment, and trafficking that were recently brought to our attention."
It went on to say that since receiving the first complaint "several weeks ago," it has been gathering statements and supporting evidence, aside from issuing advisories to make sure that no more Filipinos end up as victims.
The consulate also tagged the complaints raised by both the sponsors and job-seekers as "inaccurate and malicious information."
Most of the job-seekers, whose visas were all purportedly turned down by the Italian Embassy in Manila, on account of the fake work permits provided by Alpha Assistenza, are from the province of Batangas.
However, the complainants also doubted the authenticity of the visa rejection letters that were given to them en masse by the embassy's
third-party visa facilitator, PIASI, for bearing their names in handwritten form.
DAILY TRIBUNE is reaching out to the Italian Embassy to determine the authenticity of the visa rejection documents, and whether or not the complainants were on its data base of visa applicants.
On Monday, 18 of the complainants were accompanied by Usapang OFW to the Department of Migrant Workers, which pledged to endorse their case to the Department of Justice for possible prosecution. Two DMW directors also vowed to send a fact-finding team to Italy and to provide legal assistance to the complainants.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla vowed to get to the bottom of what a lawyer described as a possible case of syndicated illegal recruitment or massive human trafficking. The National Bureau of Investigation would probe the matter upon the DoJ's receipt of the DMW endorsement, Remulla said.
Senator Risa Hontiveros had also reached out to Usapang OFW so the Senate could summon the complainants and the Alpha Assistenza officials, who Bureau of Immigration records tended to show, are now in the Philippines.
According to Villalon, the Italian supplier of the video wall had complained to him that he was yet to be paid 16,000 euros of the total rental contract price.
Likewise, one of two Italian lawyers that Alpha Assistenza featured on its Facebook page had also threatened to sue Respicio and Dutaro for using his photograph to make it appear he was part of the company.
"I designed all of the Kalayaan 2023 materials," Villalon told Usapang OFW, saying he suspected they were being scammed by Alpha Assistenza when he discovered that three persons he interviewed for the video presentation for Kalayaan 2023 were not able to leave the Philippines for Italy.
Villalon said he has been reaching out to government agencies after being blacklisted for the bogus document provided without his knowledge by Alpha Assistenza. He said he feared not being able to see his children again who are in Italy.
