Victims of Alpha Assistenza SRL, the alleged illegal recruitment consultancy firm, are distraught over how to repay the money they had borrowed to settle fees with the recruiter in the hopes of working in Italy.

Mirasol Valmonte, a resident of Bulacan, expressed her disappointment in an interview, saying she has been thinking of ways to repay her siblings the money they had lent her.

"Well, now… of course, I borrowed money. Somehow, it's embarrassing. It's good that my siblings were there. But they also need it. I don't know where to get the money to pay them. We can't do anything either," Valmonte said.

Valmonte borrowed a total of 2,000 euros (P118,925.12) to pay Alpha Assistenza SRL, on top of the P12,000 she handed to PIASI in processing fees. The Italian Embassy in Manila on Tuesday cleared PIASI, a Philippine company that facilitates visa applications for the embassy, of involvement in the scam.

The visas of the job seekers were denied purportedly because Alpha Assistenza had attached to their applications fake nulla ostas, or work permits.

"First of all, I'm already old. That was the purpose of going abroad. That was my dream. In effect, it's like I lost something. I have lost hope because I don't have enough money, and it's even harder to apply for a job nowadays," Valmonte lamented.

Edelyn Magbayao, of Malabanan, Batangas, said she ponders every day how her hard-earned money went for nothing.

"When everyone discovered our visas were fake, we started thinking about it. It's a lot of money. It was really difficult. It was my first time applying for a job abroad, and then that happened," she said.

The complainants against Alpha Assistenza, owned by the couple Krizelle Respicio and Frederick Dutaro, had gone to DAILY TRIBUNE for assistance in submitting evidence to the National Bureau of Investigation.

This paper's digital show Usapang OFW broke the so-called Alpha 400 scam in a 21 September show and a series of articles.

"We came back to submit the documents," said Apple Cabasis, one of the victims.