Despite intensified efforts of the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) in curbing illegal recruitment online through taking down illegitimate job postings and groups, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) continues to flag passengers with fraudulent documents from jobs sourced online. 

On Tuesday, BI reported intercepting a 47-year-old woman attempting to depart for Kuwait using an illegitimate Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC). 

The passenger was stopped on Saturday, 19 July at Ninoy Aquino International Airport before boarding a Philippine Airlines flight bound for Riyadh. Immigration officers noticed suspicious behavior, prompting further inspection. 

Initial investigation showed that the woman’s name was not in the joint system of BI and DMW. She later admitted to paying a fixer P2,010 to obtain the fake OEC.

An OEC is a mandatory document for overseas Filipino workers departing the Philippines. As of 2023, it is issued free of charge.

BI said they continuously intercept Filipinos with fake OECs, mostly obtained online through Facebook groups. So far this year, 17 passengers have been intercepted attempting to leave the country using falsified OECs.

Earlier this year, the DMW said it took down around 71,653 fraudulent job postings dating back to 2024 in coordination with Meta and TikTok Philippines. 

BI urged aspiring overseas workers to process documents through DMW. 

In other developments, BI also intercepted three passengers, a woman and two men on 20 July as they were about to go to Da Nang, Vietnam via Kuala Lumpur posing as tourists. 

One of the male passengers, 24, said he was recruited by a former BPO colleague to work for an airline in Cambodia handling refunds, with a promised salary of USD 1,200 (around P60,000). He reportedly pawned their house to cover his expenses. 

The second male passenger, 29, was offered a job via Telegram with a monthly salary of USD 1,500, three percent sales commission, and P25,000 joining bonus. 

The female passenger, 21, told authorities she obtained the job through a Facebook post and was given fraudulent travel documents a day before her flight.