The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) on Tuesday reported on Tuesday the arrest of a religious leader allegedly running an illegal recruitment agency that promised overseas jobs in the guise of missionary work. 

The National Bureau of Investigation-Cavite District Office North (NBI-CAVIDO North) and the DMW said Bishop Reynaldo Basalio of the Faithful Promise Foundation Philippines Inc., was nabbed on 15 September in Baras, Rizal. 

The church compound where the bishop was arrested was previously identified as a front for the illegal recruitment activities of the group. The wife of Basalio, Pastora Esclarmonde Estrada Basalio was earlier arrested in April when authorities shut down the Faithful Promise Foundation for illegal recruitment. 

Investigators said the couple were found to be promising jobs such as factory workers, construction laborers, clerks, accountants, engineers, and tea pickers in Japan, Korea, and Papua New Guinea with alleged salaries ranging from P36,000 to P120,000 a month. 

The victims were allegedly issued tourist visas and told to claim they were missionaries when questioned by immigration officers. DMW said some of those offloaded at airports raised the situation to DMW. Others were deployed abroad only to find out that the jobs offered to them did not exist. 

According to the NBI, applicants were charged P50,000 each for processing fees and documents under the pretense of community work.

DMW earlier said that the first victims of the group were its own parishioners. Undersecretary for Licensing and Adjudication Bernard Olalia explained in April during the closure of the agency that immigration officers grew suspicious when supposed “missionaries” were intercepted during departure interviews and admitted they were actually bound for employment abroad.

Most workers were being recruited for construction and other elementary occupations in Japan.

Basalio will face charges of large-scale illegal recruitment, a non-bailable offense under Republic Act 8042 (Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995), as amended by RA 10022.