Authorities have arrested the owner of a Binondo-based recruitment agency and closed its offices after finding it had been collecting fees from job seekers without a license to deploy workers abroad.
Celisti Maxilum, the proprietor of MAXILUM Recruitment Agency — which also operated under the name Cell Venus Elite Workforce Manpower and Recruitment Agency Inc. — was taken into custody on March 25, 2026, through an entrapment operation. Arrested alongside her were her Russian fiancé and two armed bodyguards.
The operation was a joint effort involving the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group’s Anti-Transnational Crime Unit, and the CIDG Anti-Organized Crime Unit.
MWPB Director Atty. Eric Dollete said the agency had been advertising factory and production positions in Japan, New Zealand, Canada, and Australia on social media, with advertised monthly salaries of ₱90,000 to ₱100,000 under three-year contracts. No approved job orders backed any of those offers.
Applicants were charged placement and processing fees between ₱35,000 and ₱72,500, paid through online channels. None of them were deployed or had their applications processed for overseas work.
The closure brings to eight the total number of illegal recruitment establishments the DMW has shut down so far in 2026. The agency said enforcement operations are continuing across the country, consistent with a presidential directive to go after illegal recruiters and syndicates preying on aspiring overseas Filipino workers.
MWPB Director Atty. Romelson Abbang advised job seekers to confirm whether an agency holds a valid license and has approved job orders by checking the DMW’s official website at www.dmw.gov.ph before submitting any application. Those who believe they may have been victimized can contact the Migrant Workers Protection Bureau through its Facebook page, by email at mwpb@dmw.gov.ph, or by calling (+63 2) 8721-0619.
