Sixty-eight departing overseas Filipino workers were pulled from a cramped lodging site in Parañaque City’s Barangay San Antonio, the latest target in a months-long enforcement push by the Department of Migrant Workers against substandard housing for recruits awaiting overseas jobs.
That Parañaque facility, according to the DMW, was operated jointly by two licensed placement firms, ATC Human Resources, Inc. and Rock Solid Manpower & Consultancy, Inc. Inspectors flagged problems severe enough to warrant immediate removal of the occupants. “During the operation, the team documented serious conditions affecting the safety, dignity, health, and welfare of the OFW applicants,” the Department stated.
The shutdown fits a broader pattern. Since the campaign began on June 6, 2026, authorities have sealed 24 such accommodations in a span of under three months, with 519 applicants taken out of the sites over that period. Each facility was closed either because it never obtained DMW registration or because conditions inside were deemed dangerous or degrading.
Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac tied the effort directly to unlicensed operators. “We have been cracking down on accommodations for OFW recruits that are unregistered with the DMW,” he wrote in a social media post.
Workers taken from the Parañaque site were moved to an OWWA-accredited hotel in Pasay City, where they are receiving temporary shelter and welfare support while officials record their accounts. The Department indicated that these interviews serve a dual purpose. “The rescued OFW applicants are now under the care of OWWA, and will undergo individual statement-taking and further welfare assessment to establish the full circumstances of their stay at the facility and determine whether additional violations were committed,” it said.
