The Department of Migrant Workers has shut down ANECON Tourism Consultancy Services Inc./ANECON Study Abroad, a firm that investigators say charged as much as P400,000 to place Filipinos in overseas programs it had no authority to offer.
Processing fees ran from P200,000 to P400,000 depending on which package a client chose, according to the DMW. Those packages bundled overseas study with promised employment and included offerings marketed as Study Abroad with Guaranteed Work, Ausbildung, Au Pair, and a Direct Work Program targeting placements in the United Kingdom and Germany. Much of the recruitment played out on Facebook and other social media, the agency said.
The core problem, officials found, was that none of it was licensed. A check of the DMW verification system turned up no record authorizing ANECON to recruit workers for jobs abroad, and surveillance work confirmed the firm was actively promoting the paid programs anyway. That finding is what prompted the Closure Order now in force against the company.
The matter reached the DMW by way of the Bureau of Immigration, which referred a report to the Department of Justice–Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) before it was passed along. The report identified Filipinos who had entered Europe on Schengen Type C visas stamped “seasonal worker” after being offered study, internship, and employment opportunities.
ANECON officers and employees tied to the activity now face illegal recruitment charges. The DMW plans to add their names to its List of Persons and Entities with Derogatory Record, and it intends to pursue cancellation of the firm’s business permit through the Pasig City government along with the revocation of its Securities and Exchange Commission registration.
Anyone who believes they were victimized by ANECON, or who has related information, can contact the DMW Migrant Workers Protection Bureau through the DMW AIRTIP Facebook page for assistance and legal support.
