More than 200,000 fraudulent overseas employment advertisements have been removed from social media since 2020, as the Department of Migrant Workers steps up efforts to shield aspiring OFWs from digital recruitment schemes.
Breaking down the figures during a Senate Committee on Migrant Workers hearing Monday, Secretary Hans Leo J. Cacdac said 146,871 illegal recruitment-related posts were taken down from Facebook and 57,557 from TikTok between 2020 and 2026, the result of coordinated action with Meta Platforms Philippines and TikTok Philippines.
The agency’s Migrant Workers Protection Bureau has been tasked with expanding surveillance and monitoring operations online, targeting the proliferation of fake job postings before they reach vulnerable jobseekers.
Senator Raffy Tulfo used the hearing to push for deeper coordination between the DMW and the Department of Information and Communications Technology, a recommendation Cacdac said the agency is actively pursuing to sharpen its detection and removal capabilities.
Beyond platform-level takedowns, the DMW is also broadening its network of government and civil society partners, including local government units and the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, to reinforce public awareness efforts and extend legal support and rescue services to OFWs who fall prey to trafficking and recruitment fraud.
