Macau Dreams, Dashed by Scammers

By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com

MANILA — “It is cold in Macau,” Herman Vendiola, 52, said before recalling his life in the gambling capital of Asia. In some ways, he said, the thought of the climate there heightens his sense of dread each time he speaks about what he and others had to go through.

Vendiola left his home in Pagbilao, Quezon, on Dec. 31 for a job in a hotel in Macau, to give his family, he said, a brighter future. He was promised as much as P48,000 in a matter of 50 days through parttime jobs alone, aside from the salary that he would get for his fulltime job in the hotel.

He was reluctant at first. “I thought that I might already be overaged for the job,” he said. “But my recruiter assured me that age would not be a problem in Macau for as long as I can carry out the tasks assigned to me.”

With this, he paid his recruiter Randy Coronado of Lucena, Quezon, some P40,000 in the last week of November 2009. Coronado had earlier promised that Vendiola and the other recruits would be hired directly by the hotel, bypassing the usual process where foreign employers would have to hire migrant workers through local agencies.

Vendiola had to pawn their house and lot in Quezon for only P60,000 to their village captain with 10-percent monthly interest. He did not hesitate to do this because he held on to the promises of his Coronado. He had big dreams for his family, so Vendiola took the risk.

When he landed in Macau later in the evening of Dec. 31, he realized that the nightmare was about to begin.

Other Victims
At the airport, Vendiola was welcomed not by some agent, who would supposedly help him get a job in there, but by fellows Filipinos who had been victimized before him. “You were taken for a ride!” Christopher Enriquez, 34, one of the Filipinos who were victims of illegal recruitment in Macau, told him.

Filipinos recruited to supposedly work in Macau, at the departure area of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Second from right is alleged illegal recruiter Isabelita Daleon. (Photo courtesy of Migrante)

Alleged illegal recruiters Randy Coronado (left) and Isabelita Daleon. (Photo courtesy of Migrante )

From left: Christopher Enriquez, Herman Vendiola, Marvin Briones and Sigcristy Marasigan (Photo by Janess Ann J. Ellao / bulatlat.com )

Enriquez, together with Marvin Briones, 21, and Sigcristy Marasigan, 39, arrived in Macau two weeks before Vendiola did. Rowena Andal had introduced them to Isabelita Daleon who also promised them a direct employer in Macau. Enriquez, Briones, Marasigan and Andal were classmates in a housekeeping class in Columbus College in Lucena City, a school accredited by the Technological Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda).

Lika Vendiola, they were all reluctant to go to Macau. But they nonetheless decided to try their luck. All three of them paid P15,000 to Daleon and Andal in the hope of earning a salary of some P48,000 a month from working as housekeeping staff in a hotel. Briones remembered himself saying, “This is it,” out of excitement over the trip to Macau. But upon arriving there, and finding out that there was no job waiting for them, he said, “This is not pala.”

Enriquez believes that sending and victimizing Filipinos to work in Macau has become a scam for some unscrupulous recruiters. He told Bulatlat how systematized the process is, how no one among them would have noticed that something fishy was already going on. He said that upon arriving at the airport, there were “escorts” who would bring them to a certain immigration officer who would stamp their passports right away. “We paid P3,500 for the escort,” he said.

Even Vendiola, who had a different recruiter, also went through the escort system. “I can still remember how my escort looks like,” he said. “He was dark-skinned, with a mustache and 5’4″ in height,” adding that the immigration officer where he was brought to was bald and fair-skinned.

Aside from the escort system, part of what Enriquez believes is a systematized process was the flat where they would be living once they reach Macau. Their first month of stay in the flat, owned by one Dory Dimaculangan, a blue card holder in Macau, was already paid through the money they gave to the recruiter.