SUBIC BAY FREEPORT— A total of 139 undocumented workers recruited for work abroad were rescued by authorities early Tuesday at the Port of Orion in Bataan, as they were waiting to be shipped to Micronesia.
According to the National Coast Watch Center (NCWC), a unit attached to the Office of the President, a joint team of the Philippine Coast Guard and the National Bureau of Investigation boarded the vessel M/V Forever Lucky at the Orion port in Bataan and found the undocumented passengers onboard.
The NCWC said in a news statement that Fahrenheit Co. Ltd. (FCL), which owns and operates the passenger vessel, had failed to produce permits for the supposed travel to the Federated States of Micronesia, a country comprised of some 600 islands in the western Pacific Ocean.
It added that FCL, a company based in the Subic Bay Freeport, “produced falsified and fictitious Special Permit to Navigate, [failed to present] a Certificate of Public Convenience or franchise to legalize its operation, no manifest for the 139 passengers on board, and other documents required for its operation.”
The NCWC said it flagged the vessel after receiving information from its foreign counterpart that a domestic passenger vessel docked in Bataan was allegedly involved in human smuggling and other illegal activities. Some of the undocumented workers found in the ship said they were recruited to work as performers, waiters and disc jockeys for an event in Micronesia. They added that they were not asked to pay for any processing fee, and had the faint idea that they were to leave the country through the back door.
The recruitment was reportedly conducted in the offices of FCL and MacroAsia Pharma Inc., which are both located along Canal Road in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
Meanwhile, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) said that it would not tolerate any unlawful activity by any business locator operating out of the Subic Bay Freeport.
“As manager of the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, where FCL is based, we deplore the involvement of any Subic-registered company in any unlawful activity, and will unconditionally support the investigation to ferret out the truth about the instant case,” SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said in a news statement.
She said that, according to SBMA records, FCL is engaged in construction, land development, subcontracting, transshipment of agricultural and marine products, quarrying and mining.
“However, we are not aware of said company’s operations that involve the mass recruitment of workers, as well as transportation of the same to any destination, foreign or domestic,” Eisma said.
“Should we find any culpable violation by FCL of its contract with the SBMA, we shall initiate measures as warranted,” the SBMA chief also said.