If druglords are scampering away at the sight of the shadow of Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, illegal recruiters also better hide.
Next to drug dealers, illegal recruiters are next on my list, said Duterte in the Gikan sa Masa Para sa Masa television program on ABS/CBN on Sunday.
While still the city mayor, Duterte has been known for his iron-fist policy against ciriminals particularly drug dealers and pushers.
He has been probed by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) for his alleged link to the so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS) said to have been behind the killing of more than a thousand suspected criminals in the city. Human rights groups say the DDS is state-backed and blamed the local government and police for the extrajudicial killing by the motorcycle-riding gunmen.
My anger for illegal recruiters is as intense as my hatred for drug dealers, Duterte said in the program hosted by lawyer Geraldine Tiu.
But Duterte can only do as much as advise those wanting to go abroad to check their recruiters. He said the local govrnment can help them establish if the recruiters are licensed.
He said the pain is as hard for families who lost members to drugs as to families who lost members after falling to illegal recruiters.
“There are many children who lost their mothers sent abroad by illegal reccruiters who are now missing, ” he said.
Duterte has urged residents in the city and nearby provinces to refrain from “gambling their future” with unlicensed recruiters.
Recently, 71 women were rescued by elements of the Regional Interagency Council Against Trafficking Integrated Action Network (RIACTION) and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) from a house in Juna Subdivision.
The women, most of them Moro from Cotabato, were recruited by an unlicensed agency.
Duterte said the recruiters take their victims out of the country to foreign lands where they are vulnerable to the lack of support system and proper documentation. Women may end up in prostitution den or in an abusive environment. Many of them can no longer be located.
“I cannot imagine the horror brought about by losing someone, many of them women, due to the absence of documents,” he said.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Illegal recruiters next to druglords in Duterte’s ‘most hated list’
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