Filipinos look back on harrowing years
DON CRUZ HOUSTON
In the worst of times, they turned to the Bible and to
each other. Finally, salvation came as the Filipino
community rallied around them.
“I needed strength and constant encouragement to
sustain me in our desperate situation, so I read the
Bible and the Purpose-Driven Life every day,” said
Chemelyn Estacio.
Estacio was one of 200 teachers recruited by a
Filipino employment agency to work in El Paso,
Texas only to find the jobs promised them did not
exist.
Their hopes dashed, they also found the
US$10,000 they each paid the agency gone in a
gaggle of empty words.
“We were down to the proverbial last dollar,” Estacio
said of her own group of eight, who shared a rented
small apartment.
What little they had left had become such a critical
issue that spending it had to be decided by the
group as a whole.
“Once we contributed 50 cents each for a burger
dinner and ended up stricken with guilt at having
spent so much on such a luxury item,” she said.
Their situation taught them the value of resilience
and solidarity that sustained them through the
harrowing ordeal.
That was three years ago.
Now gainfully employed and making their mark in
the American school system, the group looks back
on the experience with a sense of gratitude for the
small Filipino community that helped keep their
hopes alive.
“We can’t thank them enough for the moral support
and the little favors here and there,” recalled
Estacio, who teaches handicapped children. “We
would never have survived without them.”
Not only have they found jobs, they have also been
able to bring the recruiters to justice.
Acting on their complaints, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation stepped in and found that the recruiter,
Omni Consortium Inc, had been engaged in illegal
recruitment.
Chief executive Florita Tolentino, president Noel
Tolentino and senior officers Angelica Tolentino,
Cesar Librodo and Owen Cruz have been charged
before the El Paso district court with 200 counts of
conspiracy to commit alien smuggling and visa
fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering.
The charges cover the company’s activities since
2002.
Charged with conspiracy to commit interstate
transportation in aid of racketeering, were two
former West Texas public school administrators
and an elementary school principal, for sponsoring
work visas of dozens of the teachers in exchange for
free trips to Asia.
“It’s a cautionary tale that all of us should learn
from,” said a Filipino consulate official in Houston.
“It pays to have the paperwork examined by the
relevant authorities rather than taking it at its face
value,” he said.
“We [the Philippine government] have a screening
process designed to protect applicants from illegal
recruiters. It’s there for everyone to use.”
DON CRUZ HOUSTON
In the worst of times, they turned to the Bible and to
each other. Finally, salvation came as the Filipino
community rallied around them.
“I needed strength and constant encouragement to
sustain me in our desperate situation, so I read the
Bible and the Purpose-Driven Life every day,” said
Chemelyn Estacio.
Estacio was one of 200 teachers recruited by a
Filipino employment agency to work in El Paso,
Texas only to find the jobs promised them did not
exist.
Their hopes dashed, they also found the
US$10,000 they each paid the agency gone in a
gaggle of empty words.
“We were down to the proverbial last dollar,” Estacio
said of her own group of eight, who shared a rented
small apartment.
What little they had left had become such a critical
issue that spending it had to be decided by the
group as a whole.
“Once we contributed 50 cents each for a burger
dinner and ended up stricken with guilt at having
spent so much on such a luxury item,” she said.
Their situation taught them the value of resilience
and solidarity that sustained them through the
harrowing ordeal.
That was three years ago.
Now gainfully employed and making their mark in
the American school system, the group looks back
on the experience with a sense of gratitude for the
small Filipino community that helped keep their
hopes alive.
“We can’t thank them enough for the moral support
and the little favors here and there,” recalled
Estacio, who teaches handicapped children. “We
would never have survived without them.”
Not only have they found jobs, they have also been
able to bring the recruiters to justice.
Acting on their complaints, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation stepped in and found that the recruiter,
Omni Consortium Inc, had been engaged in illegal
recruitment.
Chief executive Florita Tolentino, president Noel
Tolentino and senior officers Angelica Tolentino,
Cesar Librodo and Owen Cruz have been charged
before the El Paso district court with 200 counts of
conspiracy to commit alien smuggling and visa
fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering.
The charges cover the company’s activities since
2002.
Charged with conspiracy to commit interstate
transportation in aid of racketeering, were two
former West Texas public school administrators
and an elementary school principal, for sponsoring
work visas of dozens of the teachers in exchange for
free trips to Asia.
“It’s a cautionary tale that all of us should learn
from,” said a Filipino consulate official in Houston.
“It pays to have the paperwork examined by the
relevant authorities rather than taking it at its face
value,” he said.
“We [the Philippine government] have a screening
process designed to protect applicants from illegal
recruiters. It’s there for everyone to use.”
Once we
contributed 50
cents each for a
burger dinner and
ended up stricken
with guilt at having
spent so much on
such a luxury item
contributed 50
cents each for a
burger dinner and
ended up stricken
with guilt at having
spent so much on
such a luxury item
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Teachers turn to each other in Texas ordeal
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