Recruiters in surrogate trafficking face gravest penalty - DMW

The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) vowed to impose the "gravest penalty" on the recruitment agency involved in the trafficking of Filipino women used as surrogate mothers in Cambodia.

- ALEXIS ROMERO

The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) vowed to impose the "gravest penalty" on the recruitment agency involved in the trafficking of Filipino women used as surrogate mothers in Cambodia.

"We will look closely into that and definitely, if that is true, then we would have to issue the gravest penalty that we can issue against that agency. Because never before had we allowed the deployment of OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) along those lines," Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac told reporters at Malacañang last Thursday.

"We honor the rights of the women who were supposedly apprehended and we are willing to assist them together with the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs). But still, if a Philippine recruitment agency is involved in the process and caused the deployment of the women, then we would have to look into this seriously and mete the appropriate penalty," he added.

Cacdac said the Philippines has no migrant workers office in Cambodia, but his agency is working closely with the DFA to address the matter.

"Rest assured that we will do our best to find our possible interventions in coordination with our Department of Foreign Affairs," the DMW chief said.