Manila: The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has clarified that that it is not engaged in lending money to overseas Filipino workers.
In a statement, POEA Administrator Carlos Cao Jr. said that the agency has no lending facility for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
He said that the POEA was had been compelled to issue this clarification amid reports after a that a suspect had been nabbed or collecting fees from applicants for a cash loan from the POEA.
Cao said a couple was approached by an alleged fixer and offered to arrange their loan.
The couple, from came all the way from southern Philppines Zamboanga City, became suspicious and reported the incident to POEA security officers after the suspect failed to give them the amount they were borrowing.
The couple identieid the suspect as Ronnie F. Soner a.k.a. Ronnie Montillano. They had identified him from a surveillance video recorded at the second floor of the POEA building in the city.
Soner allegedly collected from the couple the amount of Php 8,750 (Dhs 753) as processing fee for a Php 30,000 (Dhs 2,584) loan.
The victims narrated to the POEA security officers that they were actually applying for a loan at the main office of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in Pasay City on July 12, 2011 when Soner approached and befriended them.
They alleged that Soner convinced them they can get a loan faster from the POEA than from OWWA. Their conversation was recorded by a surveillance camera.
On July 29, 2011, the joint POEA-OWWA security services arrested the suspect who was eyeing probable victims at the OWWA main office in Mandaluyong City.
Earlier, the government had announced that it is making available loans for overseas Filipino workers to encourage them to engage in business and further contribute to the economic progress in the country while remaining in the Philippines.
The financial assistance are being made available by the OWWA and not the POEA.
