Prohibition Against Granting New Applications for Licenses to Operate Agencies Engaged in Overseas Employment

January 20, 1982

LETTER OF INSTRUCTIONS NO. 1190

TO : The Minister of Labor and Employment

WHEREAS, under Section 1 of Presidential Decree No. 1412 promulgated June 9, 1978, Article 25 of the Labor Code which among other things provided for the phaseout of all private fee charging recruitment agencies by October 31, 1978, was amended so as to allow the continued participation of the private employment sector in the recruitment and placement of workers, locally and overseas, under such guidelines, rules and regulations as may be issued by the Secretary of Labor, now Minister of Labor and Employment;

WHEREAS, by operation of this amendment and its implementing rules and regulations, and in spite of the stiff qualification requirements imposed by the Ministry of Labor and Employment, there are now more than 300 recruitment agencies which were able to qualify for licensing;

WHEREAS, the proliferation of recruitment agencies has resulted in cut-throat competition for foreign employers and employees, a situation which has seriously affected the integrity and viability of the overseas employment industry and has rendered more difficult the regulation and supervision of private sector participation, including the protection of workers from prohibited and exploitative practices at the hands of recruiters;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, do hereby direct that effective January 1, 1982, no new applications for licenses to operate private employment agencies engaged in the recruitment and placement of Filipino workers for overseas employment shall be granted except as I may otherwise direct.

DONE in the City of Manila, this 20th day of January, in the year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Two. cdt