CEBU CITY, Philippines - As more former overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) prepare to press charges against the Be Glad Worldwide Placement Agency, the recruitment firm said Monday it would not rule out plans to file charges against these employees.Three former OFWs who were sent by Be Glad Worldwide went to Mandaue City Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna on Monday to seek assistance. They were referred to Fortuna by relatives of the 23 OFWs who returned to Cebu last week. And in a press conference on Monday, Be Glad Worldwide manager Josefina Casiana and the agency’s lawyer Antonio Cabreros reiterated that the 23 OFWs were jailed in Trinidad and Tobago after being caught by immigration authorities for carrying fake documents. “Out of around a hundred plus workers sent in Trinidad and Tobago, only 23 were caught for possessing false documents,” Cabreros said. He explained that the 23 workers transferred from one firm in Tobago to Envirotech Construction Ltd. in Trinidad, which gave them false work permits. He said the application for work permits of the 23 OFWs remained valid so long as they stayed with the same employer. Meanwhile, former OFW Elmer Taghap, who hails from Butuan City, said he was forced to ask his family to raise P200,000 for the return trip home after he found out that he only had a one month working permit last September 2007. He alleged that a certain representative from the recruitment agency forced him to sign papers that would make it appear he left the island voluntarily because he did not like his work. “If dili mo-sign gusto ba daw ko mulangoy pabalik sa Pilipinas or gusto ba daw nga bankay na nga mouli sa Pilipinas (If I didn't sign she asked me if I wanted to swim back to the Philippines or come home in a coffin),” Taghap quoted the Be Glad representative as saying. Taghap said he was not refunded by the agency. He worked for the Rex Turtle Hotel in Tobago for a month. He said he went back home on October 2007 and sought help from Senate President Manny Villar and other government agencies for his plight. Taghap said Villar issued him a copy of the letter the senator sent to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) asking them to help resolve his problem. Another complainant, Jennifer Tan of Cebu City, said the agency failed to refund the $600 and P20,000 she paid to them as processing and placement fees respectively after she backed out. She said she found out beforehand that she would only receive P20,000, not the P50,000 she was promised by the hotel in Trinidad. She said her lawyer sent a letter demanding refunds from the agency and added that they plan to file charges against them. Tan said the agency received her payment in January last year, but they only became a licensed placement agency several months later. Fortuna called on the agency to settle its obligations with the OFWs. Casiana and Cabreros said the agency would not file charges against the 23 OFWs for now since they sympathized with their plight. But Caisana said they would not close the possibility of filing charges against the OFWs since the incident damaged the agency's reputation. Cabreros said the Ministry of the National Security in Tobago and the Bureau of Immigration in Trinidad and Tobago are investigating the case to determine who issued the fraudulent stamps in the passports of the OFWs. “We will wait for the result of the investigation in Tobago,” Casiana said. Cabreros also said they welcome any investigation and added that they did not support Taghap when his employer informed them that he did not work there. “Instead he became a guest in the hotel, eating in the hotel, nakakahiya (it's embarrassing),” Cabreros said. Caisana said Taghap's co-workers continued working in the hotel with no complaints. | 
