100 workers at fake-cigarettes factory claim they were falsely recruited

The 100 workers who were arrested by the PNP Criminal Investigation And  Detection Group at a factory that allegedly manufactured fake cigarettes said that they were victims who were initially recruited for a different job.

According to a 24 Oras report by Emil Sumangil on Friday, the workers and the foreign owner of the factory were arrested during a raid on November 28,  2023.

The workers claimed that they were originally recruited to work at a construction site, but were forced into a different job upon arriving at the Pangasinan factory.

“Ang sabi po  nung recruiter sa kanya ay sa pabrika po ng plastik. At saka wala pong  problema dun sa pinasukan nila kasi libre po lahat — pagkain, P500 per  day,” said a worker.

(The recruiter told him that it was a  plastics factory and everything was taken care of because everything was  free—food and P500 per day.)

“Construction ang sinabi sa akin. Pag napunta na kami dito sa Pangasinan, ni-padlock na kami,” added another.

(I was told it was a construction job. When we got here to Pangasinan, we were locked in.)

The owner of the factory promised that they would shoulder the bail money, which amounted to more than P100,000 per worker. — Jiselle Anne Casucian/DVM, GMA Integrated News