An official of a recruitment agency in the Philippines responded to the allegations made by 24 Filipino workers in Mississippi that they are engaged in human trafficking.

Elizabeth Malabanan, president and owner of Z-Drive, Inc. vehemently denied the accusations.

“Z-Drive is a corporation duly organized and existing in accordance with the laws of the Philippines and has been licensed by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and Department of Labor and Employment to engage in the business of manpower recruitment and placement,” said Malabanan in an e-mail.

Malabanan said they renewed their license last June 16, 2010. The license is valid until June 16, 2014.  

“Z-Drive has maintained an outstanding, untarnished and respectable reputation in the industry,” Malabanan stressed.

In an exclusive interview with Balitang America in early August, a Filipino worker who asked not to be identified and her lawyer, Elaine Carr, said they have asked the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to help prosecute Z-Drive, the recruitment agency that brought them to the US.

Carr said the DHS is now building a case of human trafficking against Z-Drive, which is based in Santa Rosa, Laguna.

The unnamed worker told Balitang America that Z-Drive misled them about the type of work they would do in the US, refused to release their visas and passports until they paid about $5,000 (not $50,000 as earlier report) in fees, and assigned them to jobs that paid below the state minimum wage.

Malabanan said that sometime in December 2008, she met Julius Bana, who the workers identified as one of the recruiters.

Malabanan said that Bana introduced her to Mike Lombardi, owner and operator of USOpportunities, who said that he could provide jobs to Filipino workers.

While Z-Drive became the local agency of USOpportunities, Malabanan said that it was Bana who communicated directly with Lombardi.  

“The entire operations in the US was ran exclusively by Mr. Bana and Mr. Lombardi, who merely paid us a meager sum of $300 for the use of our license with which we are not yet even paid until now,” said Malabanan.

Nevertheless, Malabanan said her company made sure all placements and deployments made to the US were in accordance with the rules and regulations of the POEA.

Malabanan said that the first few transactions were in strict compliance with labor laws.

But sometime last February, she said they received complaints from some of the candidates that they were not given jobs, as promised in their contract.

“We immediately brought the matter to Mr. Bana who then promised to call Mr. Lombardi. We immediately took steps to ensure the safety and welfare of the applicant,” she said.

Malabanan added that they immediately terminated their agreement with Bana and Lombardi.  

“In fact, I wrote a letter to the POEA, requesting for a permanent ban on Mr. Lombardi and USOpportunities to recruit Filipino workers,” she added.

Malabanan said that her company also filed a criminal complaint against Bana before the Office of the City Prosecutor of Makati.

“We take exception to your claim that we withhold our applicants’ visas and passports for the simple reason that it is USOpportunities and Mr. Bana who are responsible for issuing the applicants with the petition paper for the visas. Also, we cannot withhold the release of visas because we would be penalized by our principal for the delay in deploying our applicants,” she explained.

Malabanan maintained that Z-Drive will cooperate and extend whatever help they can to resolve the issue. Balitang America