The House of Representatives on Wednesday authorized on second studying a invoice that may ease the prosecution of human traffickers by redefining an unlawful recruitment syndicate as a gaggle of two or extra individuals.
Via a voice vote, the House authorized House Bill 7718, which amends the prevailing which means of an unlawful recruitment syndicate as a gaggle of three or extra individuals.
“This is to curb further the crime of illegal recruitment committed by a syndicate by reducing the number of perpetrators from three or more to two or more persons if committed by non-licensees or non-holders of authorities,” the committee report on the measure learn.
“This will make it easier for government prosecutors to file and prosecute the crime of illegal recruitment committed by a syndicate in the case of non-licensees or non-holders of authorities, as two or more persons conspiring or confederating with one another would be sufficient,” the committee added.
House abroad staff affairs panel chairman Ron Salo of Kabataan party-list welcomed the measure’s passage, saying such is a step nearer to bettering the safeguards that the federal government offers the abroad Filipino staff.
“With the current definition of the crime, non-licensees or non-holders of authority find a way to skirt the harsher penalties provided by the crime of illegal recruitment by syndicate,” Salo mentioned in a separate assertion.
“I thank representatives Wendel and Jocelyn Tulfo [of ACT-CIS party-list] and Gus Tambunting of Parañaque, and my colleagues on the House of Representatives, for recognizing the urgency and necessity of amending the present legislation. Our job shouldn’t be completed. We urge our colleagues within the Senate to do the identical,” Salo said.
“The scenario of our OFWs is already tough as it’s. We should be certain that they’re outfitted with all of the safety that our legal guidelines can supply and make it simpler for them,” Salo added.
One of the high-profile victims of human trafficking syndicate within the Philippines is OFW Mary Jane Veloso, who has been meted a demise sentence by an Indonesian courtroom for being caught with 2.6 kilos of heroin in Yogyakarta in 2010.
Veloso, who has maintained innocence, mentioned the unlawful medication had been sewn within the seams of a suitcase which was a present to her by her recruiters within the Philippines.
Department of Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo has requested Indonesia’s president Joko Widodo to grant Veloso govt clemency.
President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., who’s now in Indonesia for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit, has mentioned that he’ll proceed to ask Indonesian authorities to avoid wasting Mary Jane’s life by way of pardon or commutation of sentence.
Veloso was presupposed to be executed by a firing squad in April 2015, however final minute enchantment from then-President Benigno Aquino III and the arrest of Veloso’s recruiters within the Philippines who allegedly planted medication in her suitcase prompted Jokowi to spare her life within the eleventh hour. — BM, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
