118 persons gypped by illegal recruiter

Posted on September 13, 1999 - Filed Under News |

TAYUG—The dream of 118 persons, men and women, to land jobs in either Greece or Holland, suddenly collapsed like a house of cards when the man who recruited them turned out to be a mere "fake". The aggrieved people nearly rioted Tuesday in front of the police station here where the illegal recruiter, Simon Bernabe, 68, a retired government emplopye from Rizal, Nueva Ecija, was being held for questioning. They wanted Bernabe and his suspected cohorts, Brownie and Rose Verdadero, to give them back their money of P3,000 each supposedly for medical examination and certification that they had worked for sometime with San Miguel Corporation. Chief Inspector Ricardo Revita, chief of police, said the victims were farmers, teachers and unemployed citizens from Tayug, San Nicolas, Natividad and San Quintin who were reportedly sweet-talked by Bernabe.