Pinoys destroy each other in immigration business?

“Destroy the seed of evil, or it will grow up to your ruin.”
--Aesop

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Was Carl Benito a victim of the dreaded Pinoy crab mentality?
Immigration consultancy business must now be thriving that those in the industry are reportedly the ones destroying each other by tipping off authorities with false allegations.
Benito was only one of the latest foreign-based Filipino immigration consultants who fell in disgrace after being accused of committing fraudulent deals involving workers and immigrants intending to live permanently in Canada, an accusation not yet proven with absolute truth in a competent court.
In other parts of Canada and in the United States, a similar misfortune befell other Filipinos engaged in the business of immigration consultancy.
If they don’t “pirate” applicants, they reportedly accuse one another of charging exorbitant fees and operating without license and authority in order to discourage prospective clients.
One of them is a Filipino-Canadian immigration consultant in British Columbia in Canada who is now being investigated by the consulate and immigration authorities after he suspected that a fellow Filipino-Canadian immigration consultant “destroyed my reputation.”

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He requested strict anonymity pending the results of an “important meeting this week” where he made an appeal to be heard on the controversy he was implicated.
“It’s a plain and simple crab mentality,” sobbed the embattled Fil-Can immigration consultant. “Once your business is doing good somebody (in the same industry) will feel bad about it and invent intrigues to destroy you,” he added.
The Fil-Can immigration consultant swore his business is legal and his agency is duly-licensed.
“In fact, I have helped a lot of clients who are now permanent residents in Canada,” he disclosed.
Meanwhile, Benito is a former Alberta Progressive Conservative Member of the Legislative Assembly who’s home and office were raided on August 16, 2018 by Canada’s immigration authorities on suspicion of immigration fraud schemes.
Seized by the Canada Border Services Agency during the raid were more than $250,000 in cash, mostly in bundles of $100 bills.

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Benito has been accused of counseling dozens of Filipino immigrants on how to fraudulently extend their stay in Alberta through bogus applications for study and devious work-extension permits.
As an immigration counselor, Benito was also accused of illegally employing at least one and possibly several fellow Filipino immigrants since Sept. 16, 2016.
Border Services officials had been reportedly tipped off Benito has been conducting fraudulent immigration schemes since Nov. 11, 2015.
However, it was reported that no charges have been filed in court yet against Benito and none of the allegations in the documents have been proven in court.
Some of his supporters suspect “his jealous business rivals could have fed authorities with half-truths and false information in a bid to sabotage his good business.”
Benito has not made any official statement about the raid as of this writing.

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Even if they suspect that some immigration consultancy firms operate in dubious manners, many desperate Filipinos continue to play deaf and blind thinking they can still nevertheless enter in Canada, US, Australia, and New Zealand and other highly developed western countries to escape poverty in the Philippines.
This is being exploited by some unscrupulous “immigration consultants” who take advantage of the clients’ “bahala na” attitude.
And this explains why “immigration consultancy” agencies have mushroomed in the Philippines these past years.
There are still many legal and prestigious immigration consultancy agencies that are actually helping facilitate and fast track the papers of their clients and have never been tainted with shady transactions.

Prophetic interview on ‘ghost’ consultants

“The money's the same, whether you earn it or scam it.” 

--Bobby Heenan

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- My exclusive interview with Certified Canadian Immigration Consultant Shereen Santos Dulay of the Kabayan Immigration and Network Services Ltd sometime in July 2010 in Surrey, Canada, proved to be prophetic.
When the Consulate General of the Republic of the Philippines in Vancouver issued an “advisory on immigration and visa-related scams” in July 2018, some of the warnings and violations committed by unscrupulous “immigration consultants” raised by Dulay eight years ago were still apparently relevant and continued to be committed until now.
The Consulate has informed the Filipinos that “Interpol has issued an advisory about scams involving entities that pose as immigration law firms, visa travel companies, organizations or government agencies that target applicants for visas and residents/work permits, covering a wide range of categories such as study, scholarship, high-paying jobs and permanent residency.”
The Consulate added: “The scammers offer professional support for their would-be victims to immigrate to Canada, using social engineering methods as such telephone calls, sending emails and letters that include false documents and applications forms, or routing them to fake or look-alike websites that are under the control of scammers.”
“Victims are pushed to pay fees (such as for administrative processes, online examinations, etc.) and to send money through a specific private money transfer company in advance,” the Consulate further warned.

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As Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants (CSIC) members, Dulay told this writer in 2010 they were mandated to report the existence of “ghost” immigration consultants who take advantage of the ignorance of some applicants.
“The mandate of CSIC is to really protect the public, not us,” she stressed. “As CSIC members we are bound to abide by its rules and regulations.”
Dulay warned that “because of lack of proper knowledge, some applicants go to ‘ghost’ consultants who don’t have liabilities.”
She lamented that when some applicants shied away from legitimate consultants to avoid paying lawful fees, “they were enticed and fooled by ‘ghost’ consultants who charged lower fees.”
Dulay lauded the CSIC for its efforts to neutralize unscrupulous consultants.
“CSIS has been placing advertisements in newspapers to warn the public,” she pointed out.
Dulay said CSIS prohibits immigration consultants from giving guarantee of success and faster processing time to applicants “because it is implying that you have special powers or connections with the CSIC.”
“That’s what the ghost consultants are doing,” she exclaimed.

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Dulay also warned that foreign low skilled workers intending to work in Canada should not pay recruitment fees to their employers because it is illegal under the law.
The law provides that employers should be the ones to shoulder all the recruitment costs of foreign workers “but there are some applicants who still don’t know this,” Dulay stressed.
Dulay, licensed member of the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants (CSIC), invoked the guidelines for hiring of foreign workers set by the Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, saying employers can apply for a Labour Market Opinion (LMO) under the Pilot Project for Occupation Requiring Lower Levels of Formal Training, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC)/Service Canada and Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC).
Hiring employers are expected to abide the following, according to Dulay:
-Meet at least the minimum recruitment efforts required for NOC C and D occupations;
-Consult with the local union to determine if the position is covered under a collective agreement;
-Cover all recruitment costs related to the hiring of the foreign worker; and
-Sign an employment contract outlining wages, duties, and conditions related to the transportation, accommodation, and health and occupational safety of the foreign worker.

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Employers will also pay the transportation costs for the worker to travel from his/her country of permanent residence to the location of work in Canada and for the return to the country of permanent residence and offer wages that are equal or higher than the prevailing wage rate paid to Canadians in the same occupation and region.
The guidelines states that “In an unionized environment, offer the same wage rate as established under the collective bargaining agreement.
In cases where benefits are offered to Canadians, extend those same benefits to the temporary foreign worker. In order to address unique circumstances, HRSDC/Service Canada maintains the right to set the prevailing wage rate.”
They must also agree to review and adjust (if necessary) the worker’s wages after 12 months of employment to ensure the worker continues to receive the prevailing wage rate of the occupation and region where he/she is employed; help the worker find suitable, affordable accommodation; provide medical coverage until the worker is eligible for provincial health insurance coverage; and register their workers under the appropriate provincial workers compensation/ workplace safety insurance plans.