The Commission on Human Rights in Negros Oriental is bent on filing charges against the persons involved in the alleged unlawful language skills training that had victimized around 500 overseas jobseekers in the province.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, meanwhile, had already aided in the filing of similar complaints last week in Dumaguete City, CHR head Jess Cañete said yesterday.

He added that the filing of complaints, through the POEA, against Grace Jameo, head of the Public Employment Service Office of Lapu-lapu City in Cebu province, and other respondents, is without prejudice to the ongoing investigation of the CHR and the filing of charges against individuals found to be liable for the “scam”.

However, the CHR is not yet ready to act like the POEA as it still has to review the affidavit submitted by Ramon Benedicto, head of the PESO-Negros Oriental, who was also asked to submit an explanation on the bungled Korean language training held in two batches late last year, Cañete said.

He said he had to put on hold his investigation due to the death of his mother but will resume it after she is laid to rest Sunday, he added.

Cañete said that during the visit of POEA Region 7 chief Evelia Dorato to Negros Oriental last week, he was not invited to a gathering at a local hotel where POEA officials met with some of the complainants.

He admitted that he learned later that a complaint was filed Thursday, although he is not privy to the details of the charges.

Cañete said his office will pursue legal action against Jameo and other personalities if the complainants are willing to push through with their complaints.

The complaint against Jameo and others stemmed from a language training held in two batches, where participants had to pay more than P8,000 each, or more than P4 million in all.

The jobseekers claimed they had gone to the PESO-Negros Oriental where Benedicto helped facilitate their applications for employment in Korea.

They also claimed that, during an orientation by Jameo before the training, they were assured of jobs in Korea after the completion of the language skills training, but they discovered later that there were none.

Jameo has denied the allegations against her.*JFP

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