Question & AnswerQ&A (PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 1693)
The primary purpose of Presidential Decree No. 1693 is to further amend Article 38 of the Labor Code to classify illegal recruitment as a crime of economic sabotage and to impose corresponding penalties for such acts.
Illegal recruitment encompasses recruitment activities undertaken by non-licensees or those without authority, demanding money, goods, or services beyond legal limits for employment, and recruitment, placement, or deployment of workers under false pretenses or false documentation.
Illegal recruitment is considered a crime of economic sabotage and shall be penalized accordingly in line with existing laws.
The Minister of Labor or his duly authorized representative has the power to recommend the arrest and detention of any person engaged in illegal recruitment.
The Secretariat on Illegal Recruitment serves as the focal point for all inter-agency efforts against illegal recruitment and related activities.
Initially, it is manned and operated through available personnel and funding in the Ministry of Labor; thereafter, its appropriation becomes part of the regular appropriation act.
Because illegal recruitment exploits Filipino workers, saps the economy, undermines national security, and involves the syndication and trafficking of human beings, which is detrimental to the country's economic and social stability.
(1) Recruitment by non-licensees or without authority; (2) Exaction of money, goods, or services in excess of what is authorized; (3) Recruitment involving false pretenses or documentation.
This decree took effect immediately upon its promulgation on May 1, 1980.
The decree was signed by President Ferdinand E. Marcos and countersigned by Presidential Assistant Joaquin T. Venus, Jr.