The Department of Migrant Workers on Tuesday shut down an illegal recruitment agency in Manila that had been offering overseas jobs to Filipinos.
The closure was carried out by the DMW together with the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group at the office of Maxilum Recruitment Agency in Binondo, Manila.
“We are here to shut down an agency that is illegally recruiting to Japan, New Zealand, and Australia. It does not have a DMW license and they are scamming applicants,” DMW Migrant Workers Protection Bureau Director III Eric Dollete told reporters.
According to Dollete, the agency was an unlicensed firm that recruited Filipinos online for jobs in Japan, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada.
The agency was allegedly owned by Celesti Maxilum and her Russian fiancé, who introduced himself as Alex Curry. Authorities believe Curry may be using a fake identity.
Maxilum, Curry, and two armed bodyguards were arrested in Pasay on March 25 during an entrapment operation.
Dollete said the DMW has received around 40 complaints against the agency. Two of the complainants were overseas Filipino workers in Kuwait who said they discovered the recruitment scheme through the mobile app TikTok.
One of them, 52-year-old Mercy Limbo from Taguig, had been working in Kuwait for only 10 months when she was offered a factory worker job in New Zealand with a promised salary of P260,000 a month for three years.
Limbo paid a P65,000 placement fee and was told she would leave for New Zealand within two to six months. However, eight months later, her supposed employment had still not been processed.
While waiting, Limbo said she was hired by the recruiters to work in their Pasay office from Dec. 27, 2025 to Feb. 6, 2026 without pay.
Another complainant, 31-year-old Neresa Abendaño from Mandaluyong, had been working in Kuwait for more than three years when she also came across the agency’s TikTok posts.
Abendaño was promised the same New Zealand job offer but was only able to pay P20,000 in placement fees. When she was later asked to work at the agency’s office, the recruiters stopped communicating with her, prompting her to report the operation to authorities.
