Leon H. Lizama, who acted as their “employer,” was ordered to pay $12,000 and was permanently barred from employing foreign workers.
Hearing Officer Jerry Cody, in his order dated April 13, said Lizama’s case has been referred to the Attorney General’s Office for possible criminal investigation.
All workers who participated in the sponsorship scheme, except the five who cooperated with Labor, were ordered to depart from CNMI once their repatriation tickets are delivered to the department.
Their requests for transfer have been denied and they were asked to report within seven days upon receipt of the order to Labor’s Enforcement Section to make arrangement for their repatriation, Cody said.
He said Labor Director Barry Hirshbein granted the transfer relief of the five cooperating witnesses under the “whistleblower” regulation.
These workers are Aida E. Baul, Lourdes F. Cruz, Teresita J. Urian, Reynold P. Tansporto and Rebecca E. Urbano.
They were ordered to register with Labor’s Division of Employment Services and Training.
Their assistance in the investigation, Cody said, was instrumental in establishing the truth with respect to the sponsorship scheme.
In 2007, Lizama told Labor that he owned and operated a commercial farm and a health supply service.
In that same year when Lizama filed 23 transfer applications while he declined to renew six of his seven employees, Labor started conducting an investigation.
Cody said Labor denied 24 of Lizama’s applications, of which 23 denial appeals were filed.
During the investigation, Lizama denied he had submitted any false or fraudulent permit application.
He also denied engaging in sponsorship and receiving money from any foreign worker in connection with his filing of work permit applications.
Cody said Lizama repeated his denial through the first hearing session in June 2008 but before the second hearing scheduled on July 7, 2008, Lizama changed his story and admitted that he indeed made sponsorship agreements.
Lizama confirmed that he filed employment applications offering non-existing jobs to nonresident workers in exchange for a payment of $50 per month for three months.
In this arrangement, each worker would be responsible for paying his or her own labor processing fees, including bonding and other payments.
Cody said Lizama’s testimony was also confirmed by his three workers — Nancy Aquino, Aida Baul and Edwina D. Bonifacio.
“Each worker had known that Lizama did not have actual employment to offer. Each worker had paid her own application fees and labor processing fees. No actual work had ever been offered. For the most part, the applicants did not dispute [Labor’s] contention on cross-examination that both employer and workers had been involved in submitting applications that were essentially sponsorships,” Cody said.
He said each worker understood that the permit applications were filed simply as a means to retain work status for immigration purposes and to enable them to stay longer in the commonwealth.
“Some of the workers were looking for other jobs; other workers were caring for small children and did not really want fulltime employment. None of the workers came forward and complained that they were no actual work was offered by Lizama,” Cody said.
While there were workers who confirmed Lizama’s sponsorship scheme, others, like Ricardo Dagwuiwag, Merlyn C. Dosdos, Antonio Esquerra, Regie T. Rivera and Lourdes Cruz, disputed the allegations of sponsorship.
But, Cody said, none of them were able to “present credible facts to overcome the presumption of sponsorship.”
They admitted, however, to have paid their own processing fees, and waited for many months or as much as two years without pressing Lizama or Labor for their permits.
