PNP probes recruitment of Filipino mercenaries
The Philippine National Police said on Friday it is looking into renewed claims that human trafficking syndicates have forced civilian Filipino workers to serve in foreign military forces.
The PNP said it is coordinating with foreign counterparts to identify and dismantle the groups behind the scheme, calling for vigilance against a new form of exploitation among overseas job seekers.
“We are looking into the details of this report to come up with the best strategies in protecting our [countrymen] from this modus in coordination with other government agencies and foreign counterparts,” PNP chief Police Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said in a statement.
The Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking earlier flagged the pattern, prompting coordinated action among agencies.
In January, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said that they received reports that a Filipino mercenary was killed in the Russia-Ukraine war, but did not acknowledge the arrest of Filipinos working for either side.
The price to pay
The following month, the DFA warned that Filipinos who accept employment tied to foreign armed forces face “grave danger and serious legal consequences,” including possible loss of citizenship.
Filipino workers are prohibited from deployment in both Russia and Ukraine and local laws also prohibit Filipinos involvement in “crimes against national security and the law of nations,” a loosely defined crime.
Aside from weak local laws prohibiting Filipinos from joining foreign armed conflicts as mercenaries, the Geneva Conventions, the international law on humanitarian treatment in wars, do not cover mercenaries, who may be executed as spies when captured.
