Short answer. No. The Labor Code flatly prohibits travel agencies and sales agencies of airline companies from engaging in the recruitment and placement of workers for overseas employment. The ban applies whether or not they charge for it, so a favour done for free is still prohibited.
What the law says
Travel agencies and sales agencies of airline companies are prohibited from engaging in the business of recruitment and placement of workers for overseas employment whether for profit or not.
Labor Code, Article 26 — Travel Agencies Cannot Recruit. Read the full provision →
A prohibition with no exception written into it
The provision is one sentence and it leaves nothing to argue about: travel agencies and sales agencies of airline companies are prohibited from engaging in the business of recruitment and placement of workers for overseas employment whether for profit or not. There is no licence a travel agency can apply for that lifts this. It is not a rule that the business may recruit provided it also holds an agency licence; it is a rule that this kind of business is kept out of recruitment altogether, which is a different and stricter thing.
Why the law separates ticketing from recruiting
The two businesses sit uncomfortably close. A travel agency already handles the passport, the visa application and the ticket, so it is the natural place for a worker to be told that a job is waiting at the other end and that the fare should be paid now. That is precisely the arrangement the section is aimed at: the recruitment is difficult to distinguish from the travel service, the money paid looks like a fare rather than a placement fee, and the worker has no licensed agency standing behind the job. Keeping the functions in separate hands is the point.
"Whether for profit or not" closes the usual escape
Those four words matter more than they look. The common defence is that no fee was charged for the referral — that the agency merely helped a relative or a walk-in customer find work and only sold them a ticket. The provision answers that in advance. Absence of profit is not a defence, because the mischief is an unlicensed party placing workers overseas, not the money it makes doing so. If you are being placed in a job abroad by the same office selling you the flight, that arrangement is outside the law however it was priced.
What to check before you pay anything
Ask one question early: who is the licensed recruitment entity here, and is the job in its name? A ticket office cannot be the answer. Keep every receipt, and note whether it describes what you paid for as a fare, a processing fee or a placement fee, because that record is what a later complaint is built from. If the only paper you hold is an airline receipt and a promise about a job, stop and take it to a lawyer before you travel, not after.