Short answer. Yes. Article 38 empowers the Secretary of Labor and Employment to order the search of the office or premises, the seizure of documents and implements used in illegal recruitment, and the closure of entities recruiting workers for overseas employment without a licence or authority.
What the law says
The Secretary shall order the search of the office or premises and seizure of documents, paraphernalia, properties and other implements used in illegal recruitment activities and the closure of companies, establishments and entities found to be engaged in the recruitment of workers for overseas employment, without having been licensed or authorized to do so.
Labor Code, Article 38 — Illegal Recruitment Defined. Read the full provision →
Closure is aimed at the unlicensed
Read who the sentence is about: entities found to be engaged in the recruitment of workers for overseas employment, without having been licensed or authorized to do so. This is not the ordinary remedy against a licensed agency that has misbehaved — a licensee has a licence and a bond that can be moved against, and the machinery for that is different. Closure and seizure are the answer to an operation that was never inside the system at all, and that would otherwise simply move address once complaints began.
Why the records are the point
The clause reaches documents, paraphernalia, properties and other implements used in illegal recruitment activities, and the documents are what matter to the people who were recruited. Application forms, collection lists, job orders, contracts and receipt books are the material that shows how many applicants there were and how much was taken — the facts that decide whether the case is large scale, and how much each person lost. Left in the office, those records do not survive the first sign of a complaint.
What this means for the money you paid
Closing an office does not by itself return anything to you, and it is worth being clear about that at the outset. The power is preventive: it stops the recruitment and preserves the evidence. Recovering what you paid is a separate matter that rests on proving you paid it, which is why closure and your own documentation are not alternatives. An office shut down without a claim on record beside it can leave the people who funded it with nothing to point to afterwards.
Act while the office still exists
The practical lesson is timing. Everything in this clause depends on there being premises and records to reach, and unlicensed operations relocate quickly once applicants start asking questions. Record the address, the signage, the names used and the hours it keeps while you can still see them, and keep your own copies of every document you were given or asked to sign. Photographs of the office and the people are ordinary evidence and cost nothing to take.