Short answer. Yes. Article 38 of the Labor Code gives the Secretary of Labor and Employment, or an authorized representative, power to arrest and detain an unlicensed recruiter on either of two separate grounds — danger to national security and public order, or the risk of further exploiting job-seekers — and the two are joined by 'or,' so exploitation alone is enough.
What the law says
The Secretary of Labor and Employment or his duly authorized representatives shall have the power to cause the arrest and detention of such non-licensee or non-holder of authority if after investigation it is determined that his activities constitute a danger to national security and public order or will lead to further exploitation of job-seekers
Labor Code, Article 38 — Illegal Recruitment Defined. Read the full provision →
Two separate grounds, joined by 'or'
Article 38 gives the Secretary of Labor and Employment, or duly authorized representatives, the power to cause the arrest and detention of a non-licensee or non-holder of authority if after investigation it is determined that his activities constitute a danger to national security and public order or will lead to further exploitation of job-seekers. The clause lists two grounds connected by or, not and. Either one, standing alone, is enough to support the exercise of this power — a recruiter does not have to threaten national security if the investigation shows the activity will keep exploiting job-seekers.
The forward-looking exploitation ground
The exploitation ground is written in future terms: activities that will lead to further exploitation of job-seekers. That framing is about stopping continuing or escalating harm, not just punishing what already happened; it targets an unlicensed recruiter whose ongoing conduct is expected to keep victimizing people looking for work, a real and recurring pattern in illegal recruitment schemes. Someone found running an unlicensed recruitment operation that keeps taking money from new applicants fits this ground even if nothing about the case touches national security or public order at all.
An investigation and determination come first
The power is conditioned on process: it applies after investigation, once it is determined that the activities meet one of the two grounds. It is not framed as a power to arrest on mere suspicion or a bare complaint; an investigation has to establish the basis for it. The same article separately empowers the Secretary to order the search of the recruiter's premises, seizure of documents and paraphernalia used in the illegal recruitment, and closure of the establishment, related but distinct powers exercised on the same set of facts.
What this provision does not cover
Article 38 grants this arrest power; it does not itself lay out the investigation's procedure, the evidence needed to reach a determination, or how a duly authorized representative of the Secretary is designated. The same Labor Code separately makes illegal recruitment a criminal offense, treated as economic sabotage when committed by a syndicate or on a large scale — the arrest power discussed here operates alongside that criminal track, not as a substitute for it.
Related provisions
- Labor Code, Article 38 — Illegal Recruitment Defined
- Labor Code, Article 34 — Prohibited Recruitment Practices