Short answer. No, you do not have to be the victim. Article 38 says the Department of Labor and Employment or any law enforcement officer may initiate complaints under it. The wrong is treated as a public one, so a case does not depend on a particular worker being willing to come forward.
What the law says
The Department of Labor and Employment or any law enforcement officer may initiate complaints under this Article.
Labor Code, Article 38 — Illegal Recruitment Defined. Read the full provision →
What the law says
Any recruitment activities, including the prohibited practices enumerated under Article 34 of this Code, to be undertaken by non-licensees or non-holders of authority, shall be deemed illegal
Labor Code, Article 38 — Illegal Recruitment Defined. Read the full provision →
The sentence that answers the question
It is stated directly in the article: The Department of Labor and Employment or any law enforcement officer may initiate complaints under this Article. That wording matters in a practical way. Illegal recruitment cases often stall because the people who paid are abroad, are afraid of losing a placement they still hope for, or do not want their families to know what they handed over. The provision means the case does not have to wait for them. It also means a complainant who withdraws does not automatically take the matter with him.
What the article treats as illegal
The definition is about who did the recruiting, not about whether anyone was cheated: Any recruitment activities, including the prohibited practices enumerated under Article 34 of this Code, to be undertaken by non-licensees or non-holders of authority, shall be deemed illegal. So the central fact in most of these cases is a documentary one — whether the person or company held a licence or an authority when the acts were done. A worker who was never actually deployed, and even one who lost no money, can still be describing recruitment activity by somebody who held neither.
Syndicate and large scale
The article separates out two graver forms and calls them economic sabotage. It is committed by a syndicate where carried out by a group of three or more persons conspiring or confederating with one another, and in large scale where committed against three or more persons individually or as a group. This is why the number of people approached is one of the first things anyone investigating will want established, and why complainants who each think their own loss is too small to matter often turn out to be part of the same, much larger, case.
What a usable complaint rests on
Whoever brings it, the material is the same: the identity and business name of the person who recruited, the place they operated from, what was promised and for which country, what was paid and by what route, and the names of everyone else who was approached. Screenshots, receipts, transfer slips and the papers surrendered for processing carry more weight than a narrative. If you are not the victim but hold this material, it is still worth putting in front of a lawyer or an officer — under this article your standing is not the obstacle.