About

A directory tied to public registers, not opinions.

Kababayan Connect is the verified service directory for Filipino migrants in Australia. Every credential we display — MARA registration, AHPRA number, TPB number, AUSTRAC ID, ABN, ACNC charity status — is confirmed against the relevant public register before a verified badge appears. We never make subjective trust claims.

The platform is operated by Kangaroofern Media Lab Pty Ltd as part of the Mencari Media Group. We are a media company, not a marketplace — discovery and trust signalling, not bookings or commissions.

Why this platform exists

Filipino migrants in Australia make life-altering decisions — visa applications, healthcare, accountants, mortgage brokers, remittance — often with limited time and incomplete information. Existing directories rely on subjective trust language ("trusted", "recommended") with nothing behind it. That language is not just thin; under Australian Consumer Law it is unsubstantiated and creates real legal exposure when applied to regulated services.

Our approach is different by design. We never call a provider "trusted". We tell you they are MARA-registered (number, register URL, last verification date), or AHPRA-registered, or that their ABN was confirmed against the Australian Business Register on a specific date. Absence of a badge is itself an informative signal — we would rather show no badge than a weak one.

How verification works

Every listing has a verification state. Only listings in the Register Confirmed state display the verified badge — and only the badge appropriate to the register that confirmed them. Listings in Unverified, Pending, Evidence on File, or Disputed states display nothing rather than a downgraded badge.

These are the public registers we confirm against:

MARA

Migration Agents Registration Authority — for migration agents.

AHPRA

Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency — for GPs, dentists, psychologists, allied health.

TPB

Tax Practitioners Board — for tax agents and BAS agents.

AUSTRAC

Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre — for remittance providers.

ASIC

Australian Securities and Investments Commission — for mortgage brokers and credit representatives.

ABR

Australian Business Register — ABN confirmation for businesses, restaurants, and community groups.

ACNC

Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission — for registered community and religious charities.

CRICOS / RTO

Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses — for education providers.

When a verified listing appears, we display the registration number, the register that confirmed it, and the date of last successful verification. The link goes to the public register so you can confirm independently. We re-verify every 90 days.

How we operate

No fake reviews. Ever.

We never write, simulate, or curate reviews to favour a provider. Every review is moderated for spam and abuse only — never for sentiment. Reviewers consent to their name and photo being shown.

No engineered scarcity.

No countdown timers, no "3 people viewing now". The platform helps you decide; it does not manufacture pressure.

No surname-based ethnic profiling.

Listings appear because the business identifies as Filipino-serving — not because of an algorithm guessing from owner names. Filipino surnames overlap heavily with Spanish surnames; the false-positive rate is too high to be acceptable.

No money between users and providers.

We do not take commissions, process bookings, or hold escrow. The platform is for discovery and trust signalling. Transactions happen directly between you and the provider.

Privacy-conservative by default.

We capture personal data only when necessary, retain it only as long as necessary, and never display it publicly without explicit consent. Search history is session-hashed unless you log in and opt in.

Audit-trail moderation.

Reports against listings go through a triage workflow with a recorded reason and a recorded outcome. Editors cannot silently delete a verified listing — the action is logged.

Founder

Why Miko built this

Miko Santos is a Filipino-born journalist with more than two decades in the newsroom before he migrated to New Zealand in 2005 on a Work-to-Residence visa. He started in service crew roles and worked his way up to assistant manager at multiple five-star hotels in New Zealand, building a life there with his wife and two children.

In 2012 he moved his family to Australia. The first two years were in Darwin, working in a high-end hotel, before settling in Adelaide, South Australia. Alongside that career he became a serial entrepreneur — founding Podwires.com (a marketplace for podcast producers), the news site Mencari News at readmencari.com, and Mencari Travel Wire.

Through his own migration journey he kept noticing the same pattern: the moment a Filipino migrant lands in a new country, they look for Filipino businesses, restaurants, and service providers — not just for a meal or a transaction, but to feel a sense of belonging. Kababayan Connect exists to make that search shorter, safer, and tied to credentials anyone can verify.

"When you arrive in a new country, the first thing you look for is something that feels like home — a Filipino business, a Filipino restaurant, a Filipino service provider. That sense of belonging is the start of everything else." — Miko Santos, founder

What this platform is not

We are not Yelp for Filipinos. We are not a generic migrant aggregator. We are not a transactional marketplace with bookings or messaging or escrow. The verification engine is the product, and any feature that dilutes verification is rejected on principle — even if it would accelerate growth.