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By William B. Depasupil Reporter
IMMIGRATION Commissioner
Marcelino Libanan on Friday ordered an investigation into possible
involvement of bureau personnel at the Ninoy Aquino International
Airport (NAIA) in the aborted departure of two undocumented overseas
Filipino workers (OFWs) with fraudulent travel documents.
Libanan issued the order even as
NAIA immigration officials thwarted a scheme used by the two
passengers who feigned sickness so they could be brought to the
airport’s boarding area in wheelchairs and leave the country
unhindered.
In his report to Libanan,
Clodualdo Peñera, chief of the NAIA-Immigration migration
compliance and monitoring group, identified the offloaded passengers
as Jenna Latao and Susana Edralin. They were about to board a Cathay
Pacific flight to Hong Kong en route to Italy when stopped.
Peñera said both passengers
assumed false names, and were caught with tampered Philippine
passports with fake Italian visas.
When investigated, the women
alleged that a certain Alan Cruz and a woman companion instructed
them to pretend they were sick and request for wheelchairs upon
checking in at the airline counter.
They said that upon reaching the
NAIA immigration area, a lady immigration officer cleared them for
departure by stamping their passports.
It was when they reached the
boarding area, however, that the wheelchair-driven passengers were
intercepted by MCMG member Allan Reyes who immediately took them off
their flight upon discovery that the passports and visas in their
possession are spurious.
Libanan said the scheme failed
because it caught the watchful eyes of NAIA-Immigration officials
who immediately prevented the passengers from boarding their flight
after they were already cleared for departure.
Libanan ordered the two
Immigration staff, the Immigration officer who processed the
workers’ documents and her supervisor, to explain why no
administrative charges should be filed against them for allowing the
two passengers with spurious documents to leave the country. Libanan
declined to bare their names.
“Heads will surely roll as a
result of this incident. They have shamed our bureau by conniving
with the syndicates involved in the escort racket at the airport,”
said Libanan, who assured that there will be no whitewash in the
investigation.
He also warned other Immigration
personnel at the airport against joining the graft syndicates at the
NAIA as “there will be no sacred cows in our campaign to stop the
escort racket” at the airport.
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