The Bureau of Immigration (BI) confirmed that certainly one of their officers allegedly extorted cash from an abroad Filipino employee (OFW) in change for an escort service to assist him board a flight to France.
Seafarer JC Manganti reported to Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco after he was offloaded or not permitted to board the aircraft by the BI on the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) thrice, based on Chino Gaston’s “24 Oras Weekend” report on Saturday.
He additionally confirmed his textual content messages with the BI worker, who provided P150,000 in change for the escort service.
After verification, Tansingco confirmed that it was the company’s worker.
The BI mentioned that Manganti ought to have been allowed to board the aircraft on his second strive since his paperwork had been already full.
“Iyong identity ng person na tinuturo niya, we saw po na kasama po ito talaga sa roster ng ating employees. We will also be pursuing administrative cases against the employees,” BI spokesperson Dana Sandoval mentioned.
(The identification of the individual he’s accusing is definitely included within the roster of our staff. We will even be pursuing administrative circumstances in opposition to the staff.)
Manganti mentioned he would file a criticism in opposition to the BI worker.
“Para mawala na din iyan kasi hindi lang naman po isa ang nadadamay, halos lahat ng immigration, nasisira po sa isa eh,” he mentioned.
(This is to eliminate them as a result of it’s not only one one who is affected, however nearly all immigration officers had been affected by this incident.)
At current, the assignments for the immigration counters are drawn each day to assist stop unlawful actions reminiscent of extortion.
“Ngayon magho-Holy Week next week, mag-oopisina ako sa airport. ‘Pag na-observe n’yong antagal na ng tao, iyong pasahero sa harap, call n’yo iyong attention ng I.O., ‘Oh ano ‘yan, ba’t matagal diyan?’” Tansingco mentioned.
(This Holy Week and subsequent week, I can be on the airport. When you observe the passenger in entrance of you is taking so lengthy, name the eye of the immigration officer: “What’s that, why is it taking so long?”)
The BI maintained that they are strictly monitoring travelers to prevent human trafficking of Filipinos in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.
According to the Department of Justice, from January to February 2023 alone, the BI deferred the departure of 6,788 out of 1,056,247 Filipinos.
Of this number, 57 were referred to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) as potential victims of human trafficking.
“The rest were deferred for other reasons, such as incomplete, improper, or misrepresented documents. Many of them would have also been vulnerable to human trafficking had they been allowed to depart,” the IACAT mentioned in an announcement on Thursday.
The IACAT is within the strategy of revising the departure formalities “to better reflect current trends and plug the gaps that arose along the way,” it added. — Richa Noriega/VBL, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
