The Airport Police Department (APD) was lauded by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) for the arrest of three members of a syndicate falsifying immigration stamps to traffic Filipinos abroad.
BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said that three individuals, whose names were withheld in compliance with anti-trafficking laws, were arrested last November 11 by APD operatives under Supt Bing Jose, after providing illegal assistance to aspiring overseas workers.
All three reportedly face cases for violation of Article 172 or Falsification by private individuals and use of falsified documents and Article 177 or Usurpation of authority or official functions, of the Revised Penal Code. Charges for violation of the Republic Act No. 11862 or the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2022 are also being considered.
The BI said that it has recorded at least 21 cases of the usage of fake stamp since July this year. Victims reportedly paid as much as 200,000 for the syndicate’s illegal services.
The modus of the syndicate is to pretend to be connected to the BI, offer their services online, and meet their victims in one of the shops inside or around the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). From there, the suspects would take their victim’s passport, and later return it with a fake immigration departure stamp imprinted on it.
The suspects would claim that they have cohorts with immigration, and would ask the unsuspecting victim to go straight for immigration clearance.
However, upon inspection, officers would find the fake stamp in the victim’s passport, which would lead to them being prevented from boarding their flight.
Viado cited the case of a certain ‘Ben’, 30, who attempted to fly to Dubai last November 6 at the NAIA Terminal 3. He was intercepted for having a fake stamp on his passport, and was found to be attempting to depart to work abroad illegally.
Last November 15, BI officers also intercepted a certain ‘Ana’, 32, who presented herself as a tourist traveling to Phnom Penh, Cambodia also at the NAIA Terminal 3. Officers likewise found a fake stamp on her passport, and later confirmed that she was recruited to work illegally in an online casino in Cambodia.
The victims were turned over to the inter-agency council against trafficking (IACAT), while investigations on their facilitators continued.
“We have received reports that charges have also been filed against alias ‘Ana’ who allowed these syndicates to imprint a fake stamp in her passport. Because there is falsification of public documents already, those who willfully allow this to happen may also face charges,” he warned.
Viado thanked the Airport Police Department Police Intelligence and Investigation Division (APD-PIID) who pursued the case, which led to the arrest of the trio.
The BI chief warned that cases of falsification and tampering with passports will not pass as immigration officers undergo rigorous training in document fraud detection. He added that they have a state-of-the-art forensic documents laboratory that can check for security features that are otherwise invisible to the naked eye.
