3 BI agents relieved over links with human trafficking syndicates

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JUSTICE Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla has ordered an investigation into the alleged involvement of immigration personnel in human trafficking activities in the country’s airports as the Bureau of Immigration (BI) relieved three agents assigned at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and Clark International Airport (CIA) over their supposed links to syndicates.

Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said two of the officers were relieved last January 17 (Tuesday) after his office received intelligence reports that they have been involved in trafficking activities at the two airports.

“We have received information that the two have links to trafficking syndicates. We are initiating an investigation to verify this information, and if there is indeed probable cause, we shall file the appropriate case before the Department of Justice,” Tansingco said.

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Tansingco said that as a preventive measure, the two will temporarily be assigned to back-end office duties pending the investigation.

“While imposing penalties would be subject to the resolution of possible cases against them, we are relieving them from frontline duty to ensure unbiased investigation,” he said.

BI spokesperson Dana Krizia Sandoval said the third immigration officer was relieved by Tansingco yesterday (Thursday).

“He was also relieved and reassigned to back-end office,” Sandoval said.

Sandoval refused to disclose full details of the relief but said probers are looking at their links with syndicates in Cambodia and other Asian countries which recruit Filipinos for “scamming activities.”

She said they are checking if the Cambodia and Myanmar trafficking operations are part of the same syndicate even as she noted that they are seeing “very similar” stories.

Sandoval said Tansingco is treating the case as “very urgent.”

Remulla ordered a “deeper” probe to unmask the identities of the human traffickers.

“Dapat lang na maimbestigahan ‘yan. Matagal naman na namin tinatrabaho ‘yan bago pa lumabas ‘yung mga pangalan (These really need to be investigated. We have been into their activities even before their names were made public), “Remulla said.

Remulla also said probers are looking at information that a concessionaire at the NAIA is involved in the smuggling of migrant workers to Cambodia and other Asian countries. He did not give additional information.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros has exposed the supposed activities of a Chinese mafia preying on overseas Filipino workers recruited to work as call center agents in Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand.

The workers, Hontiveros said, ended up working as crypto currency scammers for businesses run by members of the Chinese mafia.

The latest case of human trafficking is an OFW who was rescued by Cambodian authorities last Monday. The victim, whom Hontiveros codenamed “Miles,” has said that other Filipino workers are still in a police station in Phnom Penh “without beds and basic facilities.”

Miles was supposedly trafficked out of the country through the NAIA and was initially brought to Thailand, where she was allegedly made to ride a van going to Cambodia. She said her fellow crypto scammers entered Cambodia from the CIA in Pampanga, while some passed through Malaysia via Zamboanga City.

It was Hontiveros who exposed in 2021 the “pastillas” scam operation involving immigration personnel who extorted money from Chinese nationals in exchange for facilitating their easy entry to the country.

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