THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) has relieved four lawyers assigned at the Visa Task Force of the Bureau of Immigration’s (BI) legal division pending the result of the investigation on their possible involvement in the issuance of 9G visas to foreign nationals by fictitious companies, Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said yesterday.
The 9G, also known as the pre-arranged employment visa, allows employers in the country to hire foreigners with the skills, qualification and experience that may not be fulfilled or in short supply in the domestic scene.
Tansingco did not mention when the four were relieved but said that “we recommended the issuance of show cause orders against (the) four BI lawyers” last November.
If the probe would establish the liability of the four lawyers, Tansingco said the agency will not hesitate to file criminal charges against them before the Department of Justice (DOJ), which is the bureau’s mother agency.
Aside from the relief of the four lawyers, Tansingco said he has also ordered the abolition of the Visa Task Force to stop the illegal activity.
Tansingco said he recommended to the DOJ the cancellation of the 9G visas obtained by foreign nationals through fake corporations as early as November last year.
“Last November, we recommended to the Office of the Secretary of Justice the cancellation of the visas of these aliens, as well as the issuance of show case orders against those who were involved in the application,” Tansingco said.
The BI chief said his office also issued in December last year an advisory suspending the acceptance of 9G visa applications of sole proprietorships.
On Tuesday, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla hinted that the entire legal department of the BI is involved in the illegal scheme, in which thousands of 9G visas were issued to around 500 fictitious corporations and sole proprietorships.
Remulla said the 9G visas issued to these fake corporations and sole proprietors were supposedly used to bring in foreign nationals into the country, particularly those working in the online illegal gambling, or the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) industry.
He added lawyers at the BI legal department allegedly “knowingly” issued the said visas to the fake corporations without even bothering to check their business documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Remulla said the number is just the “tip of the iceberg,” a point also agreed by Tansingco who vowed to dig deeper into the issue.
Remulla said he started receiving information on the alleged anomaly in August last year.
However, Remulla said the BI was slow in reorganizing its visa processing division without the involvement of its legal office “which was the center of the issuance of these visas.”
Last year, Remulla expressed alarm over the influx of Chinese nationals in the country, with some even carrying Philippine passports and legitimate government identification cards.
Remulla said then that there is a need to tighten the visa issuance process to make sure that only legitimate individuals are allowed entry to the country.