JUSTICE Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla yesterday said unscrupulous agents of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) have allegedly been charging at least P150,000 to blacklisted foreign nationals to travel “in and out’ of the country.
In a press briefing Thursday afternoon, Remulla said this was among the information that an unidentified tipster told him in relation to the supposed resurgence of the “pastillas” bribery scheme perpetrated by corrupt airport immigration personnel.
“May info kami na for a blacklisted person na makapag travel out or in, P150,000 ang presyo ng isang escort service (For a blacklisted person to be allowed to travel out or in, the price for escort services is at least P150,000),” Remulla said.
He said the DOJ is working to uncover all illegal activities involving the immigration bureau, adding he is looking at the agency’s structure to address the problem.
“We will be pursuing a movement of people again within the BI. Kasi under the power of the President, the power to reorganize the bureaucracy is there. There are things that have to be addressed,” he said, adding that President Marcos Jr. is aware of the problems in the agency.
Remulla has earlier said the DOJ will not hesitate in dismissing employees who will be found to be involved in illegal or corrupt activities and file charges against them.
Remulla first disclosed on Wednesday the operation of the escort services scheme, which he said is similar to the pastillas bribery ruse where immigration officers charged P10,000 to P20,000 to facilitate the seamless entry to the country of foreigners, especially Chinese travelers, most of whom are believed to have ended up working in the offshore gaming industry.
Investigation on the pastillas scheme showed that syndicates within the BI even competed against each other to gain favor with travel agencies so they would be provided with the names of Chinese nationals willing to shell out money for “VIP” treatment.
Meanwhile, to stop the illegal activities of immigration personnel assigned to the country’s international ports of entry, the BI will now require them to wear body-worn cameras.
BI spokesperson Dana Krizia Sandoval said the agency has already started the procurement process for an initial batch of more than 300 body-worn cameras, along with software, batteries, and other related systems worth P16 million.
“Undergoing na ang procurement and by the end of the year made-deploy na po ito (The procurement is undergoing and it will be deployed before the end of the year),” Sandoval told the “Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon” program.
Sandoval said the cameras will be capable of livestreaming so that the activities of immigration officers will be monitored in real time.
“With the body-worn cameras, we will be able to monitor what is actually happening, at maiiwasan ang anumang iligal na transaksiyon o di magandang pakikisama nila since they are all recorded and it can be used in investigations,” she said.
Aside from the body-worn cameras, Sandoval also shared in the same forum that the agency is procuring additional electronic gates or e-gates to replace 50 percent of the present gates operating manually.
There are 21 e-gates distributed at the arrival area in major international airports in the country, majority of which are at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
The agency expects to install 43 e-gates by 2026.
