IMMIGRATION Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado yesterday urged Congress to pass a law criminalizing illegal departure from the country in a bid to curb the problem of human traffickers using the porous southern backdoor of the country.
Viado said there is a strong possibility that 54 of the more than 100 Filipinos recently rescued from scam hubs in Myanmar and repatriated to the country last week left using the southern backdoor.
Viado said human traffickers use small boats to secretly transport their victims abroad using illegal exit points in the southern borders.
“I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. We have long been raising this concern, and it’s about time that this be acknowledged and addressed, to prevent more kababayans from being victimized by this syndicate,” Viado said.
“The country has no specific law penalizing illegal departures. Cases may fall under related violations such as falsification of public documents or tampering under the Philippine Passport Act,” he added.
Viado said criminalizing illegal departure would make these human traffickers think twice about doing their trade.
“Criminalizing illegal exits would serve as a strong deterrent to traffickers and would make victims think twice in accepting such offers,” the BI chief said.
Earlier, the PNP arrested one alias “Fiona” who has been tagged as the facilitator for the illegal departure of trafficking victims on small boats, while the National Bureau of Investigation also apprehended an alias ‘Jon Jon’ who was among the 176 recently repatriated from scam hubs in Myawaddy, Myanmar.
Viado said during interrogation, ‘Jon Jon’ initially claimed to be a victim himself, but his colleagues positively identified him as one of their recruiters.
Last year, dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo, who is facing a string of criminal cases over her alleged involvement in the operation of an offshore gaming operation, fled the country to Malaysia and Indonesia before she was arrested and extradited to Manila.
Immigration authorities said Guo probably used the southern backdoor in her escape.
The BI also said there is a possibility that former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque also fled the country using the same backdoor exit points.
Roque is facing a qualified human trafficking case before the Department of Justice and was also cited in contempt by the House of Representatives’ Quad Committee after he refused to provide documents needed in the probe on the illegal operation of offshore gaming.
Previously, the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking released a study on backdoor exits about trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants by sea.
In their study, they recommended that local government units as well as local law enforcement agencies strengthen surveillance in areas of concern to deter human traffickers and other illegal activities. – With Osias Osorio
