JUSTICE Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla yesterday said the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is investigating the alleged “escort services” for a fee involving corrupt airport immigration officials.
In a press briefing late Wednesday afternoon, Remulla said the scheme is similar to the “pastillas” bribery scheme.
He said the scam involves airport agents who provide escort services to incoming and outgoing foreigners, especially those who have problems in their visas and other travel documents, for easy immigration processing.
“The past few days, I’ve been receiving many calls about corruption being practiced in, certain acts of corruption, in the Bureau of Immigration. Escort services for that matter and we’re looking at that right now,” Remulla said, adding he has already ordered the NBI to investigate the reports.
“This is like the pastillas scheme. This is one form of pastillas that we’re looking at. It’s both inward and outward (escort services) na meron tayong problema ngayon dito sa ating airports at sa immigration people natin (that we are having problems in our airports, and these involve immigration people),” he said.
The pastillas scheme involved unscrupulous immigration personnel extorting money -which ranged from P10,000 to P20,000, from foreigners, mostly Chinese nationals, in exchange for facilitating their seamless entry to the country.
The said scheme allegedly allowed hundreds of thousands of Chinese to illegally enter the country to work in the offshore gaming industry.
Investigation into the pastillas scheme showed that syndicates within the BI even competed against each other to gain favor with travel agencies so that they would be provided with the names of Chinese nationals willing to shell out money for “VIP” treatment.
Remulla said the information he received showed there was a “resurgence” of the pastillas scheme.
“Wala na sana ang problemang ito pero bumabalik eh (The problem has returned). The attraction of illicit money is very strong,” he said.
‘’They are escorting people in and out. Those with problems in their visas and in their passports are being escorted in and out of our gates by unscrupulous BI officials and syndicates attached to them,” he added.
Remulla said aside from the NBI probe, he will also meet with BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco today to discuss the issue.
He warned the DOJ will not hesitate to fire those involved in the illegal activity and file charges against them.
“These are sovereign functions that they fulfill. These are the boundaries of the country, this represents our integrity as a country, our territory, and we cannot allow this kind of behavior among immigration personnel to remain,” he said.
