MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Justice is now looking into the case of 177 Indonesians intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport last week to determine who could be held responsible for the issuance of Philippine passports to them.
The Indonesians posed as Filipinos holding valid passports to go to Mecca in Saudi Arabia for the annual hajj pilgrimage from Sept. 9 to 14, but their passports were discovered to be fake.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said he tapped a team of 16 prosecutors led by Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Theodore Villanueva to investigate the incident.
“We are getting their depositions and sworn statements before they are deported to Indonesia,” Aguirre told reporters at the DOJ.
The DOJ chief said the Bureau of Immigration also coordinated with the Indonesian embassy for the identities and travel documents as well as the real passports of the Indonesians currently detained at the BI jail in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City.
After the probe, the Indonesians will be deported for violation of immigration laws and for being undesirable aliens.
The five Filipino escorts who were arrested with the Indonesians at the airport had also been interviewed by the prosecutors at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) where they are detained.
Initial probe showed the Indonesians and their escorts were about to board Philippine Airlines flight PR 8969 to Madinah, Saudi Arabia on Aug. 19 when the BI intelligence division discovered them posing as Filipinos.
They were unable to speak any local dialect such as Tagalog, Maranao, Cebuano or Maguindanao during the interview. They could only converse in English.
When confronted, the passengers allegedly admitted they were not Filipinos.