Another BI money-making scheme bared

MANILA, Philippines — Another money-making scheme at the Bureau of Immigration (BI) was bared yesterday by Sen. Risa Hontiveros.

During a virtual Kapihan forum, Hontiveros showed to Senate reporters a recorded online interview with a Filipina trafficking victim who claimed that corrupt immigration officers are allegedly paid P50,000 by recruiters for each Filipino worker trafficked out of the country.

Hontiveros said, “Alice, not her real name, the Filipina, who was promised work as a domestic helper in Dubai with a $400 monthly salary, was trafficked into Damascus in Syria. The woman was receiving only $200 monthly wage, or half of what she was supposed to receive.”

“It seems that BI officials are once again complicit in illegal activities. Everything that can be paid at the airport seems to have been entered by corrupt BI officers. How many mutations of the pastillas scam do we still not know?” Hontiveros asked.

The senator said two other female OFWs are suffering a similar situation to that of Alice.

In 2019, during a public hearing of the Senate committee on women and children which Hontiveros chaired, whistle-blowers revealed the pastillas scam at the BI. The alleged masterminds of bribery and other corrupt schemes at the BI have amassed an estimated P40 billion. Under the so-called pastillas scheme, Chinese nationals pass through immigration without a hitch under the visa-upon-arrival (VUA) system for a fee.

In her recorded video, supposedly taken from her room under a blanket, Alice said she left the Philippines for Dubai. She found out during a stopover in Malaysia that she was, in fact, going to Syria. She did not provide the exact date of her departure.

Alice also recounted how her recruiter, named Ana, would pay BI officers who then met Alice and other trafficked women at the counter number 1 immigration desk in the airport.

“I heard… ‘Ana has to pay for immigration first before letting your people in.’ (The fee) is P50,000 each. There were other people who facilitate my entry at the gate, another person met me at the line number 1, it was a woman at counter 1. Another person met me at the gate, and then until I got to the plane,” she said in Filipino with hushed tones under her blanket to prevent her employer from hearing her.

“While you are signing a white paper at the gate, you will line up at counter number 1, when you pass number 1, someone else will meet you on the plane,” she added, clarifying that all these are BI employees.

Besides the issue of her illegal exit from the country, Alice also said that her Syrian employer, who is said to be a relative of the Syrian president, would hurt her. She said the bodyguards of her employer held her down and beat her.

“When I spent five months here (in Syria), I wanted to go home. I already said I wanted to go home. My boss started hurting me because I told them I was going home so they got angry… My boss was holding, kicking, slapping, tweaking, exposing me,” she said.

Due to these revelations, Hontiveros said she will officially request the BI to furnish the names of the immigration officers who stamped Alice’s passport, and noted that this would constitute a violation of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act.

“The penalty is big here and the case is non-bailable. This is a case of large-scale trafficking, and trafficking in a syndicate. Life imprisonment is the punishment here,” the senator added in Filipino.

Hontiveros said that her office has two other testimonies of trafficked women that they will reveal at a Senate hearing. She said the women were indubitably trafficked, as they never consented to being brought to Syria and they were held against their will in various ways and some even abused.

“Others were also promised a salary of at least $400, but they only received $200. They have experienced all kinds of abuse. Then it looks like our own officers are even involved in harming them. Our immigration officers seem to be sending our women into slavery,” Hontiveros said.

“I am calling on the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Justice to attend to this matter immediately. In the middle of a global pandemic, our people are stuck in a war-torn country. They also promised that they would work with the government to fight illegal syndicates. Our government should stop at nothing – I will stop at nothing – to get these women home,” the senator said.

In a statement, BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said that they fully support the investigation of Hontiveros as he emphasized that they are part of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) that protects Filipinos against all forms of trafficking.

“This investigation is another step towards eradicating human trafficking from our country by finding its root cause, as well as cutting down any growth that may have emerged from this societal weed,” Morente said.

“We will be fully cooperating with the investigation of Senator Hontiveros as we share a common goal of eliminating corruption in the bureau,” he added. – Robertzon Ramirez