Mison orders crackdown on fake airport pass scam

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MANILA — The Bureau of Immigration (BI) will conduct an investigation on the alleged rampant use of fraudulent airport passes and immigration departure stamps at the country’s premier airport.

BI Commissioner Siegfred Mison ordered the crackdown after they uncovered the modus operandi of the illegal recruiters who exploit Filipino departing passengers pretending as airport employees with concealed travel documents but have fake airport passes and other travel documents.

He instructed immigration officers to be more attentive and vigilant against the syndicate who use fake or even original airport ID to gain access into the airport premises and escort departing Filipino passengers with fake travel documents.

Mison urged airport officials and concessionaires to conduct an investigation on reports that some of their personnel are in cahoots with the illegal recruiters by providing their company IDs to passengers and entering the restricted areas of the airport.

On April 28, a certain Evangeline Domingo Torres, 43, was excluded from Cebu Pacific Airline flight No. 5J499 at NAIA Terminal 3 after being caught with a fake departure stamp.

Upon document examination, lawyer Floro Balato Jr., head of BI’s travel control and enforcement unit, found out that Torres’ departure stamp, Series No. 0243, located at the right page of her passport, was falsified.

Two other overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), Baby Rose Pilar Joson, 27, and Mariane Hermoso Arro, 21, who were both bound for Lebanon, were also intercepted while using fake airport monthly pass issued by the Duty Free Philippines.

Balato said immigration officers noticed that Joson and Arro were both wearing a May 2014 visitor’s pass of Duty Free while holding passports, boarding passes and other travel documents at the NAIA 3 last May 5.

The three passengers were endorsed to the BI’s intelligence division for proper disposition and eventual turnover to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT).