BI receives relevant passport information to check if individuals implicated in the PDAF scam are still in the country

Face of Bureau of Immigration building / Wikipedia Photo

MANILA — The Bureau of Immigration (BI) will now be able to check if the individuals implicated in the alleged P10-billion pork barrel fund scam have left or are still in the country based on the list provided by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

BI Commissioner Siegfred Mison said they received relevant passport information on several names included in the warrants of arrest and hold departure order (HDO).

“What we got is the passport biopage so we would now be able to enter the right name as indicated in the passport, comparing it with the name listed in the HDO issued by the Sandiganbayan,” he said in an interview.

Mison added, “Based on the list from the DFA, we will be able to narrow down, maybe to 10, those names that we are uncertain. Because of having common names or having multiple names in our database, we don’t know if we’re referring to the same person who is in or out of the country.”

Earlier, the BI confirmed that two of the 53 accused in the multibillion-peso pork barrel fund scam had left the country.

They were identified as Antonio Ortiz and Renato Ornopia. Both left the country prior to the issuance of the HDO.