BI seeks law penalizing Filipinos illegally departing PH

By Ferdinand Patinio, Philippine News Agency

FILE: Thousand of passengers were stranded on New Year’s Day (Jan. 1, 2023) at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 (NAIA 3) in Pasay City. (PNA photo by Avito Dalan)

MANILA – The Bureau of Immigration (BI) will ask lawmakers to study the imposition of penalties against Filipinos who depart the country illegally.

“The country has no specific law penalizing illegal departures.

Cases may fall under related violations such as falsification of public documents or tampering under the Philippine Passport Act,” Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said in a news release on Monday.

The BI chief believed that criminalizing such act will help stop human trafficking incidents.

“But criminalizing illegal exits would serve as a strong deterrent to traffickers and would make victims think twice in accepting such offers,” Viado explained.

The BI made the recommendation after the recent repatriation of 54 Filipino victims of human trafficking from Myanmar who possibly left via a backdoor exit.

“I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. We have long been raising this concern, and it’s about time that this be acknowledged and addressed, to prevent more ‘kababayans’ (fellow Filipinos) from being victimized by this syndicate,” he added.

The BI chief also urged stricter monitoring of illegal exit points in the country’s southern borders, where traffickers use small boats to secretly transport victims abroad, adding that tighter regulations would ensure that agencies comply with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s directive to protect the country’s borders.

He earlier hailed the arrest of a certain “Fiona” by police officers in Zamboanga, who has been tagged as the facilitator for the illegal departure of trafficking victims via small boats.

Also arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation was a certain “Jon Jon”, who was among the 206 repatriated from scam hubs in Myawaddy, Myanmar.

“Jon Jon” initially claimed to be a victim himself, but his colleagues positively identified him as one of the recruiters for the company.

Previously, the Inter-agency Council Against Trafficking released a study on backdoor exits in relation to trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants by sea.

In its study, the body recommended that local government units (LGUs) as well as local law enforcement agencies (LEAs) strengthen surveillance in areas of concern.