{"id":245518,"date":"2020-02-20T06:46:50","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T11:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=245518"},"modified":"2020-02-20T06:46:50","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T11:46:50","slug":"duterte-relieves-bi-execs-personnel-in-pastillas-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/02\/20\/duterte-relieves-bi-execs-personnel-in-pastillas-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte relieves BI execs, personnel in \u2018pastillas\u2019 scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers a speech during a meeting with local chief executives at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City on February 10, 2020. ALFRED FRIAS\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 President Rodrigo Duterte has relieved all Bureau of Immigration (BI) personnel who are involved in the collection of \u201cunauthorized\u201d fees among Chinese nationals working in the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO), Malaca\u00f1ang announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Duterte considers the unlawful act committed by relieved BI officials and employees as a \u201cgrave form of corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Rodrigo Roa Duterte has relieved all officials and employees of the Bureau of Immigration who are involved in the latest bribery scheme where they purportedly facilitate the entry into \u2014 and exit from \u2014 Philippine territory of foreigners working for Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators for an unauthorized fee,\u201d Panelo said in a regular Palace media briefing.<\/p>\n

Panelo said Duterte arrived at such decision after receiving reports about the unlawful activity and finding probable cause to relieved BI personnel linked to the bribery scheme.<\/p>\n

He, however, was not privy as to how many BI officials and employees were relieved of their respective duties.<\/p>\n

Panelo stressed that Duterte would not tolerate such offense involving BI personnel.<\/p>\n

He said those who will be proven engaged in the \u201cpastillas\u201d scheme will face appropriate sanctions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we have repeatedly stressed, there are no sacred cows in this administration. Any official or employee who commits any wrong in the performance of their respective duties shall be meted out with the punishment that they deserve and in accordance with our penal laws,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The supposed \u201cpastillas\u201d scheme was first revealed by Senator Risa Hontiveros during a Senate hearing on Monday.<\/p>\n

Hontiveros bared that Chinese nationals working in the POGO industry are paying around PHP10,000 as grease money to receive preferential treatment from BI officials.<\/p>\n

She dubbed the unlawful activity as \u201cpastillas\u201d modus because the money was allegedly hidden in rolled bond paper, which is similar to the wrapper for the milk candy.<\/p>\n

Panelo said the \u201cpastillas\u201d scheme will be tackled in the next Cabinet meeting.<\/p>\n

He also maintained that BI Commissioner Jaime Morente still enjoys Duterte\u2019s trust and confidence, unless the President changes his tune.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe present situation in the Bureau of Immigration, as well as how it is being run by Commissioner Jaime Morente, will be taken up in the next Cabinet meeting,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

BI Spokesperson Dana Sandoval earlier disclosed that five unnamed BI officials were relieved due to \u201ccommand responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morente earlier created a fact-finding committee that is expected to submit a report on the money-making activity by relieved BI personnel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2014 President Rodrigo Duterte has relieved all Bureau of Immigration (BI) personnel who are involved in the collection of \u201cunauthorized\u201d …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":244741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245518"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245519,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245518\/revisions\/245519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}