THE Department of Justice has started investigating how the 177 Indonesians intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport last Aug. 19 were able to secure Philippine passports.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II has created a team of 16 prosecutors led by Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Theodore Villanueva to gather information and determine who could be liable for the issuance of valid Philippine passports to the Indonesians who were supposed to go to Mecca in Saudi Arabia for annual Hajj pilgrimage from Sept. 9 to 14.
“We are getting their depositions and sworn statements before they are deported to Indonesia,” Aguirre said in an interview.
The Justice secretary stressed the Bureau of Immigration has coordinated with the Indonesian Embassy for the identities and travel documents and real passports of the Indonesians detained at the Bureau of Immigration jail in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.
Once the investigation is completed, the Indonesians would be deported for violation of immigration laws and for being undesirable aliens.
The five Filipino escorts who were arrested with the Indonesians at the airport have also been interviewed by the prosecutors at the National Bureau of Investigation where they are detained.
Initial probe indicated the Indonesians and their escorts were about to board Philippine Airlines flight PR 8969 to Madinah when the BI intelligence division discovered their posing as Filipinos.
Their identities were revealed when they were unable to speak Philippine languages like Tagalog, Maranao, Cebuano or Maguindanao during the interview. They could only converse in English.
Confronted, the passengers supposedly admitted they were not Filipinos.
The BI said the Indonesians were found possessing genuine Philippine passports that were apparently obtained through fraudulent means and allegedly provided by their Filipino escorts who organized the pilgrimage.
The Indonesians reportedly paid between $6,000 and $10,000 each.
The BI also found the Indonesians were given Philippine passports to enable them to join the hajj pilgrimage, using the quota reserved for Filipino pilgrims by the Saudi government. There were no more available hajj slots for Indonesians, the organizers said.
They reportedly arrived in the country individually as tourists a few weeks before their scheduled pilgrimage and gave Jolo, Sulu as their address.