Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla on Wednesday exposed another alleged scam in the Bureau of Immigration (BI), describing it as similar to the notorious “pastillas bribery scheme” involving immigration officers offering escort services in airports in exchange for a fee.
Remulla said he has already directed the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to look into the new mess in the BI.
“The past few days, I’ve been receiving many calls about corruption being practiced—certain acts of corruption—in the Bureau of Immigration. Escort services for that matter and we’re looking at that right now,” Remulla said.
“This is like the pastillas scheme. This is one form of pastillas that we’re looking at. It’s both inward and outward (escort services) na meron tayong problema ngayon dito sa ating airports at sa immigration people natin,’ he added.
The pastillas scheme involved unscrupulous immigration personnel extorting money-ranging from P10, 000 to P20, 000- from foreigners, mostly Chinese nationals, in return for facilitating their seamless entry to the country.
The said scheme allegedly allowed hundreds of thousands of Chinese to illegally enter the country to work in the offshore gaming industry.
Investigation on the pastillas scheme showed that syndicates within the BI even competed against each other to gain favor with travel agencies so that they would be provided with the names of Chinese nationals willing to shell out money for “VIP” treatment.
Remulla said the information he received showed there was a ‘resurgence’ of the scheme.
“It appears that the problem has resurrected. The attraction of illicit money is very strong to these unscrupulous people,” he said, adding the unscrupulous immigration personnel offered escort services to facilitate the entry and exit of individuals with problems in their visa and other documents.
‘’They are escorting people in and out. Those with problems in their visas and in their passports are being escorted in and out of our gates by unscrupulous BI officials and syndicates attached to them,” he lamented.
Remulla said aside from the NBI probe, he will also meet with BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco to discuss the issue.
But he warned that the DOJ will not hesitate to fire those involved and file charges against them.
“These are sovereign functions that they fulfil. These are the boundaries of the country, this represents our integrity as a country, our territory, and we cannot allow this kind of behavior among immigration personnel to remain,’ he added.