DAVAO CITY — The Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers stationed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) arrested three foreign nationals for attempting to enter and leave the country with spurious travel documents.
In a press statement issued today, September 19, the BI revealed they intercepted on three separate occasions three foreign nationals at the NAIA 2 and 3 terminals, with fake documents.
Immigration Port Operations Division Acting Chief Grifton Medina revealed passengers include a Chinese national who arrived with a fraudulently acquired Philippine passport, an African with a bogus Mali passport, and another Chinese man with a fake Canadian visa.
In said report, Medina revealed the foreign nationals were brought to the detention facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City and are now undergoing deportation proceedings for using spurious immigration documents.,” Medina said.
The BI’s Travel Control and Enforcement Unit (TCEU) identified one of the Chinese passengers as a certain Sonny Tamayo Liang, who presented a Philippine passport, upon his arrival from Bangkok at the NAIA 2 terminal last Sept. 5.
Although his passport appeared to be genuine, the same registered a hit in the BI’s Interpol database indicating that it is a stolen and lost travel document.
Immigration Interpol Chief Erwin Ortañez said they received a copy of an urgent dispatch from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) identifying Liang as one of several Chinese nationals who managed to apply and acquire Philippine passports through fraudulent means to legitimize their stay in the country.
Last Sept. 10, BI-TCEU members at NAIA 3 apprehended and barred from leaving the country Chinese passenger Wang Lei, who attempted to board a flight to Vancouver with a fake Canadian visa.
“He arrived as a transit passenger from Shanghai, China and was about to board an ANA flight to Vancouver when he was intercepted,” according to TCEU Head Maria Timotea Barizo.
On Sept. 12, an African named Mohamed Keita who claimed to be a citizen of Mali was arrested at NAIA 3 after he arrived aboard a Qatar Airways flight from Doha.
During the investigation, immigration officials noted that keita gave incosistent information why is travelled to the Philippines. It also turned out that his Mali passport was counterfeited by BI Anti-Fraud Personnel.-NewsLine.ph
