Immigration chief: Trafficking of women is unforgivable

MANILA, Philippines — The newly appointed chief of the Bureau of Immigration on Wednesday vowed to fight the illegal recruitment of women and go after agency personnel involved in human trafficking.

"Victimizing on women is the one thing that I cannot tolerate… If I could prevent one woman from becoming a prostitute, I could sleep more soundly at night," Immigration Commissioner Ronaldo Geron said in a state news report.

Geron said he will improve intelligence gathering within the organization to track those who facilitate illegal activities.

"If I could find a way to determine the immigration officer na nagtatak ng departure stamp, kung saan na terminal yan, gagawa ako ng paraan na maihabla at makulong so many times over," Geron said.

"Trafficking of women is unforgivable," he added.

He said he will use connections and network developed while working at the Office of the President as deputy executive secretary for finance and administration to gather more information.

"I have access to intelligence work. I have had meetings with various government law enforcement agencies," Geron said.

The BI chief issued on Thursday a directive creating the bureau's Integrity Management Committee tasked to oversee and ensure effective implementation of all integrity management initiatives and measures.

Geron heads the committee, with the chief of the legal division as vice chairperson and the heads of the alien registration, administrative division and port operation division departments as members.

In its 2015 trafficking in persons report, the US State Department for the fifth straight year placed the Philippines in its Tier 2 status of countries that do not fully comply with minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking but are making significant efforts to do so.