NBI help sought vs travel fraud

The Bureau of Immigration sought the help of the National Bureau of Investigation to crack down on the activities of a Manila-based syndicate believed to be the source of fraudulent travel documents sold to foreigners and Filipinos alike.

Immigration Commissioner Rufus Rodriguez said that the syndicate has been victimizing foreigners, mostly from the Asian countries, and also Filipinos by selling them stolen passports with fake US visas.

Rodriguez said that foreigners enter the country using valid passports and try to depart for the United States by assuming the identity of holders of stolen passports, or fake US visas sold to them by the syndicate for hundreds of thousands of pesos.

He warned those who "patronize" the syndicate stand to not only lose their money but face criminal prosecution as well for using stolen travel documents and fake visas as "our immigration officers at the airport can easily detect a stolen passport or a tampered visa."

Rodriguez cited the case of two Chinese nationals who tried to leave the other day after arriving the country last Dec. 14, using their original Chinese passports.

Last Sunday, they presented to immigration officers their stolen US passports and claimed that they were US citizens.

The two, according to immigration intelligence agents Reynald Bustillo and Cresencio Ablan, took a ferry boat from mainland China to Hong Kong and flew to Manila on board a Cathay Pacific flight.

Rodriguez said that the syndicate has been active once again, based on the number of foreigners and Filipinos alike apprehended recently with fraudulent travel documents. All those arrested were turned over to the NBI for investigation pending the filing of criminal charges for violation of the Passport Law. – Rey Arquiza