American blacklisted by BI

An American national was blacklisted by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) after he became hysterical while checking in at the China Airlines counter late Thursday afternoon.

Ferdinand Sampol, head supervisor of BI-NAIA, identified the American national as Martin Sommerfield, about 66 years old, and a resident of Illinois.

Sommerfield was scheduled to leave for Taipei, Taiwan on board a China Airlines flight at around 4:59 p.m. Thursday. He was scheduled to get a connecting flight for the United States from Taipei.

Sommerfield had asked an airline employee manning the China Airlines counter if he could have a window seat, but the employee told him there was no available window seat. He was told that he would be given priority when a window seat becomes available.

Not satisfied, Sommerfield went into hysterics, reportedly cursing all the airline employees he saw and shouting at everyone around him.

Immigration personnel and airport police accosted Sommerfield and held him at the immigration office for about 30 minutes until he calmed down.

Five immigration and police personnel then escorted him to the plane minutes before take-off.

Immigration officers later filed a charge against Sommerfield and blacklisted him from the Philippines.

Meanwhile, a Chinese national who posed as a Japanese and his Japanese companion, an alleged human smuggler, were arrested by BI agents at the NAIA last Thursday.

The Japanese national was identified as Watanabe Tsuyoshi, around 59 years old. He held a Japanese passport.

The still unidentified Chinese national identified himself as a Japanese named Usami Yoshitoki, and bore a Japanese passport.

Deputy chief for operations Reynaldo Rillo said the two foreigners arrived at NAIA at around 3 p.m. Thursday on board a Malaysian Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Rillo said the two foreigners were found to be using Manila as a stopover. Tsuyoshi was scheduled to leave for Narita, Japan, while Yoshitoki was bound for Vancouver, Canada.

Immigration officers became suspicious when, after being asked to show their forwarding tickets, the two foreigners said they would purchase their tickets in Manila.

Rillo said that immigration officers found that Yoshitoki’s passport was tampered with — his photo was substituted for the original — and that Tsuyoshi was the Chinese national’s "courier." Their main purpose was to go to Vancouver, Canada.

The immigration officers arrested the two foreigners, brought them to the immigration office and detained them for further investigation. The two foreigners’ passports and plane tickets were confiscated.