BI chief orders deport of 2 Chinese with fake papers

Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan ordered yesterday the immediate deportation of two Chinese nationals recently intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport for carrying fake Korean passports.

Libanan said he has directed the summary deportation of the aliens, identified as Chen Zhu and Shi Yamming, who were believed to be clients of a big-time human smuggling syndicate that uses Manila as a transit point in its operations.

The BI chief likewise ordered the two be placed in the bureau’s immigration blacklist to prevent them from re-entering the country.

Migration Compliance and Monitoring Unit (MCMU) head Clodualdo Penera, in a report, said both passengers turned out to be natives of Madagascar, an island nation in the Indian Ocean. Upon arrival at the NAIA, Louis Ranjeva and Bamdjee Davis Hussein, who took a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok, Thailand, to the Philippines, allegedly identified themselves as French nationals.

Penera said the two tried to use the names Daniel Bandjee and Louis Raymond as reflected in the travel documents they were carrying. However, MCMU operatives doubted the authenticity of their passports and decided to have the same examined by the Anti-Fraud Unit.

Penera said it was found out that the travel documents the passengers were carrying were indeed counterfeit and during questioning, both eventually admitted that they are citizens of Madagascar and not of France.

The MCMU immediately issued an exclusion order against the duo instructing Thai Airways to take them back to Bangkok, Thailand and recommended to be placed under the Bureau of Immigration’s blacklist.

The Chinese were apprehended last Monday by operatives of the bureau’s Migration Compliance and Monitoring Group (MCMG) after they were deported back from Singapore, where they were denied entry by immigration authorities for using tampered Korean passports.

It was learned the two arrived in Manila on Sept. 19 and stayed here for a few days before flying to Singapore where they were arrested for possessing fake Korean passports. They reportedly admitted during interrogation they were Chinese nationals bound for Istanbul in Turkey. They likewise confessed they acquired the fake passports from a syndicate in China for 1,000 renminbis, or about P6,000.