Immigration commissioner Andrea Domingo said Lamont Strothers and Keith Hill, both imports of San Miguel Beer, were fined P20,000 each for playing against Selecta RP Team last Feb. 14 even before their working permits were approved by the bureau.
Domingo said it was only last Feb. 15 that her office approved the applications for special work permits in favor of the two imports who combined for 44 points in their team’s 59-64 loss to Selecta RP Team.
The immigration chief said that the two American imports were fined because of San Miguel’s failure to submit on time the documentary requirement in support of the applications for the work permits.
It was learned that the approval of San Miguel’s applications for the work permits was delayed because the documents it submitted did not include the company’s declared articles of incorporation and registration papers filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The said documents are required pursuant to a memorandum of agreement signed between the bureau and the PBA last year which provides for the guidelines on the issuance of work permits to foreign players in the league.
Strothers and Hill were, however, fortunate that they were not arrested by the bureau for violating Philippine immigration laws, unlike two of their colleagues.
It will be recalled that last Feb. 12, Jermaine Walker and Rhoderick Rhodes of the FedEx team were arrested by bureau agents and fined P20,000 each for the same offense.
FedEx officials claimed that their two imports were not arrested but were only invited by the bureau to explain why they were seeing action in the PBA when they did not have their working permits yet.