MANILA -- Three foreign nationals were recently arrested in separate occasions at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) for attempting to enter and leave the country with spurious travel documents, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) reported on Thursday.
Grifton Medina, BI Port Operations Division chief, said the apprehended passengers include two Chinese nationals -- one with a fraudulently acquired Philippine passport while the other one was using a fake Canadian visa -- and an African with a bogus Mali passport.
“They were all brought to our detention facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City and are now undergoing deportation proceedings for using spurious immigration documents,” Medina said in a statement.
He identified the African as Mohamed Keita who claimed to be a citizen of Mali. He was arrested at NAIA 3 after he arrived aboard a Qatar Airways flight from Doha on September 12.
Upon questioning by BI-Travel Control and Enforcement Unit (TCEU) officers, Keita gave inconsistent answers and could not explain his purpose in traveling to the Philippines.
His Mali passport was confirmed to be counterfeit by BI anti-fraud personnel.
On the other hand, BI-TCEU at NAIA 3 apprehended Chinese passenger Wang Lei and was eventually barred from boarding his flight for Vancouver since he was using a fake Canadian visa last September 10.
“He arrived as a transit passenger from Shanghai, China and was about to board an ANA flight to Vancouver when he was intercepted,” TCEU head Maria Timotea Barizo said.
The other Chinese national, who was identified as a certain Sonny Tamayo Liang, presented a Philippine passport upon his arrival from Bangkok at the NAIA 2 terminal last September 5.
It was learned that although his passport appeared to be genuine, the same registered a hit in the BI’s Interpol database indicating that it is a stolen and lost travel document.
“We also received a copy of an urgent dispatch from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) identifying Liang as one of several Chinese nationals who managed to apply and acquire Philippine passports through fraudulent means to legitimize their stay in the country,” BI-Interpol chief Erwin Ortañez said. (PNA)
