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DOJ vows prompt action vs. 'immigration blacklist removal scam'

By Benjamin Pulta

February 1, 2023, 4:58 pm

<p><em>(File photo)</em></p>

(File photo)

MANILA – Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla on Wednesday assured prompt action on reports of a group offering services online to Chinese nationals to have their names removed from the Bureau of Immigration (BI) blacklist in exchange for a hefty fee.

"We will work on those measures one by one. We will not stop. We will do what needs to be done to straighten out the system," Remulla told reporters.

Remulla was commenting on an anti-crime group's revelation made during a hearing of the Senate Public Order and Dangerous Drugs Committee on Tuesday which bared reports about the new modus involving online offers.

“We received reports of advertisements offering to lift immigration blacklist for a fee of PHP1 million to PHP5 million were circulating in Chinese social media platforms,” Movement for Restoration of Peace and Order (MRPO) chairperson Ka Kuen Chua said.

Chua also cited claims that "dens of iniquity," especially those in Cavite and Pampanga, are under the protection of police officials.

"Furthermore, victims that we have assisted claimed that police personnel served as their guards, but we have yet to confirm the veracity of their claims,” Chua said.

He added that in some instances, the victims whom they have assisted who were so eager to file case later on retracted these.

"And it is claimed that their affidavits of desistance were prepared either by the police or by the prosecutors themselves,” he added.

Authorities have denied the claims. (PNA)

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