P'pines nabs M'sians disguised as Filipinos

Kota Kinabalu: Fifteen Malaysians disguised as Filipinos and another 106 Indonesians plus another 6 still with doubtful nationalities were detained by Philippine Bureau of Immigration officials at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila upon their return from the Haj in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.The immigration officials strongly believe the foreigners who were pretending to be Filipinos with the help of a genuine Philippine passports had successfully evaded detection by airport authorities when they left the country for Saudi Arabia earlier.

"We intercepted the Malaysians, Indonsians and six others upon their arrival," Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said .

Morente said the returning foreign pilgrims were discovered as a result of Oplan Janus, an inter-agency project that was initiated following the apprehension last August of 177 Indonesians who attempted to leave with genuine Philippine passports.

Authorities later uncovered the operations of a syndicate that sold Philippine passports to interested foreigners at a hefty price so that they could join the pilgrimage using the Hajj quotas reserved by the Saudi government for Filipinos.

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According to Morente, Immigration operatives started monitoring the return of the pilgrims last month and many of the foreigners intercepted returned in droves.

Morente also disclosed that authorities have taken into custody 12 sheikhs who accompanied some of the foreign pilgrims in their trip to Manila for investigation on their possible involvement in the racket.

The foreign nationals were turned over to the custody of their embassy in Manila for the issuance of their travel documents and return to their homeland.

The Malaysians, on the other hand, are in the Bureau's facility in Bicutan.

On Tuesday, the Philippine Senate which viewed the matter seriously agreed to conduct an indepth investigation to address the problem and identify the people involved in the scam.

"The issuance of Philippine travel document like passport and Haj passport to non-citizens is a serious crime under the Philippine constition and there is a need for the Senate to immediately conductan indepth investigation" , Senator Manuel Subiri said. This was agreed by all the other.

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The Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur had earlier issued a statement assuring that it did not accept applications for Haj passports or issue Philippine passports to foreigners.

Embassy exercises due diligence when processing. Passports applications, which includes requiring proper documentations and undertaking personal appearance and interview in order to ascertain the identify of the applicants and the veracity of his/her supporting documents," the statement said.

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