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Monday, July 11, 2005
Talk Back: BI’s ‘sourgraping’
By Vicente E. Fernandez II
PAIRTF legal counsel
Your newsreport entitled “Respect passengers’ right to travel, BI tells task force” (Sun.Star, July 8th) has elicited various reactions from members of the Presidential Anti-illegal Recruitment Task Force (PAIRTF). The uncalled comment from the Bureau of Immigration (BI) is not just a case of sourgraping, but a vain effort to preempt the case filed against one of the immigration officers from grave misconduct in office.
For the record, the task force has a separate and distinct function from that of the BI. Their functions though compliment each other in furtherance of public good without any intervening extraneous consideration. The BI safeguards the implementation of our immigration laws while the task force safeguards our countrymen against illegal recruiters (Executive Order 325).
The usual anomaly at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport is sending off workers as tourists, which the task force is trying to prevent pursuant to and in accordance with Republic Act (RA) 8042 (Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995). These nefarious activities have been going on for a long time now and the usual malefactors are immigration officers who could not have done it out of Christian charity.
The comments of the officials of the BI about the activities of the task force are not only misleading but are lies laced with patriotic touches. Before a passenger gets on the plane, the task force conducts an interview of suspicious passengers before they check in. In many cases, the passengers inform the task force that they are to work abroad, to be fetch by their contact at their point of destination.
Passengers will only be off-loaded when their tickets and other documents show that that they are leaving abroad as tourist. In other words, the task force only wants to ensure that they are protected once they reach their destination. And this is the mandate of the task force and RA 8042.
The slanted comments of the BI against the Task force are highly suspicious, ill motivated and malicious. While the task force has been off-loading passengers for quite sometime, the immigration officials only complained after the PAIRTF filed criminal and administrative complaints against the acting IMMIGRATION OFFICER at the airport before the ombudsman for escorting suspected tourist workers to the pre-departure area in gross and flagrant violation of RA 8042.
As if the violation is not enough, the same immigration officer also prevented the task force from doing their job in an unbecoming manner.
The actuation of said immigration officer also directly violated the memorandum of Airport Authority General Manager Adelberto Yap, which prohibits escorting of passengers to the pre-departure area.
The task force is just wondering why the BI is taking the cudgels for these off-loaded passengers, who are clearly violating a law. Are they merely trying to help a countryman in dire need of a job or to protect illegal recruiters?
(July 11, 2005 issue)
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