Airport worker eyed in human smuggling

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has alerted the Inter-Agency Council against Trafficking (Iacat) to be on the look-out for an airport employee allegedly involved in a human smuggling racket at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia).

Citing a report from the National Antihuman Trafficking Task Force, De Lima said immigration personnel intercepted four Filipino passengers at the predeparture area of Naia Terminal 1 as they attempted to sneak past the immigration counters last Tuesday.

The passengers, who were bound for Lebanon and Jordan, were all wearing official business (OB) passes issued by the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA). The pass grants a bearer access to areas of the terminal restricted to non-employees.

No other details on the passengers were released.

Traced

The passes were traced to Analy Soriano, an employee assigned to the office of the MIAA assistant general manager for Security and Emergency Services (SES).

“We received information that the suspect intends to leave the country to evade investigation, hence, all IACAT personnel were alerted accordingly,” De Lima said.

“It is lamentable that some MIAA employees are the ones facilitating the exit of potential trafficking-in-persons (TIP) victims,” she said.

Human trafficking remains a serious concern in the Philippines, with the country still given a Tier 2 rating in the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) 2014. The annual report is considered the “most comprehensive report” on government efforts against human trafficking across the globe.

The report uses a three-tier system to classify governments in accordance with how they comply with the US Traffic Victims Protection Act.–Tarra Quismundo