President fires BI chief over Guo mess

Bureau of Immigration Norman Tansingco talks to members of the media during a press conference with officials of the Department of Justice and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) at the NBI-BSD office on Araneta Avenue in Quezon City on Friday, August 23, 2024. —Arnel Tacson/ INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos has dismissed Bureau of Immigration (BI) chief Norman Tansingco over the controversial escape of personalities led by former Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo linked to Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos), Presidential Communications Secretary Cesar Chavez said on Monday.

“His dismissal has already been approved by the [P]resident,” Chavez said in a Viber message to reporters.

No announcement, however, was immediately made on his replacement.

READ: Gatchalian: BI knew Guo gone, kept Marcos in the dark

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, who recommended Tansingco’s dismissal, said a series of lapses—ranging from the bureau’s inaction on visas issued to fake corporations to the undetected escape of Guo—has left him “unsatisfied” with the immigration chief’s performance.

“If I were him, I’d just resign already,” Remulla told reporters on Monday.

The BI was thrust into the center of the controversy following the escape of Guo, her supposed siblings Shiela and Wesley Guo, and business associate Cassandra Li Ong in an attempt to escape prosecution for their alleged involvement in the operations of illegal Pogo hubs in Bamban and Porac, Pampanga.

The four are facing money laundering charges for operating the Pogo hubs that were allegedly used as cover for scam farms.

Last week, a visibly upset President Marcos said in an interview with reporters that government officials who had helped the group escape would “pay the price.”

“You ask, ‘who’s going to be fired?’ We will not only fire them; we will also be filing criminal charges against them because what they did is against the law and against all of the interests of the Philippine judicial system,” he said.

Tansingco, a lawyer, was appointed a BI commissioner in 2022, replacing officer in charge Rogelio Gevero Jr.

According to records, he had worked at the BI in various positions since July 2007 and rose through the ranks until he was appointed commissioner by Marcos.

Loss of trust

Remulla said he had requested President Marcos to relieve and replace Tansingco due to the “many problems” he encountered working with the BI head.

“There were many [lapses]. The issuance of working visas was very questionable. I called his attention to it, but he did not do anything,” Remulla lamented.

In an earlier interview with ANC yesterday, the justice chief said he “completely lost any trust or confidence” in Tansingco.

Remulla earlier initiated an investigation into the BI’s reported issuance of thousands of prearranged employment visas, also known as 9G visas, to foreigners supposedly employed by more than 500 local companies that turned out to be fake.

“We found that many corporations petitioning for 9G visas are fake corporations, nonentities which the legal department of the BI allowed,” Remulla told reporters in January.

He described the immigration scam as an “affront to our sovereignty,” saying that the fake companies’ applications for 9G visas were approved by the BI “hook, line and sinker” without any prior verification with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Remulla added that more than 500 fake corporations could be involved, including many Pogo companies, along with “thousands and thousands of visas issued with the petition of these corporations.”

The final nail in the coffin for Remulla’s working relationship with Tansingco was the unmonitored escape of Guo, particularly Tansingco’s failure to promptly inform the DOJ that he knew Guo had already left the country four days before it was publicly announced by Sen. Risa Hontiveros.

“That kind of behavior where you don’t inform the DOJ secretary about what’s going on in your office is not right,” he added.