BI seeks penalties for Filipinos exiting PH through ‘backdoor’

Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado

MANILA, Philippines — Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado on Monday urged Congress to study the imposition of legal sanctions on Filipinos who leave the country illegally, following reports that 54 of the human trafficking victims recently repatriated from Myanmar may have used a “backdoor” exit.

Since the Philippines has no specific law penalizing illegal departures, such cases will just fall under related violations such as falsification of public documents or tampering under the Philippine Passport Act, Viado said in a statement.

According to him, criminalizing illegal exits will serve as a strong deterrent to traffickers and make victims think twice about accepting such offers.

READ: 5 Pogo workers nabbed in back-door exit try

Last week, a total of 206 Filipino trafficking victims were repatriated from Myanmar through the joint efforts of member agencies of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (Iacat).

Facilitator caught

According to Viado, 136 of them left the country pretending they were regular tourists; five others posed as a family, while 14 more left as spouses.

He noted that 15 of the victims flew out of the country as overseas Filipino workers but were later recruited to transfer to a third country, while 55 were found to have no travel records and are suspected to have left the country illegally.

An alias “Fiona” was earlier arrested by the Philippine National Police in Zamboanga after being tagged as the facilitator for the illegal departure of trafficking victims via small boats.

Also arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation was alias “Jon Jon,” one of the 206 repatriated from scam hubs in Myawaddy, Myanmar. He initially claimed to be a victim, but his colleagues positively identified him as one of the recruiters for the company.

Following this development, the Bureau of Immigration chief called for the stricter monitoring of illegal exit points in the country’s southern borders, where traffickers use small boats to secretly transport victims abroad.

The tighter regulations, Viado said, would ensure that agencies comply with the President’s directive to protect Philippine borders.

“I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. We have long been raising this concern, and it’s about time that this be acknowledged and addressed to prevent more kababayans from being victimized by this syndicate,” he added.