By Hannah Torregoza A Bureau of Immigration (BI) official on Thursday testified before the Senate that there were indeed BI personnel involved in the so-called “pastillas” scheme, which allows the unimpeded entry of Chinese nationals through the country’s international ports, saying the modus was a result of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) decision to remove the so-called overtime pay of immigration officers in 2016. (MANILA BULLETIN) Allison Chiong, a frontline immigration officer tasked to examine the travel documents of departing and arriving passengers rotating in the three Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) terminals, said the DOJ order consequently resulted in general unrest and disgruntlement among the immigration workforce. In order to cope with the substantial reduction of their salaries, the witness said some immigration officers decided to offer “VIP services” to immigrants who are casino high-rollers. “This VIP service involved immigration officers accepting P2,000 (two thousand) for each high-roller, in exchange for the latter’s convenient and seamless immigration,” said Chiong, at the continuation of the Senate committee on women and children’s probe into the sexual trafficking and prostitution rings brought about by the Philippine offshore gaming operation (POGO) industry. According to Chiong, each cooperating immigration officer would receive around P20,000 weekly for NAIA Terminal 1 duties, and P8,000 weekly for Terminal 3 duties. Chiong said three BI personnel, namely Bien Guevarra, Glenn Comia, and Den Binsol, who are Travel Control Enforcement Unit (TCEU) chiefs, and who were then under former Ports Operation Division (POD) Chief Red Mariñas, decided to take over the operation when they sensed the lucrative operation. “They took control of the collections from entering and departing passengers, then disbursed commissions at the end of every week,” he said. The said TCEU chiefs were relieved from their posts sometime in the middle of the year 2019. As for Mariñas, he became associate commissioner of the BI, but later resigned to run as mayor of Muntinlupa City. However, Chiong said, Mariñas lost in the local elections. Chiong said the group created a Viber group chat where they uploaded the list of names of Chinese nationals who were to be allowed entry into the Philippines without going through the usual immigration process. These Chinese nationals were then no longer required to undergo screening and were simply let inside the Philippines without question or investigation. However, Chiong said the first Viber group chat was deleted when the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) started investigating the BI. To avoid detection, the names of the Chinese nationals who were to be allowed VIP treatment were no longer sent through Viber. “To circumvent this, the flow of the operation changed: the immigration officers at the counter were asked to bring each Chinese national to the holding area of the TCEU where a member would check if the name of the Chinese national was in a master list. If the Chinese national’s name was on the list, then he or she would be allowed entry into the Philippines without further screening or profiling,” he said. But this new operation caused BI officials some degree of inconvenience because they had to stand up, leave their seats, and lead every arriving Chinese national to the TCEU holding area every day. So a new Viber group chat was created and the original flow of the operation was revived. Because of this, news of the operation spread fast, and other syndicated groups within the BI started submitting their own list of names of Chinese nationals. According to Chiong, these groups worked with travel agencies in China, the latter being the origin of the names of the entering foreign nationals. “The syndicated groups would often compete with each other to gain favor from the Chinese travel agencies,” Chiong said. Asked by Sen. Risa Hontiveros, chair of the Senate women and children’s panel, if “pastillas” is just a common term used to bribe officials of the BI, Chiong said yes. “Yes, at first they wrapped it in a paper, that’s why it looks like a pastillas. Then it evolved to using brown envelope—pay out envelope…when it’s payout time, they call it ‘pastillas’ time,” Chiong said. He also said that even though Guevarra, Comia, and Binsol are no longer with the Bureau, they still maintain their syndicate’s group operation. These syndicated groups were headed by different personalities within the BI. Chiong identified some of the personalities as Totoy Magbuhos, Deon Albao (alias “Nancy”), Paul Borja (alias “Lisa”), Anthony Lopez (alias “AL”), and Dennis Robles (alias “DR”). He said they occupy various plantilla positions within the bureau. According to the whistleblower, the influence of these Chinese organizations and personalities became more apparent when they started providing BI officers free lunch meals wrapped in Chinese newspapers. “However, this recently stopped due to the travel ban on incoming Chinese nationals due to the novel coronavirus,” he said. When he saw on television the live broadcast of the Senate’s investigation into the rise of POGO-related prostitution, and heard the possible involvement of BI officials, Chiong said he felt the need to testify. “I was compelled to come forward and share what I know based on my personal knowledge as a frontline immigration officer,” the witness said. Read more: Panelo: PRRD relieves BI personnel involved in ‘pastillas’ scheme WATCH: