A Filipino woman, who posed as an employee of the Department of Justice (DOJ), was intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) last Tuesday, Oct. 10, before she could leave for Singapore.
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said the woman, whose name was withheld, was intercepted by immigration officers after she presented a travel authority purportedly signed by DOJ Undersecretary Nicholas Felix Ty, the undersecretary in charge of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT).
“The fake documents presented in this case is ridiculous,” said Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco.
“Faking the signature of the USec in Charge of IACAT to avoid scrutiny is the idea of these illegal recruiters and human traffickers who will not stop finding ways to evade inspection,” Tansingco said.
In a statement, the BI said the woman claimed to be “a DOJ employee working as an administrative staff and is set to travel to Singapore as a delegate for an official travel, together with Undersecretary Nicholas Felix Ty.”
But the BI said that Undersecretary Ty is currently in Thailand attending a forum on people smuggling, trafficking in persons, and related transnational crime.
“The victim presented a travel authority purportedly signed by Usec. Ty. However, officers noted inconsistencies in the signature which prompted them to verify with the DOJ,” the BI said.
“It was later confirmed that the travel authority presented was fake, and that the victim was actually recruited to work in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as an entertainer,” it said.
It said the woman disclosed "that the documents were were given to her at a fast food joint near the airport and cost 38,000 UAE dirhams which will be deducted from her salary in the span of two years."
The woman was turned over to IACAT which will conduct a probe and file a case against her recruiter, it also said.