The Philippine government is seeking to forge agreements with several countries in sharing information about foreign fugitives, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said on Monday, Dec. 11.

“Hopefully sa first quarter next year meron na tayong MOA with these countries (Hopefully we will be able to sign memorandum of agreements with these countries in the first quarter of the year),” BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said during a press briefing in Manila.

“So mababawasan na paghahanap natin ng fugitives dito sa ating bansa. Mababawasan na rin ‘yung pagpasok (This will reduce the number of foriegn fugitives that we have to find in the Philippines. This will also reduce the number of foreign fugitives getting into the country),” he added.

Tansingco said the embassies he has already talked to included China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States.

“Lahat naman sila receptive sa idea and we already submitted a draft memorandum of agreement sa bawat embassy na ‘to (All of them have been receptive to the idea and we already submitted a draft memorandum of agreement to each embassy),” said the BI chief.

The commissioner explained he talked with these embassied because “ito nakikita natin pinanggagalingan ng maraming fugitives na nandito sa atin (these are the countries where most of the fugitives here in the Philippines come from).”

Aside from the MOAs, Tansingco said the government's Inter-Agency-Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) is set to launch “Project Shield” which establishes closer coordination with other countries sharing data on registered sex offenders (RSOs).

“Sa ibang bansa kasi merong registry ng mga sex offenders. Unlike dito sa atin wala (Other countries have registries of sex offenders. Unlike in the Philippines, we don’t have),” he said.

With Project Shield, Tansingco explained “may inopen tayo na reporting mechanism sa mga nandito na sex offenders (we will open a reporting mechanism on sex offenders who are here in the Philippines).”