Four Filipino women heading to Lebanon to work as household service workers were rescued by Bureau of Immigration (BI) agents at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said three of the victims were cleared for departure when they were intercepted while attempting to board an Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur on April 21.
Another female victim was intercepted on the same day as she attempted to depart via a Cebu Pacific flight bound for Bangkok.
The passengers initially claimed that they were tourists but later confessed that their final destination was Lebanon, where they had been recruited to work.
The victims revealed that they were recruited by someone named Helen whom they met on Facebook and who provided them with travel documents.
They said their recruiter instructed them to queue for clearance at a specific immigration booth.
The officer who cleared the victims has since been relieved of his duties and is undergoing investigation.
The victims were turned over to the Inter-Agency Against Trafficking (IACAT) for investigation and filing of cases against their recruiters.
Tansingco emphasized that sending people abroad without proper documents and to countries with existing deployment bans raises security threats for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).