A Filipina who claimed to be travelling abroad for the first time was intercepted at the airport after she was found to have left the country in 2015 and 2019.
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) did not give her real name. She was identified as "Olive," 33 years old. Last Jan. 25 she was to board a flight to Saudi Arabia.
BI said that during primary inspection, immigration officers found that "Olive" had left the Philippines twice as an overseas Filipino worker (OFW).
“Careful scrutiny of her records revealed that another person, bearing the exact identity details, had travelled before,” said the agency.
Thereafter, "Olive" confessed that in 2014 “she was recruited by an agent in Maguindanao, who changed her birth year to 1990 to comply with the then 23 year old age requirement for household service workers (HSWs).”
“She admitted to have paid P1,500 for her new birth certificate, but claimed that she was not able to push through with her application and has not heard from her recruiter since. She claimed to be the real owner of the name and details that were used before her,” the BI said.
It said that "Olive's" case has been forwarded to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) for investigation.