JUSTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Wednesday said the Bureau of Immigration (BI) is now probing the possible involvement of some immigration personnel in the reported trafficking of young women to Syria by tampering with their passports, also known as “Baklas Passport” scheme.
The investigation into the scheme, according to Guevarra, is part of BI’s ongoing effort to dig deeper into the sexual trafficking of 44 Filipino women to Syria.
“The alleged trafficking of women to Syria is already being investigated by the BI Board of Discipline. Their fact finding reports will be submitted to the DOJ [Department of Justice] for review and initiation of formal administrative disciplinary proceedings, if found warranted,” Guevarra said.
The BI’s Board of Discipline, he added, has already submitted its initial findings on the issue and would be submitting a complete report soon.
“This is a continuing investigation. Some reports have actually been submitted to the DOJ for evaluation,” the DOJ chief added.
Earlier, Sen. Risa Hontiveros, chairman of the Senate Committee on Women and Children, claimed that young women, some as young as 14, were using tampered passports to travel to Syria.
Last March, BI Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said he had ordered the immediate creation of a fact-finding body to determine how the women managed to leave the country and those who facilitated their travel.
He said the involvement of a handful of immigration personnel with such schemes has put the BI in bad light and affected even the immigration officers who have been performing their duties faithfully and honestly, especially those involved in activities of the IACAT (Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking)”.
Morente bared that from 2017 to 2020, a total of 112,033 Filipinos were stopped from leaving the country for attempting to leave with improper documents.
In the same period, a total of 1,070 victims were also referred to the IACAT for being possible victims of human trafficking. 30
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