"The outdated law must be reviewed and amended."
"The outdated law must be reviewed and amended."
It's about time the Bureau of Immigration straightened up things in the agency once and for all, crack down on undesirable aliens, and send them back to wherever they came from.
I believe Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente, more than anyone, wants this accomplished.
Day in and day out, we hear reports of foreigners violating our laws, injuring and endangering people’s lives, as well as committing heinous crimes in the Philippines.
Just the past week in Tondo, Manila, Chinese national Cai Jinxiong was arrested after creating a commotion, harassing a security guard repeatedly spitting on the floor inside a fast-food joint while impatiently waiting for his order. Outside the establishment, he knocked down two parked motorcycles, causing them damage.
The 35-year-old businessman came to the country as tourist and then secured a visa to engage in garments business.
Not too long ago, another Chinese national was arrested for, after a car chase, ramming other vehicles and then spitting on a policeman in Ermita, Manila. Zhou Zhiyi, 50, admitted having used the illegal drug shabu with his Filipina escort.
Immigration intelligence Chief Fortunato Manahan Jr. who led Zhou’s arrest, said the latter came as a tourist like Cai and overstayed his allowed visit.
The Immigration official also said two other Chinese nationals were arrested for pointing a gun at a security guard in Pasay City.
Manahan said the crackdown on undesirable aliens continues after the bureau deported some 2,300 of them in 2019. They include fugitives, drug lords, human traffickers and sex predators who came in as fake tourists.
But, why has there been a recurrent and unending influx of unwanted foreigners into the country? Well, there are a number of reasons or factors that President Duterte and the 18th Congress must consider now.
Commonwealth Act 613, known as the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940, is patently obsolete and needs long-overdue revision. The late Senator and former Immigration chief Miriam Santiago had supported this.
Santiago, in fact, supported proposals to upgrade the Bureau of Immigration into a Department of Immigration and Homeland Security to make it more relevant and more effective in securing our international ports and borders.
That means BI, which was created by virtue of Commonwealth Act 613 under the auspices of the United States before World War II and currently an attached agency of the Department of Justice, shall become an autonomous agency under a new law due since the Philippine gained independence in 1946 after the war.
To exercise executive and administrative control is the same as what Morente suggested as needed to be able to effectively address the internal cleansing at the BI. This comes in the wake of the exposé by one Immigration officer Allison Chiong on the “pastillas” escort service at the ports.
Morente said his “limited powers” deter him, as Immigration Commissioner, from exercising disciplinary and punitive action against abusive BI employees found engaged in illegal activities, such as soliciting bribes or outright extortion of foreigners.
The truth is the BI has been as notorious as other agencies in Aduana for shameless corruption in the past two decades. Whistleblower Chiong said that up to 90 percent of BI personnel have been engaged in all sorts of corrupt practices.
Justice Menardo Guevarra agrees with Morente and was quoted as saying, “If the BI wants greater autonomy, the solution is to amend our existing immigration law.”
Instead of conducting its own probe, BI is referred to the National Bureau of Investigation to handle complaints involving graft and corruption. NBI is also an attached agency of DOJ.
Little wonder that the Philippines is also known as gateway for human traffickers, particularly for fake Chinese tourists.
The 18th Congress must review and amend the country’s outdated Immigration law.