The Immigration officer who exposed the alleged bribery scheme inside the Bureau of Immigration (BI) involving officials and employees surfaced during a Senate investigation.
Allison Chiong testified on the corruption scheme and said that BI’s former officials and present personnel are the ones leading “syndicated groups” that facilitate the smooth entry of Chinese who enter the country to work at Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGOs).
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Senator Risa Hontiveros has exposed the scam this week and said that Chinese nationals were given ‘VIP treatment’ in exchange for Php10,000.00.
“Immigration officers received, through a group chat in the Viber application, a list of names of Chinese nationals who were to be allowed entry into the Philippines without going through the usual immigration process,” Chiong said.
“News of the operation spread fast. This time, other syndicated groups within the Bureau of Immigration started submitting their own list of names of Chinese nationals,” he added.
The witness added that syndicates work with Chinese travel agencies where the names will come from.
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“The syndicated groups would often compete with each other to gain favor from the Chinese travel agencies,” he added.
“Some of these personalities are Totoy Magbuhos, Deon Albao (alias Nancy), Paul Borja (alias Lisa), Anthony Lopez (alias AL), and Dennis Robles (alias DR),” Chiong revealed.
He added that the former Travel Control and Enforcement Unit (TCEU) heads Bien Guevarra, Glenn Comia, and Den Binsol are still doing the ‘pastillas’ scheme even if they are no longer connected inside the bureau.
Put them all on the canal clearing crew. Work there or be fired without pension.