A total of 17 overseas Filipino workers with fake OECs have been apprehended at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport during the Holy Week for presenting fake overseas employment certificates.
Ten of them were intercepted at the NAIA 1 while the rest were stopped at the NAIA 2. Most were bound for Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Thailand.
BI Port Operations Division (POD) chief Grifton Medina said all personnel have been alerted against bogus documents being used by OFWs who were victimized by human trafficking syndicates and illegal recruiters.
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“Those victims with questionable documents will be immediately subjected to secondary inspection. If their papers are found to be indeed spurious, they will not be allowed to depart and will be turned over to the IACAT (Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking) for investigation and assistance,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
BI Travel Control and Enforcement Unit (TCEU) head Erwin Ortañez said the victims carried fake Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) clearances and pre-departure orientation seminar certificates.
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“They mistakenly thought we will lower our guard due to a large number of travelers during the Lenten break. But we were on full alert. Their scheme did not work,” he said.
Ortañez said apprehended OFWs have working visas and job contracts but are holding fake OECs and POEA clearances.
OEC, also known as exit clearance/pass, is a document certifying the regularity of recruitment and documentation of an overseas Filipino worker (OFW). It is presented to the immigration officer at the airport of exit in the Philippines.
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How could it happened ??? for sure they took it from POEA..
Just to be sure that it is a Legit one…create your own BM ONLINE ACCOUNT.
Or if First timers… Book an appointment ONLINE thru POEA online portal. NEVER ACCEPT A PRE-PRINTED OEC po. Nowadays, everything looks so REAL because of Technologies. BEWARE and NEVER TAKE THE CHANCE GOING ABROAD (ESPECIALLY GOING TO UAE) IN VISIT VISA ISSUED BY A NON RELATIVE. Madami po ang mga OPPORTUNISTA NA NAGKALAT! PAGDATING PO NG UAE…WALA PO WORK NA NAGHIHINTAY (i just interviewed a Kabayan na pumunta ng Dubai via Visit Visa…nagbayad ng PHP80,000 for a 30dAYs VISIT VISA). MAGING MATALINO PO TAYO, HUWAG PO PALOLOKO. GODBLESS US ALL.
Hala parang kme na fake din.. San ba pwd mg reklamo pra nmn ma check if totoo ung sa amin 🙂
Its really not right for the philippines immigration department to stop filipinos going overseas for work or vacations. These are adults and are not kids and dont need the government to interfere in their goal to have a better life by working overseas or to go traveling for vacation.All those extra paper work dont help in any way to protect filipinos but only add to the extra costs of traveling overseas and in fact victimise many filipinos who bought plane tickets only to get off loaded from the plane or who could not travel despite finding good legitimate jobs, but only benefit companies involved in those cumbersome time consuming paper work. When going overseas for vacation, an invitation letter from a relative overseas in that country u are traveling to is needed, but since there are so many countries in the world, its impossible for u to have a relative stationed in every country of the world, hence u are likely limited to only a small number of countries that u can travel to for vacation if u are a filipino, so this means filipinos wont be able to have the mind opening experience of traveling to all countries of the world. How beneficial is such a policy to the people of philippines to put so many artificial hurdles in front of their quest to travel overseas??? Is it even legal or ethical to prevent people from traveling overseas ??