Suspected human trafficker nabbed at Naia

MANILA, Philippines — A suspected courier for a human trafficking syndicate was arrested at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said Tuesday.

The immigration bureau said that the trafficker was nabbed while escorting five victims who were about to board a flight to Tokyo, Japan at Naia Terminal 3 last October 11.

In a report to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente, BI port operations division chief Grifton Medina said that the inconsistent answers of the victims to the queries of immigration officers raised doubts on the authenticity of the travel documents they presented.

Four of the victims claimed that they are employees of the suspect’s travel consultancy business while the other victim said that he is a public transport operator.

“Except for IDs purportedly showing they work at the travel agency, the four passengers were unable to provide proof of their employer-employee relationship to the suspect,” Timotea Barizo, head of the BI’s travel control and enforcement unit (TCEU) said in a statement.

“This caused our officers to doubt their story, hence they were interviewed to check the authenticity of their statements,” she added.

Barizo said that three of the victims were first-time travelers while the remaining two are former overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

“There were too many inconsistencies in their statements,” Barizo said.

“In fact, two of the victims even had fake stamps in their passports,” she added.

The suspected trafficker was brought to the the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) for further investigation and filing of charges.

Morente, meanwhile, warned aspiring OFWs to be wary of illegal recruiters. /je