FILE PHOTO: President Rodrigo Duterte meets with Bureau of Immigration officers who are facing charges in connection with the “Pastillas” scheme. Screengrab from PCOO Facebook video.
MANILA, Philippines — The 43 Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers who have been linked to the “Pastillas” scheme were charged with graft before the Sandiganbayan.
The Office of the Ombudsman on Tuesday said the 43 immigration officers violated Section 3 of Republic Act No. 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act when they gave unwarranted benefits and preference to 143 Chinese passengers who managed to enter the country without the required profiling and screening processes.
“The above acts of the accused public officials thus allowed the entry of foreign passengers into the country without going through the regular and stringent profiling and screening processes in violation of existing immigration rules and procedures, to the prejudice of the government and public interest,” stated the information signed and approved by Ombudsman Samuel Martires.
The Ombudsman detailed how the transactions went, mostly through group chats, where bosses or Chinese suppliers acted as conduits between travel agencies and BI officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminals 1 and 2.
“They (bosses) receive a list of passenger names from travel agencies and cascade said list to administrators of Viber chat group. The Bosses or Chinese suppliers receive the payouts from travel agencies usually wrapped like the local candy pastillas, and then caused the distribution of the shares of pastillas to the different members of the pastillas scheme,” the Office of the Ombudsman said.
A bail bond of P90,000 per accused has been recommended by the Ombudsman.
The Pastillas scheme gained notoriety after Senator Risa Hontiveros’ expose in February 2020, which eventually led to a congressional probe.
According to Hontiveros, the Chinese nationals who were able to enter the country via the scheme were believed to be workers for the controversial Philippine offshore gaming operation (POGO).
READ: NBI must probe ‘mutating pastillas scam,’ reveal travel agencies involved – Hontiveros
As of November 2020, 86 individuals implicated in the scam had been charged, with 83 of them suspended for six months without pay by the Office of the Ombudsman.
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