Sen. Risa Hontiveros (Joseph Vidal/ Senate PRIB)
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Risa Hontiveros on Saturday welcomed the move of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to file criminal charges against a female immigration officer who was allegedly involved in facilitating the flight of trafficked individuals to Cambodia.
“Ang pagkaso sa mga Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers ay isang napakahalagang hakbang para tuluyang matuldukan na ang malawakang human trafficking ng mga Pilipino,” Hontiveros said in a statement.
(Filing charges against these BI officers is an important step to end the widespread human trafficking of Filipinos.)
“Our Senate Committee on Women has long revealed that Chinese crypto scam syndicates want an all-Filipino team for their criminal operations, and we simply cannot allow this,” she added.
In an earlier statement, the BI revealed that the departure of six suspected trafficking victims for Cambodia was processed by the immigration officer in January this year.
It added that the same officer also facilitated the flight of three more victims from Cambodia to Manila in February.
Hontiveros lauded the NBI for its efforts to help bring illegal recruiters and human traffickers to justice and stressed that even government officials and employees would be held accountable.
“Nagpapasalamat din ako sa mga witness, mga victim-survivors ng crypto human trafficking sa Cambodia, na naglakas loob makipag-ugnayan sa opisina ko at nagsiwalat ng kanilang kwento. Their testimonies have been key to the filing of these charges,” she disclosed.
(I am also grateful to the witnesses, victim-survivors of human crypto trafficking in Cambodia, who dared to contact my office and reveal their story.)