BI chief, 2 others on way out

Immigration Commissioner Siegfred Mison. FACEBOOK PHOTO

IMMIGRATION Commissioner Siegfred Mison and two other officials of the Bureau of Immigration (BI)  are on their way out because of controversies involving fugitive foreigners who allegedly bribed immigration officials to prevent their deportation, a highly placed source told the Inquirer.

The source said Deputy Commissioner Gilberto Repizo was also on the way out but he did not identify the third official.

“The decision to let go of Mison and Repizo was based on reports and several incidents of state cases,” said the source, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak about the matter.

He, however, did not name the replacements for the three officials of the BI, which is under the Department of Justice.

Mison was investigated by the National Bureau of Investigation after a Korean, accused of extortion by his compatriots, escaped twice while under the bureau’s custody.

READ: WHAT WENT BEFORE

Repizo was accused of accepting bribe money when he disallowed the deportation of suspected Chinese drug lord Wang Bo.

The House of Representatives conducted an inquiry into the alleged bribery but stopped the investigation after the deportation of Wang.

When reached for comment, Mison said he had not received any official papers of his relief but disclosed that a deputy secretary asked him in late November to voluntarily leave the office.

“I am willing to go because like a good soldier, I obey orders. But I want to talk to the President first to personally thank him for the opportunity to work for him and the country,” Mison said.

“I really wish that before I go, I could talk to the President, not to persuade him to let me stay but I want to clear my name because I owe it to my father.”

His father, Salvador Mison, a retired general of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, served as commissioner of the Bureau of Customs from 1987 to 1991 under the administration of then President Cory Aquino.

Documents obtained by the Inquirer showed that Justice Secretary Benjamin Caguioa, who has jurisdiction over the bureau, issued department orders as early as November giving Repizo powers that were previously held by Mison.

In one of the memorandums he issued on Nov. 23, 2015, Caguioa gave Repizo the sole authority to issue an exclusion order, a power performed by the immigration head.

An exclusion order is the authority to allow a traveler to enter or leave all ports and airports in the country.

“In carrying out his mandate as commissioner-in-charge of enhancing and improving the border control operations of all ports in the country, Repizo shall exercise the following exclusive and direct supervision and control over all personnel directly or indirectly connected with border operations of all the ports, including among others, the regular employees, confidential agents, contractual employees and all job order employees of the intelligence division, counterintelligence unit, the border management security unit, travel control enforcement unit and the exclusive authority to issue exclusion order,” Caguioa said in  Department Order No. 911.

The authority given to Repizo by Caguioa was illegal and “could be used as a revenue-making position and could be subject to abuse,” said an immigration lawyer contacted by the Inquirer.

“With this kind of single authority, there is so much room to make money and raise funds,” said the immigration lawyer, who asked not to be identified.

Repizo, a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Law, was appointed associate immigration commissioner on Dec. 2, 2014. He is a former councilor of Calapan City in Oriental Mindoro.

The NBI investigation, announced by former Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, cleared Mison and others in the Wang controversy in connection with the alleged P100-million bribe given to two immigration officials in exchange for Wang’s release.

The money was supposed to be for the war chest of a political party.

Wang was finally deported in August last year.

Mison became an associate commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration in June 2011 after serving the Philippine Army for 12 years and after 12 years in the legal profession, according to the website of the BI.

He was a government scholar who represented the country to the US Military Academy at West Point in 1987. He holds a master’s degree from University of Southern California.

While still in the Army, he took up law at the Ateneo Law School.

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