No VIP escorts at airports, warns BI chief

Immigration chief Jaime Morente on Wednesday sent out a strong reminder to Bureau of Immigration (BI) personnel to keep immigration areas in the country’s international airports strictly off limits to unauthorized persons, especially those escorting or giving VIP treatment to passengers.

Only immigration employees who are on duty and those who have travel orders are allowed in the premises of any international airport, the immigration chief said.

He ordered BI employees to “desist from escorting or facilitating arriving and departing passengers” personally or to make such a request by text or phone calls to colleagues in order to expedite formalities at the immigration counters.

Acting on Morente’s orders, Marc Red Mariñas, acting chief of the BI’s port operations division, informed all immigration personnel that stiff sanctions would be imposed on those who violated the policy and directive.

Morente reiterated the no-escort policy after he learned that two well-known personalities were escorted by a retired police officer to the immigration counters at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) after they arrived from Bangkok on Sunday, a BI press statement said.

The statement did not identify the personalities or the ex-policeman, but a memorandum from Mariñas to Morente said they were gaming businessman Charlie “Atong” Ang, actress Gretchen Barreto and their entourage, who were escorted by retired SPO4 Ciriaco Peralta.

Mariñas reported that Peralta approached and informed a duty officer of the Border Control and Intelligence Unit that he would be “assisting Mr. Ang who arrived with movie personality Gretchen Barreto and company.” Mariñas’ memorandum did not say why Ang and company needed to be escorted.

Peralta obtained a pass from the airport’s pass control office, Mariñas said, adding that no immigration personnel was involved in the “facilitation” of the immigration processing of Ang, Barreto and the others.

Morente will ask Naia general manager Ed Monreal to investigate the incident and “take appropriate action to prevent its recurrence in the future,” according to the BI statement.

Monreal did not respond to Inquirer’s calls for comment.

Ang, who operates online jai-alai games through Meridien Vista Gaming Corp., recently accused Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon and some generals of plotting to kill him.

He said Aguirre was trying to shake down his partner Jack Lam at the behest of local gaming tycoon Kim Wong.

Aguirre disputed Ang’s charges, calling him a liar. Aguirre said he even authorized the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate Ang’s claims against him and Esperon. —Reports from Julie M. Aurelio, Tetch Torres-Tupas, and Jovic Yee