BI seeking DOJ assistance in probing errant personnel

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MANILA, Philippines – Bureau of Immigration (BI) chief Jaime Morente will seek the assistance of the Department of Justice (DOJ) in investigating reports that some BI personnel stationed at airports involved in corruption.

Morente on Wednesday said that he received information that some BI-Port Operations Division employees are linked to human trafficking cases.

“We will elevate this to the Department of Justice, our mother department, for investigation. We suspect that other agencies may be included in this complaint as well, as anti-trafficking efforts is a shared responsibility of all members of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking,” Morente said in a statement.

“Currently, our Board of Discipline may only recommend action to the DOJ. It is the DOJ who has the power to hire and fire employees. We believe that the control over administrative matters should be delegated to the BI, for us to be able to enforce immediate sanctions.” he added.

Morente stressed the need for immediate action regarding the case of the concerned BI personnel, as the BI is in the midst of combating human trafficking.

The BI chief bared that the country’s status improved from Tier 2 to Tier 1 in the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons report, and have retained that good standing for three consecutive years.

“Our actions on previous incidents of alleged corruption show that we will not hesitate to weed out corrupt employees. The President’s directive is clear.  Corruption has no place in BI, not on my watch,” he said. /gsg