The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said its officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) foiled an attempt by two Chinese nationals to leave the country by passing themselves off as Costa Rican nationals.
In a statement, Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado identified the two passengers as Wang Songyi, 54, and Liao Fudi, 50, both of whom were intercepted at the NAIA terminal 1 last Oct. 19 before they could depart aboard a Philippine Airlines flight to Kuala Lumpur
“Investigation revealed that the passengers intended to proceed to Canada where they planned to use their Costa Rican passports to evade and circumvent Canada’s entry visa requirements for Chinese nationals,” Viado said.
The BI chief commended the BI officers responsible for preventing the departure of the Chinese nationals, thus foiling a scheme to facilitate the illegal entry of two illegal aliens into North America.
It was reported that the scheme was thwarted after BI officers who processed the two passengers noticed irregularities in the Costa Rica passports they presented.
The said passports had Philippine immigration arrival stamps which were found as counterfeit by the BI’s forensic documents laboratory.
They were also unable to speak in Spanish, which is the language in Costa Rica.
When pressed during interview to reveal their true nationality, both passengers surrendered their Chinese passports which contained the fake BI arrival stamps.
The aliens were later turned over to personnel of the BI’s border control and intelligence unit (BCIU) and later brought to the BI detention facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City.
BI-BCIU chief Ferdinand Tendenilla said the duo was already slapped with deportation cases after undergoing preliminary investigation at the BI’s head office.
