A PASSPORT FOR $6,000
It’s been a busy week for the Philippines: A senate investigation into extrajudicial killings; a court order against the burial of Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani; the suspension of a senator for an arms deal while he was a city mayor; a whistle-blower to be jailed for graft; and 177 Indonesians stopped at the airport for illegally using Philippine passports.
Pardon my interest on the passport issue more than the others, which I believe to be just as important — if not scandalous — but more local or even parochial. The item regarding foreigners using Philippine passports has far more global implications, and goes beyond being a mere local immigration issue. It should not end with mere deportation of the culprits.
The passport incident last Aug. 18 now puts into question the authenticity and the credibility of all travel documents issued and to be issued by any office of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) here and abroad. And this, in turn, puts at risk millions of overseas Filipino workers and international travelers carrying such documents.
The incident highlights the seeming breach in the security of the passport production process. And while it seems to be the biggest case yet with respect to the fraudulent use of Philippine travel documents, it is obviously not the first time that spurious documents have been used — or original and authentic documents have been misused.
At key ports of entry abroad, Filipinos may now be unfairly perceived as carrying spurious documents or are using assumed identities, and may thus be prejudged as traveling with ill intent. For how else can immigration officials abroad now continue to trust the credibility or integrity of Philippine travel documents given obvious lapses in security?
It is also curious that most reports detail five Filipino escorts and 177 Indonesians attempting to pass themselves off as Filipinos traveling to Saudi Arabia, and little mention has been made about at least 10 Malaysians allegedly part of the travelling group. That makes about 200 people who came in as tourists and tried to leave for the Middle East as Filipino Hajj pilgrims.
I now raise the possibility of foreigners coming in supposedly as Filipinos, with Philippine travel documents being faked — or identities being faked but using authentic documents. ISIS terrorists, or members of Jemaah Islamiyah, can come into the country and then depart for Western countries posing as Filipino travelers.
Indonesia insists its citizens were victims of fraud. But, their people knew that they came to the Philippines as tourists and were departing Manila for their Holy Pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia using Philippine travel documents. They cannot deny complicity as only illegitimate travelers will agree to depart under such questionable circumstances.
What is more worrying is that the scheme — or scam — was detected not because of questions regarding the travel documents but the discovery by immigration officials that the travelers could not speak or understand any of the local dialects, thus raising alarm regarding their assumed identities. In short, their travel documents didn’t seem questionable at all.
The pilgrims were about to board a Philippine Airlines flight, and would have done so if their “escorts” successfully delivered on their promise to send the pilgrims on their way. Each pilgrim reportedly paid to travel agents in Indonesia between $6,000 and $10,000 for travel documents and arrangements to go on the mandatory Holy Pilgrimage through the Philippines.
The syndicate operation is obviously international, and it cannot be ascertained at this point if such operations has been going on for some time. Obviously, the 177 Indonesians would not have trusted their money to the syndicate unless they were encouraged by testimonials and anecdotal assurances from fellows who have successfully traveled using the same path.
Moreover, an illegal operation like this would not have been undertaken without making prior arrangements with syndicate mem- bers in the Philippines and without bribe money or payoffs changing hands ahead. After all, it is not easy to hide 200 foreigners using assumed Filipino identities. And at an average cost of $8,000 per head, that’s roughly $1.6 million or about $80 million for the syndicate.
The pilgrims would not have left their respective countries without believable assurances from the travel “agents.” The “agents” would not have proceeded with the trip without prior “arrangements” in the Philippines. The “escorts” would not have risked travel without “guarantees” of an “all clear.” Thus, the snafu could have been the result of “double cross.”
The Office of the Ministry of Religious Affairs in South Sulawesi (Indonesia), Abdul Wahid Tahir, was quoted as saying that he was aware that Indonesian pilgrims enter the Philippines using the visafree facility used by tourists, and once here, they were given what he called “fake” Philippine passports to leave for Saudi Arabia.
In the case of the 177 Indonesians, some reportedly first traveled from Indonesia to Malaysia by sea, and then to the Philippine by air. And from here, they were to fly to Saudi Arabia. It is uncertain, however, if they carried return tickets and would come back the same way, or go home directly to Indonesia. Indonesian police claimed this was not the first time that pilgrims were going to Saudi Arabia via the Philippines.
DFA has promised to probe the matter. The agency said the Indonesians were carrying special Philippine hajj passports, which are different from the regular passport. The passports, which were real but obtained illegally, should be issued only to Filipino hajj pilgrims, the DFA said. Although one report quoted the DFA passport printer as saying the passports were “fake.”
Just last month there were allegations of graft against officials in the government agency tasked to produce the passports for DFA. Then, the DFA itself alleged that the passports being made for it were “overpriced.” And now, this incident involving almost 200 foreigners holding Philippine passports. What is going on over at DFA and its passport producer?
Investigations have been promised. Even a senator vowed to look into the passport production issue. But, to date, despite the urgency and importance of the matter, considering that millions of Filipinos use passports, nothing has been reported to the public with respect to developments in the inquiries.
Fact of the matter is, any anomaly or fraudulent scheme involving passports will not happen without collusion and conspiracy among unscrupulous people in agencies tasked to process and physically produce passports. This process starts and ends with DFA, with its passport producer playing a role in between. And obviously, something wrong is going on somewhere.