BI nabs Korean posing as a Filipino

Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers have arrested an overstaying South Korean at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) while attempting to leave the country by misrepresenting himself as a Filipino.

Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente identified the Korean as Kwak Dong Hee, 26, who was intercepted last week at NAIA 3 terminal as he was about to board a Cebu Pacific flight to Saigon, Vietnam.

Kwak spent New Year at the BI Detention Facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig where he remains detained pending deportation proceedings.

According to Morente, Kwak introduced himself as Erik Nacis, purportedly born to a Korean man and a Filipina in Meycauayan, Bulacan in 1992.

However, the immigration officer who processed him became suspicious after noticing he could not converse in Filipino or any local dialect.

“It was during questioning that he admitted his true identity as a Korean citizen and that the Philippine passport he presented was fraudulently-acquired,” Morente said.

According to supervisor Carlo Gomez of the BI Travel Control and Enforcement Unit, Kwak confessed during the interview that both his parents are Koreans and that he illegally obtained his Philippine passport by paying more than R120,000 to a compatriot in the Philippines.

Gomez said it was also the Korean who processed and acquired the fake birth certificate found in his possession. But Kwak refused to identify him.

Records showed that Kwak last arrived in Manila on Aug. 27, 2015, hence he has already been overstaying for more than three years.