MANILA: Justice Secretary Jesus Remulla on Tuesday said his office will look into the accountability of past and present officials in the Bureau of Immigration (BI) who approved “thousands” of migrant workers visas from fly-by-night local businesses.
Remulla, in a press briefing said the visas were issued to applicants from fake corporations and sole proprietorships. Information about the anomalies were brought to the DOJ’s attention this January.
“As a matter of policy, I’m asking the BI not to grant anymore visas to sole proprietorships but only to corporations that have the stamp of approval of the SEC (Securities and Exchanges Commission),” he said.
Remulla said initial findings showed that a number of corporations that were petitioning for 9G visas are fake corporations or non-entities.
“Kaya ‘yan ang pinapaimbestigahan ko five years back para matigil na itong kalokohan na to (I have ordered an investigation to as far back as five years ago). It is an affront to our sovereignty that these people have
been issuing all of these [visas] to them. Many of them are used for POGO [Philippine offshore gaming operator]),” he added.
“We’re talking about more than 500 corporations and thousands and thousands of visas issued with the petition of these corporations, which has been presumed validated by the legal department and the visa issuing authority of the Bureau of Immigration. It’s just the tip of the iceberg. I would be asking for a fuller investigation and that’s what we discussed yesterday,” the DOJ chief said.
Remulla noted that the applications from the corporations did not undergo further scrutiny by the concerned officials. “The corporations were accepted hook, line and sinker without any validation. Meaning to say probably (they are ) in cahoots because you are talking about due diligence as a matter of government policy in every transaction.”
Remulla, meanwhile, reiterated his position to allow a private third party entity to take over the issuance of visas in the Philippines, similar to the practice
in other countries.
Source: Philippines News Agency