From a report posted by the The Business Mirror, graft charges have been filed against Seigfred B Mison and several other immigration officials and staff in the Bureau of Immigration (BI).
The report says that ‘concerned’ employees of the BI have asked Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to conduct a full investigation into ongoing allegations on the “entry for a fee, fly for a fee” racket being pushed through the BI.
“The justice department, through the National Bureau of Investigation, should look deeper into the anomaly even as graft charges have already been filed against Mison before the Office of the Ombudsman,” the employees said in a statement. The group is calling on Mison to take leave pending the results of the investigation.
Mison has also been charged with violation of Republic Act #6713 (The Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, 1987). He is also charged with violation of Commonwealth Act #613 (the Philippine Immigration act of 1940).
Charged in the scheme along with Mison are two BI personnel known only as Intelligence Officer Lunas and Travel Control and Enforcement Unit De Leon. Also charged are a supervisor Ms Mariano, a Border Management and Security Unit Flories and a person by the name of Cayetano – Office of the Commissioner technical assistant Norman G Tansingco and several others join the roster of charges including a few John and Jane Does.
The case against Mison and his entourage of people stems from the illegal lifting of the bureau’s “Blacklist” of a certain Yuan Jian Chua, also known as Wilson Ong Cheng from China – the complaint was filed before the Ombudsman office on April 22 by Immigration Intelligence Officer Ricardo Cabochan.
In Cobachan’s 14-page complaint and affidavit, he claims that Yuan was arrested by immigration officials on November 6, 2013, in Cebu City. Yuan was then deported on January 22, 2014, for being an ‘undocumented alien’ and ‘fraudulently representing himself to be a Philippines citizen’.
Yuan was then posted to the BI’s “Blacklist”, which barred him from reentering the country for a term of one year. But on March 11, Yuan arrived in NAIA terminal 1 but was denied entry to the country.
However, within an hour or so Yuan was allow to enter the Philippines upon the instructions of a certain person signing off the order as “SBM.”
“Records from the Centralized Query Supports System confirm that he was allowed only on the sole basis that the terminal head, in the person of Maria Rhodora T. Abrazaldo, were verbally instructed by a certain ‘SBM’ through a certain ‘Atty. Tansinco,’” the complaint said.
“‘SBM’ is the customary and official designation-appellation clearly referring to Commissioner Siegfried B Mison, while the name ‘Atty. Tansingco’ refers to Atty. Norman G. Tansingco, technical staffmember of the Office of the Commissioner,” the complaint added.
The complainant further alleged that a verification made with the CQSS on March 19, or eight days from the time the Chinese was allowed entry on March 11, showed that the blacklist order issued against the said subject remains “active”, which means that it has not yet been lifted or cancelled.