Bureau of Immigration (BI) intercepted two female passengers who were nearly trafficked abroad after posing as employees of the House of Representatives to conceal their illegal recruitment.
The incident occurred in the early morning of January 7 at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA), where BI officers intercepted two women, aged 25 and 26, who attempted to board a Vietnam Airlines flight bound for Vietnam.
During primary inspection, the two women initially presented themselves as tourists and claimed to be encoders working for the House of Representatives. However, immigration officers noted inconsistencies in their statements and documents, prompting a referral for secondary inspection.
Further questioning revealed that the certificates of employment were fake. The passengers later admitted that they had been recruited by an woman they had been communicating with online.
According to the BI, the women disclosed that they each paid more than 100,000 pesos for the processing of their documents. They were instructed by their recruiter to travel first to Vietnam and wait there for their visas and travel arrangements to Bulgaria, where they were supposed to work illegally as restaurant crew.
BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado condemned the scheme, stressing that deception and misrepresentation are common tactics used by traffickers to evade immigration controls.
“These are clear indicators of human trafficking—fake employment documents, false declarations, and instructions to wait for papers in another country,” Viado said. “No Filipino should fall victim to illegal recruiters and traffickers who prey on desperation and false promises,” he added.
Viado further warned the public against offers of overseas employment that require travelers to pose as tourists or misrepresent their purpose of travel. “If you are being told to lie, hide your true destination, or pay large sums of money outside legal recruitment channels, that is not legitimate work—it is trafficking,” he said.
The BI reiterated that lawful overseas employment requires proper documentation and processing through authorized government agencies, including the Department of Migrant Workers.
The two women were subsequently turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) for assistance and the filing of appropriate cases against their recruiter.
