Who are the masterminds of this scam?
“On Thu, Sep 29, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) has intercepted 23 Indonesians and 14 Malaysians who carried Philippine passports, at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2,” report Evelyn Macairan and Rudy Santos in The Philippine Star.
BI spokesperson Ma. Antonette Mangrobang revealed that “the foreigners were among those who attended the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.” They arrived on a 9:45am Philippine Airlines flight from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. They were then taken to Villamor Air Base for questioning.
This is not the first time a group of hajj pilgrims were caught with fake Philippine passports. Last Aug 19, BI officers intercepted 177 Indonesians as they were about to board a flight for Mecca.
Thus, BI Commissioner Jaime Morente has ordered “a parallel investigation to determine if Immigration personnel were involved in the passport scam.”
The report explained that the scam may have been hatched because the Saudi Ministry of Hajj limits the number of pilgrims per country. For instance, the quota for the Philippines is 8,000 pilgrims.
It’s possible that pilgrims from other countries that had filled their quotas were enticed by scammers to pay at least PHP25,000 (around US$515) for each fake Philippine passport. The BI said the scammers may have earned as much as PHP200 million (around US$4.1 million) from their shady deals.
