It’s no surprise that this only made it to the news now.
“Insiders confirmed that on January 6, Zheng Wanming, a technician bound for the Eastern Visayas to help in the post-Yolanda relief efforts, was pulled from the line at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) immigration counter at past 5 a.m. and made the subject of an exclusion order by Bureau of Immigration (BI) officer Lady Joan Ruiz and supervisor Lynn Austria—allegedly without checking his visa, which would have shown that he was a diplomat,” reports Rainier Allan Ronda in The Philippine Star.
The report revealed that Ruiz and Austria, who are said to be newly hired BI officers, accosted Zheng, a 9E visa holder and a foreign government official, because he had no return ticket. However, as the report noted “under immigration rules, foreign diplomats are allowed to enter the country without a return ticket.”
Zheng, who did not speak English, was detained at the airport for about 15 hours. A Chinese embassy representative went to the NAIA at around noon that day to explain Zheng’s status and plead for his release. However, the BI officers still refused to release him.
It was only after the Chinese embassy sought the help of the Philippine Red Cross that Zheng was set free and allowed to officially enter the country at around 8pm.
According to the report, “airport sources said the incident occurred because of Ruiz and Austria’s ignorance.”
For this, we are very, very sorry.
Photo by John Paul Solis via WikiCommons
