Alleged Trinidad aide linked to human smuggling racket?

Immigration authorities at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) has accused the liaison officer of Pasay City Mayor Pewee Trinidad of alleged involvement in human-smuggling activities of a Japan-based criminal syndicate.

At the same time, Tom Natividad, NAIA immigration intelligence chief, asked Airport General Manager Edgardo Manda to revoke the airport access identification card of Antonio Fernandez and ban him from the airport for attempting to smuggle into the country eight suspected Yakuza gang members last Friday.

Fernandez, who used to be a liaison officer at the Manila City Hall, was stripped of his airport access identification card early last year for "facilitating" the entry into the country of several Yakuza members, some of whom were in the blacklist of the Bureau of Immigration.

Newly-appointed Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo had issued an order banning the entry into the country of members of foreign-based criminal syndicates when Fernandez attempted to bring in the eight alleged members of the dreaded Yakuza gang.

Natividad said that Fernandez had been involved on several occasions in the "facilitation" of the entry of Yakuza gang members by dropping the name of the city of mayor of Manila.

"This time," Natividad said, "Fernandez is dropping the name of Mayor Trinidad."

Meanwhile, two Chinese nationals were caught by immigration authorities at the airport while attempting to leave the country for Vancouver, Canada using fake passports of the Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China.

Immigration intelligence agents Rudy David and Raymond Bustillo said that two elderly Chinese using genuine passports, had arranged for the departure clearance of Pun Ching and Chun Mui, both 22, whose passports were fake.

The two had used their original Chinese passports when they entered the country last December. The elderly Chinese, however, escaped. – Rey Arquiza