Two recruiters caught issuing tampered passports

Two overseas job recruiters were nabbed by the Manila police in an entrapment operation at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) for allegedly issuing tampered passports to departing job applicants they have recruited.

Rasheila al-Shaik and Denia Sona were charged with robbery extortion, large scale estafa, illegal recruitment and violation of the Philippine Passport Law before Parañaque Second Assistant Prosecutor Apolinar Quetulio Jr.

The arrests followed a complaint filed by Jumelyn Tamara, 32, an overseas Filipino worker, who told police she was being issued a passport with her photo but bearing the name of another person when she was about to leave for abroad at the NAIA.

She said she was asked P200,000 by the two women in exchange for the passport, ticket and visa to Kuwait. Sensing fraud, Tamara told al-Shaik and Sona that she would come up with the money.

But she proceeded to the Manila police to make a complaint and Senior Inspector Baltazar Beran immediately planned an entrapment operation.

Upon their arrest, al-Shaik and Sona also yielded four more suspected tampered passports. Beran contacted the people whose photos were on the passports. It turned out that the names on the passports were someone else’s.

Police are trying to determine if al-Shaik and Sona have accomplices.

"Definitely the syndicate has contact with government agencies where they were able to secure government-issued documents," Beran said. — Nestor Etolle