NAIA tightens watch vs fake RP visas

Immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) have tightened their watch against fake Philippine visas to ensure that foreign nationals with questionable documents will not be able to enter the country. Officials reminded its personnel to always be on the lookout after two Indian nationals were caught with fraudulent papers last week.

NAIA Immigration chief Ferdinand Sampol said Baldeep Singh and Harjinder Singh were immediately deported back to India after the Philippine visas they presented were found to be fake. Immigration officers are building a case against another Indian national identified as one Mandeep Kumar who allegedly tried to escort the two and even tried to bribe an Immigration personnel into letting them pass.

Sampol said the Indian nationals tried to enter the Philippines last March 19 after arriving supposedly from Singapore. Kumar allegedly escorted the two Indian nationals to the diplomatic lane and introduced himself by the fictitious name Mike Singh.

In a report, Immigration officer Rommel Dimacuha, said that after referring the documents presented by the two to officer-of-the-day Maida Rebong, "the undersigned examined the passengers’ documents and found the same to be highly questionable particularly the entry visas to the Philippines."

"When these (visas) were compared to specimen visas, the former exhibited distinct irregularities in them," his report noted.

When Kumar sensed that his companions would not be allowed to enter the country, the former allegedly "offered to pay a few hundred dollars for the undersigned to intercede in allowing the passengers admission and entry." Kumar was invited for questioning and he said that the Indian nationals he was with, secured their Philippine visas through a travel agency in Jakarta though the documents show that the same were issued in Singapore.