BI to probe how 2 OFWs snuck out of NAIA

MANILA, Philippines - Bureau of Immigration officers assigned at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) are investigating how two overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) were able to sneak out of the airport and go to Lebanon last year.

One of the two OFWs, Gemmalyn Villafuerte, 31, was apprehended for questioning when she arrived at the NAIA Terminal 1 yesterday morning.

Dong Castillo, head of the BI Travel Control and Enforcement Unit, are looking for clues that would identify those involved in human smuggling activities at the airport. He turned Villafuerte over to the BI Intelligence Group for questioning.

Villafuerte said Nancy Bernales, who was introduced by one of her friends, recruited her to work in Lebanon on April 12, 2011.

She said she was told to be at the NAIA Terminal 3 on June 4, 2011 with Levie Agusto to check in to a flight for Bangkok. They were advised to proceed to the pay parking area after getting their boarding pass. They boarded a white van and were given fake Manila International Airport Authority identification cards.

They went to the tarmac and stopped at Bay 9, Villafuerte said.

“Our escort knocked but no one opened the boarding gate so we went to... boarding gate 12. Someone opened the gate and we went into the airplane,” she said.

Villafuerte added that she was only given $10 as “baon” in case she felt hungry while at the Bangkok airport.

She said after 10 months of working, she received only one month’s salary. Her employer claimed he deposited her salary in her dollar account, which she did not have. She ran away from her employer and went to the Philippine embassy in Lebanon, hoping they could help her get her salary.

“If I only knew they would not be able to help me, I wish I had just continued being an illegal worker,” Villafuerte said.

The BI turned Villafuerte over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking for proper investigation and filing of charges.