3 mail-order brides stopped at Cebu airport

MANILA, Philippines — Three Filipino women believed to be victims of a mail-order bride scheme have been prevented from boarding their flights to China, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said yesterday. The women were with their alleged fake Chinese husbands when they attempted to depart from the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) over the weekend.

They presented marriage certificates supposedly issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)  as well as photos of their weddings, according to BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco.

One of the women, 29 years old, was accompanied by a 30-year-old Chinese man who claimed to be her husband.

The two tried to board a China Eastern Airlines flight to Shanghai last Friday. They were stopped by personnel of the BI’s immigration protection and border enforcement section after inconsistencies were detected in their documents.

When probed, the woman admitted she did not know the details of the supposed wedding. She said she was paid P17,500 through money transfer for the processing of her documents.

“What’s surprising in this case is they have photos of their supposed wedding, which never happened. These syndicates seemed to have prepared a studio for picture-taking,” Tansingco said.

The BI said two more couples bound for Shanghai were stopped from leaving on Saturday.

The women, aged 24 and 25, attempted to travel with their supposed Chinese spouses.

Both presented marriage certificates supposedly issued by the PSA.

They admitted that their documents and their marriage were arranged through a contact.

“This is a clear mail-order bride scheme, wherein fixers arrange marriage between Filipinas and foreign nationals,” Tansingco said.

“These attempts have been intercepted at our Manila airports, and now they are attempting to leave through other airports,” he added.

The women and their Chinese “partners” were turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking  for further investigation.–  Rudy Santos