Philippine Officials Implicated in Human Trafficking

Risa Hontiveros is leading an investigation into ties between Philippine Bureau of Immigration officials and a human trafficking operation to Syria (Wikimedia Commons).

Ana Theresia “Risa” Hontiveros, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Women in the Philippines, linked five Bureau of Immigration officials to a human trafficking scheme during an online press conference on March 22. Hontiveros implicated five Bureau officials, including Mark Darwin Talha, Nerissa Pineda, John Michael Angeles, and Ervin Ortañez. The officers reportedly stamped at least four victims’ passports, allowing them to be trafficked to Syria.

Four women provided accounts of their experiences—they will be referred to by the aliases “Diana,” “Alice,” “Belen,” and “Carol” to ensure their security. Diana said that her recruiter forced her to have an abortion. Later, Diana’s recruiter bribed immigration officials so that he could discreetly take her out of the country.

Alice, Belen, and Carol, three victims who have not yet been able to leave Syria, corroborated Diana’s account, alleging that their recruiters bribed Bureau of Immigration officials so that they could bypass customs. In Syria, the women were ‘purchased’ for amounts ranging from $1000 to $9000 by a clientele who, according to Hontiveros, treated them like “modern-day slaves.”

Alice said she was promised a job in Dubai for $400 a month, but she was instead forcibly taken to Syria in 2018 for a job paying only about $200. According to her testimony, one of the people who oversaw her departure in an airport was a female immigration official. Alice also said that officials were paid about $1000 for each woman they allowed to leave the country. Once in Syria, Alice asked to return home, and she claimed that her employers physically abused her in response, kicking her, slapping her, and dragging her by her hair.

The role of Bureau of Immigration officials was exposed by whistleblower Alex Chiong. Chiong provided Viber screenshots showing an individual called “FM” planning to facilitate the trafficking of women to Syria. Chiong alleged that this “FM” is Fidel Mendoza.

According to Chiong, the implicated Bureau officials, including Mendoza, are also linked to the recent ‘Pastillas’ scheme involving corruption, bribery, and other abuses of power. The perpetrators of the ‘pastillas’ scheme allowed Chinese workers to illegally immigrate to the country in exchange for bribes wrapped in papers that appear similar those of the ‘pastilla’ milk candy.

“It is clear that this is the same business model they used to dupe their countrymen into slavery in other foreign countries,” Hontiveros said. “Mendoza’s name has repeatedly been given by our whistleblowers as one of the suppliers of trafficked women. Same cast of characters, different crime.

Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente stressed that the Bureau of Immigration will cooperate with Hontiveros’s investigation, saying that the two “share a common goal of eliminating corruption in the Bureau.”

With the names of several Bureau officials involved in the scheme, Hontiveros said the perpetrators would be sentenced to life imprisonment as a violation of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act.