Philippine Immigration

MANILA, Philippines -- The Bureau of Immigration on Thursday said the number of foreigners who arrived in the country in September was eight percent more than the number in the same month last year.

Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said 384,948 foreigners entered the country through the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and other ports of entry last month, compared to the 356,760 in the same period last year.

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MANILA, Philippines -- The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has arrested a German wanted in his country for massive computer fraud that victimized thousands of investors.

BI commissioner Marcelino Libanan said Peter Uwe Muller was arrested Friday by personnel of the bureau’s law enforcement division in his home at Sandico Street, Diamond Subdivision, Barangay Balibago, Angeles City, Pampanga.

He is detained at the Bicutan immigration jail.

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MANILA, Philippines -- Bureau of Immigration (BI) commissioner Marcelino Libanan relieved on Thursday an officer of the agency at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 (NAIA-3) for her alleged involvement in Wednesday’s foiled departure of 17 undocumented contract workers to the Middle East.

Libanan issued an order recalling immigration officer Mindaya Ombawa to the BI main office in Intramuros pending investigation of her alleged involvement in facilitating the attempted departure of the workers, all said to be minors bound for Jordan and Syria.

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MANILA, Philippines -- The Bureau of Immigration has deported a foreigner arrested for alleged swindling in Davao City two years ago, Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said.

Masahiro Tashima, 47, and identified as a Japanese national was deported after a two-year-old case against him before the Lapu-Lapu City regional trial court was dismissed, Libanan said.

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MANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of Immigration has set up what it calls its “last line of defense” against the trafficking of overseas Filipino workers.

Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan, in a statement, said the bureau’s agents stationed at airports and sea ports, who have little or no evidence to detain suspected “tourist-workers,” would instead brief them on the hazards faced by undocumented workers in foreign countries.

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MANILA, Philippines -- The Bureau of Immigration (BI) arrested three Indian nationals accused of molesting a 31-year old Filipina.

Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said Kulvinder Singh, 30, Hardawinder Singh, 26, and Amarjir Singh, 21, are undergoing deportation proceedings for being undesirable aliens and using spurious immigration documents.

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MANILA, Philippines—With a proposed new visa for foreign investors, more Filipinos would be able to stay in the country instead of having to go abroad to look for work.

In a consultation with the private sector, Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said the proposed grant of indefinite stay visas to foreigners who employ Filipinos was “a solution to the continued migration of our countrymen.”

The proposed visa would be given to a foreigner who employs at least 10 Filipinos in a local enterprise.

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MANILA, Philippines -- The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has barred an Israeli-American national from entering the country for insulting and harassing staff of the Philippine embassy in Israel.

Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said 72-year-old Albert Rosenfeld was placed in the bureau’s blacklist on the request of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

Assistant Secretary Domingo Lucenario Jr. of the DFA's office of consular affairs said Rosenfeld should be blacklisted for "disturbing the peace and harmony" at the Philippine embassy in Tel Aviv and "besmirching the honor of government officers."

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MANILA, Philippines—Foreign athletes who wish to strut their wares on Philippine soil will now have to hurdle two agencies—the Games and Amusement Board and the Bureau of Immigration.

The BI will only issue a special work permit (SWP) to a foreign athlete if his application for such permit has been endorsed by the GAB, the agency that regulates and supervises all professional competitions in the country.

BI Commissioner Marcelino Libanan and GAB chair Eric Buhain signed on Tuesday the memorandum of agreement that will mean a tougher implementation of the SWP rule.

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MANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of Immigration has eased its policy on minors with Filipino lineage who enter the Philippines unaccompanied by their parents.

Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said children “unaccompanied by or not coming to join a parent” are no longer required to seek waivers as long as they arrive with their Filipino grandparents, guardians or relatives.

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MANILA, Philippines—Foreign athletes need special work permits before they can play in any sports tournaments in the Philippines, the Bureau of Immigration and the Games and Amusement Board said Friday.

BI Commissioner Marcelino Libanan and GAB chairman Eric Buhain signed a memorandum of agreement that provides that "no foreign professional athlete or player shall participate in any form of professional tournaments and sports competition in the country unless and until he or she obtains the required special work permit from the bureau and professional license from the GAB."

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MANILA, Philippines -- The Bureau of Immigration (BI) barred more than 300 foreigners from entering the country during the first six months of the year as part of the agency’s campaign against human smuggling.

Immigration commissioner Marcelino Libanan said most of the aliens who were turned back were caught using spurious travel documents and that most of them were victims of syndicates using Manila as a transit point for their human trafficking operations.

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MANILA, Philippines - There will be no need for applicants for visas and visa extensions to wait between 12 noon to 1 p.m. to receive accommodation from immigration employees.

This was after the Bureau of Immigration (BI), under the leadership of Commissioner Marcelino Libanan, implemented a “no lunch break” policy for all officials and employees of the bureau.

Libanan said the new policy aims to further reduce the processing time for granting of visas and visa extensions.

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Related News:

• No more lunch breaks at the immigration office - Philippine Daily Inquirer

On his latest column, "On Target", Ramon Tulfo thanked Commissioner Marcelino Libanan for granting his request to release a Belgian national:

I’d like to thank Immigration Commissioner Marcelo Libanan for ordering the release, upon my request, of Belgian national Lucas Saeren.

Saeren’s Filipino wife, Rowena de la Cruz-Saeren came to us at “Isumbong mo kay Tulfo” asking my intercession for his release from the immigration jail.

Saeren has been in the immigration jail for five years.

His crime?

Overstaying.

Saeren’s release papers are now being processed.

Since he took over as immigration commissioner, Libanan has unclogged the overcrowded immigration jail in Bicutan by releasing foreigner-inmates who didn’t commit major crimes.

He also has looked after the welfare of inmates by giving medicines for the jail clinic and hiring an in-house doctor.

Libanan complains about the uncaring attitude of some embassies in the country that don’t send representatives to the immigration jail to inquire about the condition of their nationals.

(Source: On Target, Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines -- Woo the mother and abuse the child.

This is the new modus operandi of pedophiles who have been targeting Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, as their area of operation, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) has warned.

“The child molesters usually meet the mothers, sometimes even the grandmothers, of possible victims online and make them their girlfriends,” BI Commissioner Marcelino Libanan told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Monday.

The women usually let the economically better-off foreigners into their lives and their homes, not knowing that the men would later pounce on their young daughters or sons.

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MANILA, Philippines -- Authorities have arrested a Singaporean man suspected of being a courier for a human trafficking ring at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said R. Murliy, a Singaporean, was apprehended by Bureau of Immigration officers as he was about to board a Canada-bound flight with a Sri Lankan identified as Vignesvaran Saravanan on June 27.

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MANILA, Philippines -- Foreign chambers and other business organizations have expressed support for the liberalized visa policy of the government being implemented by the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) saying the program will result in increased foreign investments and tourist arrivals and safeguard national sovereignty.

‘‘Most of all, our people are and can no longer be victims of fixers,” the group said in a letter to immigration commissioner Marcelino Libanan on June 4.

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By Gobleth Moulic

BAGUIO CITY – Members of the Indian community here expressed relief after their two-year fight against two immigration intelligence agents, whom they accused of extortion and kidnapping, ended when Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan dismissed the two from government service last week.

Libanan said he dismissed agents Simeon Eleria and Armando Talatala, both based in Manila, on May 21 for grave misconduct following a complaint from Indian businessman Sanjiv Kumar.

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MANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of Immigration has uncovered an international operation involving the sale of fake Philippine passports in New Zealand with the arrest of a Chinese national posing as a Filipino.

Bureau agents arrested at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Wednesday Yllana Wong, 42, a Chinese national who presented a fake Philippine passport.

Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan ordered Wong’s detention at the immigration jail in Bicutan while the agency determined his connection to the fake passport syndicate.

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MANILA, Philippines -- Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan has ordered an investigation into the possible collusion of immigration employees with syndicates that issue fake visa extensions to foreigners.

Libanan issued the directive after immigration officers arrested two Indian nationals who were about to leave the country carrying fake visa extensions and passports.

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