Philippine Immigration

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.

Continue on Philippine Daily Inquirer

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.

Continue on Philippine Daily Inquirer

Two foreigners have been arrested by immigration authorities at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) for alleged human trafficking, the Bureau of Immigration said Saturday.

BI Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said Singaporean R. Murliy and Sri Lankan Vignesvaran Saravanan have been accosted at the NAIA 2 centennial terminal on June 27 as they were about to board a Philippine Airlines flight to Vancouver.

Continue on ABS-CBN News

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Immigration has deported a Jordanian national allegedly involved in a plan to bomb the embassies of the US and three other countries in Manila.

In a statement released Thursday, Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said Moh'd Armo was flown to Bangkok on Monday night where he was transferred to a connecting flight of the Royal Jordanian Airlines bound for Amman.

Continue on GMA News

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