The Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Thursday, January 18, revealed that its investigation showed that 459 foreigners were involved in visa scam.
“Nakita natin during the audit, November last year at ang resulta ay isinumite sa DOJ secretary upang maipaalam. 459 foreigners ay pinetisyon ng fake companies,” BI spokesperson Dana Sandoval told DZRH in an interview.
#LIVEsaDZRH: Bureau of Immigration Spokesperson Dana Sandoval sa visa scam: Nakita natin during the audit, November last year at ang resulta ay isinumite sa DOJ secretary upang maipaalam.#MagandangUmagaPilipinas #SamaSamaTayoPilipino
— DZRH NEWS (@dzrhnews) January 17, 2024
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According to Sandoval, fake companies have no physical office, operations, and the blatant lack of documents.
“'Pag fake companies, walang opisina, walang operations, walang kahit ano. They just have a document [...] but the company literally does not exist. During initial investigation, may 40 agencies na kwestyonable ang role dito,” she said.
The BI spokesperson added that the number of foreigners involved in the visa scam would increase.
“Baka madagdagan pa ang bilang ng indibidwal na sponsored by fake companies, pag meron na tayong mas holistic na view of everything we can release,” Sandoval said.
The BI spokesperson shared they found 116 employers involved in the visa scam during the investigation.
“What we do know [is that] the documents submitted by these foreign nationals are fabricated. Wala po silang totoong opisina so hindi po natin alam kung saan talaga sila nagtatrabaho or kung ano talaga yung mga activities nila [...] 116 employers po yung nakita natin na peke ang mga dokumento,” Sandoval added.
