Seven suspected victims of human traffickings were rescued by immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) after they were intercepted for possessing spurious travel documents. “These fraud syndicates continue to ignore our warnings. There will be no letup in our campaign against human trafficking and their victims will not be allowed to leave if they are caught,” said Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Jaime Morente. Morente issued the statement after the seven passengers were stopped from leaving the country last week in three separate instances at Terminals 3 and 1 of the NAIA.

Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) recently barred from entering the country a Taiwanese fugitive wanted in his country for business fraud. In a report to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente, Bureau of Immigration port operations division chief Grifton Medina identified the Taiwanese as 70-year-old Miao Jwu-Yi, who was intercepted September 30 at the NAIA 1 terminal upon his arrival from Hongkong. Medina said Miao was apprehended after his name registered a hit in the Bureau of Immigration’s database of blacklisted foreigners with derogatory records.

He was flown to Taipei the following day, together with his escorts from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Manila, Medina added. TECO officials said Miao was convicted and sentenced to more than four years in prison in 2017 for violating Taiwan’s Business Entity Accounting Act. The said act prescribes the code of conduct and rules of practice for Taiwan’s accountants and provides penalties for violators. Miao reportedly went into hiding and fled Taiwan upon learning of his conviction, prompting the district prosecutor’s office in Taipei to issue a warrant for his arrest. Atty. Rommel Tacorda, the BI’s border control and intelligence unit (BCIU) chief, disclosed that prior to his flight, Miao was issued a single-use travel document by TECO because the Taiwanese government had earlier cancelled his passport. “He remains in our blacklist, thus he will be barred again from entering our country if he attempts to return in the future,” Tacorda said.

Read more

As it is told, the speed of the leader determines the rate of the pack! With a flamboyant and resolute Commandant, ADMIRAL Wilfredo D Tamayo, the Coast Guard Special Operations Group (CGSOG) could not afford to slow down. Its fleet of rubber boats is always warmed up and the legs of its frogmen are always in shape. Its distinguished lead officers are always on alert to receive direct instructions from the Fleet Commander or the Commandant himself.

Taking the cue from the innovative character of the Commandant, who seems to grasp fully well the two great laws of life: “Growth and Decay”, the CGSOG slowly restructure and comes up with dynamic innovations to showcase its relevance to the general public. On several occasions, the Commandant pointed out that the PCG has evolved into a multi-tasked, multi faceted and multi-roled organization. The changes or “growth” as we may consider of course are not mere capricious whims but rather natural forces adhered to, otherwise “decay” would engulf our organization. These pronouncements have inspired the Group to come up with its innovative programs and be critical with it coined and adopted motto “Semper Superne Nitens” which simply means “always striving upwards.

Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Jaime Morente identified the alien as 71-year-old Katsumi Ohno, who was arrested last Sept. 30 along the service road in Roxas Blvd., Pasay City by members of the bureau’s fugitive search unit (FSU). Morente said the arresting agents were armed with a warrant of deportation which he signed pursuant to a deportation order that the Bureau of Immigration board of commissioners issued against the Japanese on June 20, 2019.

Ohno’s deportation was reportedly sought by the Japanese embassy last February when it informed the Bureau of Immigration about a standing arrest warrant for fraud that a Japanese court issued against him. “We also learned that his passport already expired in November last year, making him an undocumented alien,” Morente said. He added that Ohno has been included in the immigration blacklist to prevent him from returning to the Philippines. Investigation also revealed that Ohno has been hiding in the country for nine years or since April 10, 2011 when he arrived as a tourist via a flight from Hongkong. Ohno is currently detained at the Bureau of Immigration jail in Bicutan, Taguig City.

Read More

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) announced the deployment of 67 newly-hired immigration officers to the country's international airports after graduating on Wednesday, October 2. According to Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente, this is part of the agency's continuous efforts to improve its services to the travelling public. "The graduation of the officers is timed prior to the projected influx of passenger in the airport in the next few months for the upcoming South East Asian Games, and at the same time as the holiday rush begins," Morente said.

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) urged aspiring Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to avoid human traffickers and illegal recruiters who would prey on their vulnerabilities, after the agency uncovered the recurrence a modus operandi of a syndicate that houses and trains its victims at safe houses before deployment abroad. Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente issued the reminder after two women were recently barred from leaving the country for misrepresenting their age and narrating their experience with the syndicate that recruited them. The women had alleged that they were kept by their handlers in a safehouse in Paco, Manila for two months before they were booked for their flights.

Morente instructed the bureau’s port operations division (POD) and travel control and enforcement unit (TCEU) to conduct strict profiling and inspection of departing passengers to ensure that no underage OFWs are able to leave. According to Bureau of Immigration POD chief Grifton Medina, the two women, aged 19 and 20, were intercepted last Sept. 21 at the NAIA terminal 2 in their attempt to board a connecting flight from Dubai to Saudi Arabia. Medina said the passengers both presented valid passports, visas, job contract, and overseas employment certificates but the birth dates in their documents were intentionally altered to make it appear that they meet the age requirement for Household Service Workers which is 23 years. “Both women initially claimed that they were 26 years old, but eventually admitted their real age upon questioning,” Medina said. Bureau of Immigration-TCEU chief Timotea Barizo said that the women recounted how they were housed for two months at a safehouse in Manila where they were briefed and taught by their recruiters how to respond to questions from immigration officers. “We've heard this in the past, usually victims would be briefed a few days before their flight. But now they're actually housed for months to train on how to evade immigration questioning," said Barizo. "The two victims admitted that their documents were given only prior to departure, and that they were told to open it only after check in. This forces them to go on and comply with the scheme despite the discrepancy since they are already there,” Barizo said. Morente reiterated his reminder to OFWs not to fall prey to these schemes. "Transact only with legitimate agencies accredited by the POEA (Philippine Overseas Employment Administration)," he reminded.

Read more

Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente disclosed that 71-year-old Alfons Hermann Keittl was arrested last Thursday in Ozamis City, Misamis Occidental by operatives from the bureau’s fugitive search unit (FSU). Morente said Keittl’s deportation was sought by the German embassy in Manila which informed the Bureau of Immigration about an arrest warrant that a local court in the town of Landshut, Germany issued against the fugitive last July.

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) urged aspiring Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to avoid human traffickers and illegal recruiters who would prey on their vulnerabilities, after the agency uncovered the recurrence a modus operandi of a syndicate that houses and trains its victims at safe houses before deployment abroad. Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente issued the reminder after two women were recently barred from leaving the country for misrepresenting their age and narrating their experience with the syndicate that recruited them. The women had alleged that they were kept by their handlers in a safehouse in Paco, Manila for two months before they were booked for their flights.

The much daunted “global crisis” has prompted some of the world’s leading financial technocrats and managers to review and redefine their respective country’s existing trading and economic policies in order to mitigate the long –term.

In this case of the Philippines, our country is “probably fortunate” to have the usual financial miracle coming from the much need Dollar remittances from the more than Ten (10) million Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) that span from Europe \, Middle East, Austral-Asia and the continental United States including all oceans of the world (of course, we have to include our seafarers). The infusion of the green bucks from our OFWs, more often stabilizes the country’s Balance of Payment thereby alleviating our country’s dependency on the U.S. dollar.

But for how long are we going to be dependent on our OFW remittances in order to literally save our economy from unforeseen fortuitous economic events? As an economic policy direction, are we going to maintain our global niche as the foremost labor export producing country in the next Thirty (30) years? Do we have a choice?

Although our President had infused some major structural economic reforms in order to jeep our country’s economy resilient in the face of this global economic downturn, our policy makers in government (both local and national) should collectively look for some ways and means to find for some durable and lasting solutions in order to galvanize our domestic economy and make the same as the bulwark of progress and development, and not relying heavily on overseas remittances,

If one has to review the present political grouping of nations around the world , by way of dissecting the major political and social events that had influenced mankind in the las 1,500 years, and likewise basing it from the historical perspective presented to us by Near Eastern, Middle Eastern, Western historians we could readily agree primarily that nations of today is practically an indirect by-product of “trade” of natural resources, most specially, food commodities that cannot be found in Europe. These are the silk trade route to China the European demand for sugar and spices from the Indies , the European thirst for coffee from Africa and South America (gold as well), the European demand for tea from Asia, the discovery of oil in the Arabian peninsula, the establishment of the British East India Company to oversee (later govern) India’s natural resources and the commodities (which eventually led mahatma Gandhi to dramatize the plight of his people against the imposition of “salt taxes”, and later on went to something politically bigger leading to India’s gaining of independence). Yet these are just few of the myriad economic events (that involves trade) that had crucially shaped the culture and political destinies and divisions of most countries in Asia, Africa and America.

In other words, trade plays a major role not only in the economic but in the socio-political survival of a nation. As can be analyzed in the foregoing examples, we can simply say that the reason why societies of men engage in trading activity since time immemorial is because of their ultimate need of filling up their stomach of food for survival and hoarding natural resources for their nations survival, And because of this, strong nations have emerged out of the societies of those men who have perfected the art and power of trade, in particular, the shipping trade. It is on this context that we have to examine on untapped corner in the Philippines where all the potential elements of becoming a major trading post in Southeast Asia are present and that is, the Southern part of Palawan province.

We start with the story of garlic, onion, cooking oil, sugar, tea, coffee, fish, noodles, and the likes, all “small foodstuffs” and bits and pieces of natural resources fo man’s everyday needs and for his stomach – foodstuffs and natural resources that had redefined the global political landscape of mankind for the last 500 years. Small items they may seem, but indeed history would tell us that they had shaped i rub-shaped many a nation. And this is where we contemplate on how to shape the economic direction of our nation through starting on the simple trade of these commodities with our neighbors and vice-versa, which would probably lead into something economically rewarding in the future. The idea here is to start small and simple.

For 1,500 years, the people of Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Southern Palawan have been trading their foodstuffs with their neighbors from Sabah, Malaysia and even in Indonesia, simply because it is near and convenient for them, Peace abounds in their societies despite some small tribal conflicts. They socially interact and trade with each other, There were no known political, social and cultural boundaries to speak about. It was only until the advent of the British the Spanish and the American colonization period, and the aftermath of World War II that most of our societies in this part of Southeast Asia were politically, socially and culturally divided,

However despite the political developments that had happened in the lastly 500 years in our area and as we have entered the dawn of the 21st century, our Southern peoples have persisted in their trading activities along with their counterparts in Malaysia, Bournei and Indonesia. This unorganized activity of informal trading for
“small foodstuffs” and bits and pieces of natural resources (which is actually vital fir their survival), is somewhat oblivious to the mind of the today’s planner, which at present, has actually redounded to indirectly inducing security problems in terms of smuggling, social apathy lawlessness, criminalities, and the likes due to the absence of CIVILIAN government infrastructure, such as, Customs, Immigration, Quarantine and Security (Coast Guard and Police), or otherwise known as CIQS, to take care in processing this trading and the movement of people.

Since no CIVILIAN authorities are checking them every time they cross the border to buy onion, garlic, cooking oil and even gasoline or diesel to fuel their generators (since there is no electricity in their area), they would rather do their marketing in Kudat, Sandagan, Kota kinabalo, Lubuan or even in Brunei, which would only take them between 30 minutes to 5 hours of se travel, depending in the distance of the place where they are coming from.

In today’s political and economic language this is purely illegal, but in the language of these people, this activity is “legal” since their forefathers have been doing this for hundreds of years. In the case if the people in Blabac and Mangsee Islands, their dilemma is also exacerbated by the fact that if they force themselves to buy their daily supply from Puerto Princesa City, It would take them one day to reach their destination by sea and by land, in addition to spending a lot of money and fuel, fare, and lodging expenses, notwithstanding that the prices of goods there, are far more expensive that in Sabah.

This story may be considered a cliché by some of our economic planners, since they would say that thus problem is just a typical one befalling those people living in the far-flung areas of Southern Mindanao, and this situation has been a perennial problem of the government way back during the time of President Marcos. They would further add that our government then, in order to uplift the living conditions of our Muslim and Christian brothers in those areas, had established the barter trade posts in Zamboanga and Jolo, but subsequently it failed due to some abuses. So what is new about this trade? Why push for it since it will just fail anyway like the barter trade posts in Zamboanga and Jolo.

Of coursem the big difference is, in a ”barter trade”, one has a concession from the government where goods coming from Sabah are free of tax, while in “conventional trade”, one has to pay the corresponding duties and taxes accruing the imported goods.

At this junctuyre, if we pause for a while and reflect on the geo-political configurtation of Southern Plawan (temporarily putting aside Zamboanga, Basilan, Jolo and Tawi-Tawi from our discussion), vis-à-vis its economic potential, one would discover the following facts:

There are more than half a million people living in Southern Palawan. Since most of them use sea transportation to go to Manila it normally takes the almost two (2) days to reach their destination. Goods in Palawan become expensive because of expensive freight cost.
Travel time by sea from the Southernmost tip of Plaawan to Kudat, Kota Kinabalo, Labuan or Brunei is between 30 minutes to 5 hours, depending on the place where they come from (and also depending on the speed of the boat as well).
A lot of goods, supplies and materials are cheaper in Sabah as compared to buyinh the same in puerto Princesa City, since most of them come from Manila, where time, freight, man-hours, shipping turn-around are added costs.
Strait of Balabac is considered a vital international sea lane since most ships coming from Singapore or the Strait of Malacca bounded for the U.S. pass through this water. Lord Stamford Raffles, if he is alive today, would also envisage Southern Palawan as the next Singapore in Asia. During his time, nobody would ever thought that Singapore would eventually metamorphose as a world renowned shipping hub, except that this Island is adjacent to the Strait of Malacca, Like Southern Palawan is adjacent to the Strait of Balabac.
Philippines had initiated in the ASEAN an economic program of an increase in free trade coupled with “zero tariff” rate in the year 2020. Opening Southern Palawan to the world through initializing the conventional trade with Sabah may open a floodgate of unquantifiable economic opportunities for the Philippines.
Eighty (80) percent of goods in “169” Divisoria and most stores in Baclaran (probably even in SM and Rustans) are either imported from China, Thailand, U.S., Malaysia, Singapore, etc. Why can’t Southern Palawan import the same goods from Sabah and sell the same to its local stores since traders would pay the same duties and taxes anyway? Simply because, there is no established conventional trade in Southern Palawan from abroad for the reason tha it lacks the administrative government infrastructure such as the CIQS.
Southern Palawan has a big potential to become the next “168” Divisoria or a wholesale trade center of goods not found in Manila (or found to be expensive). This, luring big Filipino businessmen to trade wholesale in this area. The RORo p[ort in Taytay (North of Palawan mainland) will be completed before the end of the year, and travel time to Manila from this port would only take approximately 12 to 15 hours, as compared with the present travel time of almost 48 hours. In a way, this will encourage traders to buy wholesale goods and materials from Palawan bought from Sabah, thence, transport the same to Manila and oother point of destinations in Luzon.
Direct flight from Puerto Pirncesa to Kota Kinabalo is only approximately 40 minutes; a great potential for tourism. In fact, one airline has started commercial flights that costs P2.800 which is cheaper than flying to Manila from Puerto Pricesa. One could practically spend his time in Kota Kinabalo and Brunei over the weekend since there is no visa requirement. The same holds true for tourists coming from Sabah who would want to visit Palawan.
Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines have a combined consumer population of approximately 300 million, coupled with and abundance of skilled and talented manpower, as well as natural resources.

The University of Perpetual Help System DALTA will hold its traditional Maritime Week Celebration from Sept 22-29, 2019 in a simple but meaningful manner.

Timed with the observance of National Seafarer’s Day with the theme: “Marinong Filipino-Kababaihan: PalakasinsaIndustriya!”,Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo PCG(Ret), Senior Executive Vice President for Maritime Affairs (SEVPMA), and at the same time the Executive Director, International Student Affairs, has enjoined the College of Maritime Education, through its Deans-Capt Lexington Calumpang, ChiefmateDaniloLumbres, and Engr Verna Azucena to enliven the spirit of the week-long celebration in honor of seafarers around the world, often dubbed as the world’s silent or day-to-day heroes.

Perpetualite cadets will participate in the following activities within the campus, and in most of the activities organized in celebration of the 24th National Seafarers’ Day which has adopted the IMO Theme: Empowering Women in the Maritime Community. Engr Rodolfo Nava, Adviser of UPHSD CME Maritime Student Council, is designated in-charge of all the preparations.

24th National Seafarers’ Day Activities

On-Campus Activities:

The SEVPMA is thus expecting all members of the UPHS DALTA and JONELTA maritime faculty and staff, and their respective cadets to actively participate in the week-long celebration as the University of Perpetual Help System continues to advocate its time-honored guiding principle that “Character Building is Nation Building.”

Read more: https://wilfredotamayo.com/80-uphsd-cme-celebrates-maritime-week