Six undocumented Filipina women bound for Lebanon who disguised as nuns were intercepted Thursday at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), immigration officials on Saturday said.
BI Acting Commissioner Ronaldo Ledesma said Rodolfo Magbuhos, supervisor of the bureau’s Travel Control Enforcement Unit (TCEU) reported that the female domestic workers were dressed as nuns and about to board Cebu Pacific flight 5J 501 bound for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with a connecting flight to Lebanon.
Ledesma said that Magbuhos, together with TCEU agents Marlene Pedrealba, Joel Valencia, Rose Perez, Jun Manahan and Jonathan Orozco, became suspicious when the six “nuns†lined up at the Immigration counters for clearance and stamping of their passports.
The six overseas Filipino workers, whose identities were withheld pending further investigation, were apprehended and later admitted they were actually applying for household jobs in Lebanon, but without the required work permits, he said.
Ledesma said the Immigration agents handed over the six women, who are victims of human trafficking, to the Inter Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) for proper disposition.
He said the fake nuns were barred from boarding their flights since they failed to present the necessary clearance and employment permits from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). The workers only had tourist visas, he added.
According to Magbuhos, the Immigration agents were initially reluctant to apprehend the “nuns,†not wishing to show disrespect to religious people.
Magbuhos said BI agents later on discovered that the six were impostors who dressed like nuns to evade being questioned by immigration officials. (PNA)
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Topic: Fake Pinay Nuns Intercepted at Airport (Read 2232 times)