MANILA, Philippines — Two women suspected to be Chinese but bearing Philippine passports and birth certificates were arrested on Wednesday at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 as they prepared to board their plane bound for Beijing, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said yesterday.
One of the arrested, identified only as Dianne, claimed to be 61 years old, based on “a valid Philippine passport and a birth certificate” she presented to the immigration counter. The BI said her birth certificate was “registered only in 2002 when she was already 39 years old.”
“The woman gave highly inconsistent statements about her identity, and declared that she could not remember the name of the school she attended in the Philippines,” BI said.
Meanwhile, “Myla” presented a Philippine passport, a Philippine driver’s license and a unified multi-purpose identification (UMID) card used as identification for government-run insurance institutions. It did not indicate how old she is.
She also could not talk about her childhood and her family, but claimed she was “homeschooled by her grandmother.”
She admitted having secured the Philippine documents “through a contact she met online,” according to the BI.
The agency noted its officers suspected the two women to be Chinese nationals as they were “unable to speak in any Filipino language” during interviews at the immigration counter.
They were blocked by BI personnel from boarding a Cathay Pacific flight to Beijing.
The two women are currently detained at the BI’s facility in Bicutan and will be deported after processing, said BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco.
They could have been “able to secure Philippine documents through illegal means,” he said. — Ghio Ong
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