Authorities arrested five Chinese men and a Chinese-Filipino translator suspected to have ilegally boarded a dredging ship, Jun Veneracion reported Monday in “24 Oras.”
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) searched the rooms and every corner of the motor vessel Sangko Uno and deployed a K-9 unit to ensure there were no illegal drugs inside and discovered Sunday that there were six hidden passengers in MV Sangko Uno.
The PCG then blocked and held the dredging ship en route to Mindoro when it found that there were undeclared passengers in its manifest.
Every passsenger vessel is required to declare all its passengers in the Master’s Declaration of Safe Departure (MDSD).
“May intention sila to deceive eh. Baka may immigration law tayong na violate at yung MDSD is a public document so falsification of public document agad yun,” said Coast Guard Captain Vicente Laca, commander of Coast Guard Station Manila.
(They have the intention to deceive. They might have violated our immigration law, and falsification of public documents since the MDSD is a public document.)
Authorities conducted a body search then handcuffed the five Chinese men and Chinese-Filipino translator.
Based on the PCG’s initial investigation, the Chinese men only have tourist visas.
“Hindi ko alam saang lumalop sila nanggaling. Pinapunta sila dito kasi walang marunong mag operate ng dredging equipment dito. Hindi naman sila nagtatrabaho, ituturo lang nila,” the trasnlator said.
(I don’t know where they came from. They were sent here because no one knew how to operate the dredging equipment. They are not working. They are only teaching.)
The PCG is also looking into the possible accountability of the captain and other officials of the vessel, and the ship management.
The ship captain said he told the ship management that Chinese men would help them in the operation.
In an interview with GMA Integrated News, the ship captain said he does not know why the names of the arrested individuals were not in the manifest.
“May pirma nya sa dulo. Natanggap natin si kapitan at yung second mate,” Laca said.
(The manifest has the captain’s signature. We received that the manifest was signed by the captain and second mate.)
The five Chinese men and Chinese-Filipino translator will be brought to the PCG detention facility in Taguig. — Mariel Celine Serquiña/BAP, GMA Integrated News
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