Marcos sacks Immigration chief Tansingco

September 9, 2024 | 1:22pm

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has relieved Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco, Presidential Communications chief Cesar Chavez confirmed on Monday, September 9.

This has first been revealed by Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla in an ambush interview on Monday, saying that he and Marcos will relieve Tansingco from his post due to his alleged lapses.

“Nagkasundo na kami ng pangulo…papalitan siya, papalitan siya,” Marcos said. 

(The president and I have agreed… he will be replaced, he will be replaced.)

“If I were him I would resign already,” he added. 

It can be recalled that on September 4, Remulla said that he was not talking to Tansingco, after the latter’s failure to promptly disclose the timing of dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo’s escape from the Philippines last August. 

Aside from the former mayor’s escape, Remulla said that there are more issues that Tangsingo left unaddressed.

“Marami ‘yan, marami…issuances of working visas was very questionable, I called his attention to it, wala siyang ginawa,” he said. 

(There’s a lot of that, a lot… the issuances of working visas were very questionable, I called his attention to it, but he did nothing.)

Last month, the Senate Subcommittee on Justice and Human Rights expressed concern over the Bureau of Immigration’s failure to immediately relay information on Guo’s escape to the Department of Justice. 

Tansingco acknowledged that the agency received details from the Philippine National Police Intelligence group on August 15. 

However, the bureau did not verify or share this information until Sen. Risa Hontiveros publicly shared Guo’s escape on August 19. 

Tansingco explained that they notified the Justice department on August 20, as the escape was only confirmed on that date.

Remulla also raised that certain immigration officials might have played a role in assisting Guo’s departure from the country.

Guo has escaped from the Philippines despite an Immigration lookout bulletin order issued against her.