The ball is now in Secretary Guevarra’s hands
Credit to Author: RAMON T. TULFO| Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2019 16:45:20 +0000
THE ball is now in the hands of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, who has control over the Bureau of Immigration (BI).
It’s now up to Guevarra to make the move against the human smuggling syndicate, which is composed of immigration officers.
I’ve done my part by exposing the syndicate which, at the height of its operation, was earning a maximum of P50 million a day, according to my source whom I have identified as “Deep Throat.”
Deep Throat is a member of the syndicate and is so deeply entrenched in the group, he even knows which female immigration officer is a mistress of which syndicate leader.
Leaders of the syndicate are supervising the immigration officers.
Deep Throat said the protector of the syndicate is former Justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre 2nd who, even after he has resigned as DoJ chief, is allegedly still receiving money from the group.
I am not telling Guevarra how to go about his job — I’m not a lawyer and he’s a bar topnotcher — but he may want to have the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), which is also under the DoJ, summon Aguirre.
Like the National Prosecution Service, the NBI has subpoena powers and can “invite” persons of interest to its office.
What an irony, since I was told that Aguirre, when he was DoJ chief, was very strict with the NBI.
Look, I have nothing personal against Aguirre or anybody else whose names I mentioned in this space Tuesday, April 9, and Thursday, April 11.
Aguirre was my lawyer before, and we were quite close. During the campaign for the presidency of Rodrigo Roa Duterte, his classmate at San Beda Law School, I kept in close contact with Aguirre.
I don’t know any of the members of the syndicate from Adam. I only came to know of their existence from Deep Throat.
In short, I was motivated by public interest in exposing Aguirre and the members of the syndicate.
I am aware of the consequence of my exposé—a slew of libel and civil cases will most probably be filed by syndicate members and Aguirre himself.
As an aside, Aguirre has filed two libel cases against me with the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 46, for which I posted bail on Wednesday, April 10.
No, the case is not in connection with this exposé; it’s about some column items I wrote in my former paper, Philippine Daily Inquirer, which — in effect — questioned his competence as secretary of justice.
In the Manila court libel case, Aguirre singled me out and excluded my former editors at the Inquirer. Talk about harassment.
There’s a saying that a crusader fights a lonely battle and that truism was shown once again when the Inquirer editors asked the court to exclude them from the libel case.
***
Now, back to the syndicate.
The immigration syndicate does not only operate at the NAIA; it has its tentacles in other ports of entry and exit in the country.
The BI’s port operations division (POD), the syndicate’s base, has jurisdiction over all other ports in the country.
At the Clark International Airport in Pampanga, syndicate members are doing brisk business, according to Deep Throat.
For example, immigration officer Ramoncito Barro, who’s assigned to Clark, drives around in a Hummer H2 truck, an HRV Honda sports utility vehicle and two other expensive cars to work.
Barro, who was charged with human trafficking during the time of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, owns a gasoline station in Sta. Ana, Pampanga.
What happened to the human trafficking case filed against him and other immigration officers? I asked.
Deep Throat said it was probably swept under the rug during Aguirre’s time as DoJ chief.
***
Deep Throat said the syndicate pays off some government officials; some editors, columnists, and reporters of newspapers; and broadcast journalists in order to be left alone.
Example: An immigration official in the home office was in dire need of P5 million to pay the hospital bill and medicines of a sick relative.
This official approached Fidel Mendoza, chief of staff of the port operations division.
“Within the day, Mendoza handed the amount to (name of the immigration official),” Deep Throat said.
As a result, Mendoza’s hold on his position became stronger after that, said Deep Throat.
Mendoza, by the way, holds an item of security guard at the Bureau of Immigration.
And yet, he supervises immigration officers who are either college graduates or civil service eligible.
An immigration security guard is only a high school graduate.
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