Senate probe sought on extortion on Chinese tourists

MANILA -- Reports of alleged unreasonable exclusion and other illegal activities directed against Chinese tourists committed by some officers of the Bureau of Immigration may be investigated by the Senate.

This developed after Senator Aquilino Pimentel III came across with letters from the Philippine-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (PCCCI) and the Chinese Embassy, pointing out that the indiscriminate practice may cause anxiety among Chinese tourists and investors.

The Chinese Embassy said it has recorded more than 200 exclusion cases involving Chinese nationals with valid visas in 2011, far more than those cases relating to the citizens of other countries.

There were also reports, Pimentel said, that some immigration officers would give the "excluded Chinese tourists"' a telephone number to call in case they intend to come back so that they could be escorted through immigration for a fee of $1,000 or roughly P41,000 per tourist.

Chinese tourists who allegedly avail of the escort services become undocumented aliens and allegedly receive fake immigration cards that cost around P20,000 to P30,000 and an additional cost of P200,000 to P300,000 to be delisted or removed from the bureau's blacklist.

These allegations of extortion and corrupt practices, Pimentel said, are obvious violations of Republic Act 3019, otherwise known as the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act that merit attention in the probe he sought under Senate Resolution 897.

Chinese nationals accounted for 243,137 of the nearly four million arrivals in the country in 2011, representing 6.21 percent of the market share. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)

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Source: http://rss.sunstar.com.ph/~r/SunStarBreakingNews/~3/UxpRbKPCYSs/senate-probe-sought-extortion-chinese-tourists-253594

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