BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado —BI
MANILA, Philippines — Amid charges of corruption and wrongdoing at the Bureau of Immigration (BI), Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado ordered the release of 39 Chinese nationals who were earlier arrested for illegally working in a telecommunications company in Taguig City.
The 39 Chinese nationals were arrested on May 29 during a raid on the headquarters of Dito Telecommunity Corp. in Bonifacio Global City in violation of the conditions of their work visas.
“Foreign nationals who wish to work in the Philippines must comply with all our laws and procedures. Those who enter under false pretenses or switch employers without proper authorization will face the full force of the law,” Viado said in a statement on June 2.
READ: Trouble at the immigration bureau
Seven days later, Viado, along with BI officials Emmanuel Anthony Vera Jr. and Arvin Cesar Santos, signed the June 9 release order, because the 39 Chinese were employed by Futurenet Technology Corp., China Communications Services Philippines Corp. and AP Advisory Inc. and not Dito Telecommunity.
Their lawyers had argued that they were at Dito’s premises because of project-based service agreements between their companies and Dito and they were only temporarily occupying desks at Dito “solely for purposes of addressing technical tasks.”
The BI said in the order that “there remains no ground to charge them for immigration violations and/or continuously hold them in detention,” but a deportation complaint “may be refiled when new or additional evidence are produced upon further case buildup by the BI Intelligence Division.”
In a letter to President Marcos on June 13, anonymous BI employees scored Viado for the “special treatment” of the 39 Chinese and three suspected bosses of Philippines-based offshore gaming operators, which the President banned last year.
In an online statement on June 18, Viado dismissed the charges as unproven allegations and innuendoes and expressed support for the Senate probe of “highly suspicious” BI processes proposed by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian. /cb