BI bars woman with fake docs from leaving

IMMIGRATION officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) interdicted a Filipina who was about to leave for Cambodia to supposedly meet her foreign husband there, BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said the BI’s travel control and enforcement unit (TCEU) stopped the passenger from leaving the NAIA Terminal 3 before she could board an Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur en route to her final destination in Phom Penh, Cambodia.

The passenger, whose identity was not disclosed as mandated by law, was prevented from boarding her flight after officers discovered that she presented a spurious certificate of marriage to her alleged Chinese spouse whom she said was supposed to meet upon arriving in Cambodia.

“We commend our officers at the airport for a job well done. This ploy of using fake marriages to foreigners to sidestep our strict departure inspection formalities is an old trick that will no longer work.

We warn the public against allowing themselves to be lured by such a scheme,” Tensing said in a statement.

It was learned that the BI inspectors noticed many inconsistencies in the victim’s statement as well as discrepancies in the documents she presented. Vito Barcelo

MOUTHWATERING SUCCULENT LECHONS. Roasted pig artisans of La Loma, Quezon City, reputedly the lechon capital, are busy preparing for Sunday’s Lechon Festival, highlighted by of parade of cooked whole hogs on bamboo or aluminum stakes. Manny Palmero