BI rescues Pinay ‘mail-order bride’

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Immigration rescued a Filipina who was about to be a victim of a “mail-order bride” scheme, the BI said yesterday.

The BI’s immigration protection and border enforcement section said the Filipina was about to leave for Fujian, China with a Chinese man, allegedly her husband, on April 8.

Though the two presented a marriage certificate showing they were married in 2019, immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 doubted the Filipina’s statements due to the inconsistencies between her statements and the documents she presented.

The woman said she and her husband were recently married at a travel agency in Manila. She added that they paid P100,000 for the marriage certificate, which was inspected by the BI’s forensic documents laboratory and found to be genuine.

“This is yet again another case of the mail-order bride scheme wherein women are promised a better life abroad but are made to work as domestic workers with little to no salaries,” BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said.

The victim and her “husband” were turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking for further investigation.