“One thing is clear: the forces resisting reform are alive, well-funded, and fighting back”
The Bureau of Immigration is likely to be the subject of another Senate probe by a committee chaired by re-elected Senator Imee Marcos.
According to the lawmaker, she will investigate accusations of anomalies in the agency. This will put the BI under public scrutiny once again and many are wondering if BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado may have ignored early warning signs that the agency is about to come under attack.
We recall that Viado had made a number of bold moves and started radical reforms within the BI. Viado caught the public’s eye when he led the speedy recapture of a Korean fugitive who escaped from a government facility.
That was an exceptional feat achieved in less than 72 hours. Viado fueled hope that there is hope for the controversial agency to which he was assigned barely a year ago.
Viado then declared that he is serious in his bid to clean and reform the agency. He fired several personnel allegedly involved in the Korean fugitive’s escape plan. He warned other parties linked to the plot that they will face serious consequences.
Viado’s string of successes and reforms was capped by his move to ban the use of flights with layovers in the transport of deportees. The policy, in effect, prevented syndicates from spiriting away deportees while on stop-over—a practice long suspected to have the connivance of unscrupulous BI characters.
In the face of these bold moves, Viado was warned that he is stepping on big toes. He was told, sources say, that he is “killing the business” of criminal groups who rake in millions of pesos by aiding the escape of alien detainees and helping them exit through the notorious southern backdoor and other “holes” in our country’s ramparts.
Sources said Viado was clearly warned that the criminal elements have strong connections inside his agency. Their loyalty is to the source of the “extra income,” and Viado has taken actions inimical to their financial interest.
Now, the BI is being put in bad light again. Viado himself is now being portrayed as “villain” in what appears to be a determined public relations scheme to damage him and allow the “business” to flourish again.
Was Viado unduly oblivious to the warning signs? If yes, is he partly to blame for the looming probe?
We can only speculate. We will just have to watch the forthcoming drama at the Senate floor.
Meanwhile, observers have pointed out that there are interesting characters in this telenovela.
Questions have been raised by certain quarters regarding the individuals who are out to crucify the bureau before the Marcos committee.
It appears one of the initiators of the probe is a BI official who had been sacked before and who had been accused by congressmen several years ago of “lawyering” for undesirable aliens facing deportation.
BI insiders say the said official has continued with this practice after he managed to be reappointed to the bureau by tapping what they alleged are “powerful political connections.”
Insiders also say there has been “bad blood” between this official and Viado after the latter rejected the said official’s move to “lawyer” for another undesirable alien with close connections to a businessman who wielded a lot of political influence during the previous administration.
The said official reportedly “vowed” to get even with Viado.
We do not know if these are facts or mere speculations.
However, we cannot discount the fact that Viado may have really made life difficult for those who “lawyer” for undesirable aliens.
Is Viado now about to reap the consequences of having ignored the warning that there are elements who will get back at him and punish him for the damage he has done to their “business”?
Again, we do not know and we will not speculate.
We will leave it to the Marcos committee to thoroughly probe the credibility and motive of the parties that seek to put BI in bad light once more.
If Commissioner Viado is being targeted, it may be because his reforms threatened deep-seated interests that thrived in the shadows of the old BI.
Whether this Senate probe is a search for truth or a political vendetta disguised as oversight, one thing is clear: the forces resisting reform are alive, well-funded, and fighting back.
As always, it is the public who must pay the price when good governance is punished and bad actors protected. (Email: ernhil@yahoo.com)
