4 M aliens in ‘pastillas’ scam stealing jobs from Filipinos

by Jarius Bondoc (The Philippine Star), 4 Nov 2020

Four million young aliens who bribed their way into the country since 2017 are a menace. Mostly Chinese, they are stealing as many Filipino jobs. Some have taken Filipino spouses, to acquire land. They enjoy privileges reserved for Filipinos, like extracting natural resources, and owning utilities and firearms. Having entered fraudulently, they could be into crime, like narco- and human trafficking. The spies among them are embedded in Filipino communities, industries, academe, institutions and associations.

Being illegals, they pay no taxes. Yet many of them do business exclusively for each other: restaurants, delis, travel agencies, apparel, home and office supplies and services like translation, escort and security. They are a drain on scarce Philippine resources: food, water, housing, transport, telecoms gadgetry, WiFi connectivity, capital goods. Twenty seven-million Filipinos lost their livelihoods during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

Every one of them must be arrested and deported, Sen. Francis Pangilinan said. He called the sneak-in of four million Chinese a “soft invasion.”

The Chinese illegals are a national security threat. Since 1988 China has been grabbing Philippine territorial sea features and maritime jurisdictions. Beijing’s communist rulers are an enemy feigning as economic friends. In 2014 Beijing concreted seven Philippine reefs into island fortresses from where warships harass Filipino patrol, exploration and fishing vessels.

Citing intelligence sources, Sen. Panfilo Lacson revealed last year that 3,000 Chinese army spies are on “immersion mission” in the Philippines. It is like the Japanese imperial forces deploying operatives as gardeners, shopkeepers and ambulant vendors prior to 1941 Philippine Occupation. It is unclear what the government has done about the exposé of Lacson, a former Philippine National Police chief.

China intends to seize the Philippines in case of war with the US over Taiwan, former Armed Forces chief Emmanuel Bautista warned last week. China will take control of strategic sea passages to the Pacific in Batanes, Mindoro, Palawan, Samar and Surigao. China’s People’s Liberation Army-Navy includes the Philippines in its “First Island Chain of Defense” since 2009, when it illegally enforced a “nine-dash” boundary in the South China Sea. Among the foremost Filipino military strategists, Bautista headed the National Task Force on the West Philippine Sea after serving as chief of staff in 2013-2014.

The four million Chinese illegals entered the country through the “pastillas” scheme of each paying off crooked Immigration men P10,000. The bribees themselves named it after the native milk candy in white wrapper because the bribes came in rolled envelopes.

The scam has raked in P40 billion since 2017, divvied up among Immigration bigwigs, airport staff and protectors in the National Bureau of Investigation and the Office of the Ombudsman.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros uncovered the racket in the course of an inquiry into white slavery in Chinese-run online gambling in Manila. Taking P10,000 under the table from four million illegal aliens became possible by discarding checks and balances, Hontiveros concluded. Father and son Maynardo Mariñas and Marc Red Mariñas were appointed chiefs of Immigration Special Operations and of Port Operations Divisions, respectively. That enabled them to hatch up the scam, according to Immigration whistleblowers Allison Chiong and Jeffrey Dale Ignacio. The NBI also arrested its Legal Assistance Division lawyer Joshua Capiral in an entrapment in September, taking grease money to not implicate “pastillas” collectors.

Sen. Richard Gordon unearthed last week what seemed a parallel scheme. Philippine Retirement Authority officials were granting special retiree visas to thousands of Chinese as young as 35. PRA general manager-CEO Bienvenido Chy claimed to be merely following long-standing rules. Gordon threatened to have the agency’s 2021 budget slashed if it persists in the sham.

In seeking the arrest and deportation of the Chinese illegals, Pangilinan cited Commonwealth Act 613 and amending Republic Act 503. Those require such action against law-breaking aliens. “Foreign nationals who circumvent immigration laws in connivance with corrupt Immigration employees forfeit their right to stay in the country,” he said.

Aliens here legally may work in the Philippines by securing employment or investor visas. The latter requires $75,000 deposit to the Land Bank or Development Bank of the Philippines. Foreign spies face lifetime imprisonment.

The “pastillas” racketeers are deemed to have sold the country to a foreign aggressor, short of treason during war. They need reminding of the fate that befell such Quislings right after Philippine Liberation of 1945. Atrocity victims and kin decapitated or disemboweled collaborators and informers of the cruel Japanese Kempeitai police. Those whose lives were spared ended up with noses, ears and hands chopped off.