Ayon kay BI Commissioner Jaime Morente, naharang ang 33-anyos na dayuhan, na unang nagpakilala bilang Mark Anthony Cobeng, bago ang boarding ng kaniyang flight patungong Maldives via private jet.
Sinabi ni Morente na napansin ng primary inspector officer ang pagkakaiba ng biopage ng pasaporte.
“Upon seeing irregularities in the travel document, the officer proceeded to interview the passenger. That is when they noticed that the passenger did not even know how to speak basic Filipino words,” pahayag nito.
Kasama aniya ang dayuhan ng isa pang Chinese national na boluntaryong ipinagpaliban ang flight.
Ayon kay Port Operations Chief Atty. Carlos Capulong, nagkaroon ng tensyon nang tumanggi ang Chinese na dumaan sa immigration inspection.
“The foreigner was already causing a commotion. We thank the Airport Police Department (APD) and our Bureau’s Border Control and Intelligence Unit (BCIU) for the assistance in controlling the situation,” ani Capulong.
Babala naman ni Morente sa mga dayuhang nagbabalik na gumamit ng pekeng dokumento, “The Philippine passport contains a number of overt security features that our officers are trained to examine.”
Dagdag nito, “Apart from our officers’ expertise in fraud detection, we are also have a forensic documents laboratory that can analyze the authenticy of passports presented.”
Inaresto si Cobeng at dinala sa Legal Division ng ahensya para sa deportation proceedings.