Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla on Thursday disclosed that unscrupulous immigration officials are being paid as much as P150,000 to provide escort services to blacklisted foreign nationals entering and exiting the country.

The disclosure came a day after Remulla ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate the escort scam involving immigration officials and officers.

The new scheme is similar to the so-called "pastillas scam," where unscrupulous immigration officers extorted between P10,000 and P20,000 from foreigners, mostly Chinese nationals, for unhampered entry to the country.

"We have information that the fee for a blacklisted person to be able to travel in or out of the country is P150,000 for the escort service," Remulla said.

As the DoJ is working to uncover all illegal activities in immigration, Remulla said he is looking at the "structure" of the agency again to address the problem.

"We will be pursuing a movement of people again within the Bureau of Immigration because, under the power of the President, the power to reorganize the bureaucracy is there," Remulla said.

While he remains satisfied with how BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco handles the affairs of the agency, Remulla said that "there are things that have to be addressed and answered."

"This has been a problem for the longest time. I think it was even more scandalously alarming during the past three years before we came here. But, unfortunately, corruption will rear its ugly head because of the temptation of money going into people's heads," he added.

Remulla said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is aware of the problem and has suggested several measures to reform the graft-ridden agency.

Meanwhile, the BI said it has launched an all-out probe to unmask human traffickers and illegal recruitment syndicates in coordination with the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, or IACAT.

Tansingco warned of the "harshest penalties" on BI employees found colluding with human traffickers and illegal recruiters.

"If we are able to confirm that we have employees involved in trafficking, then they will face the harshest penalties in the law," he said.

Earlier, the BI reported intercepting a trafficking victim posing as an employee of the Department of Justice. Remulla slammed the "escort services" at the airports after the incident.

Tansingco said they have leads on big-time traffickers and assured that they would be arrested and jailed soon.