Immigration officers rescued a Filipina who was allegedly a victim of a mail-order bride scheme at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1.

The Immigration Protection and Border Enforcement Section (I-PROBES) reported that a female passenger attempted to depart the country for Fujian, China, on 8 April with her alleged husband.

 They were able to produce a marriage certificate at the immigration primary inspection, showing that they got married in 2019.

The Bureau of Immigration officers, however, expressed suspicion about her allegations due to a number of discrepancies between her testimony and the documents she provided.

In contrast to the certificate she produced, the victim claimed that she and her presumed spouse got married inside a travel agency somewhere in Manila.

She admitted that they had paid P100,000 for the marriage certificate, which the forensic document laboratory of the BI had verified to be authentic. 

“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,” said BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco.

Both the victim and her pseudo-husband were turned over to the Inter-agency Council against trafficking for further investigation.