The Bureau of Immigration (BI) reported that immigration officials at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) stopped two Chinese nationals from attempting to depart the country by posing as Costa Ricans.

BI Commissioner Atty. Joel Anthony Viado identified the two passengers as Wang Songyi, a 54-year-old Chinese national, and Liao Fudi, a 50-year-old Chinese national, who were intercepted on October 19 at NAIA Terminal 1 after they attempted to board a Philippine Airlines flight bound for Kuala Lumpur.

According to Atty. Viado, the investigation showed that both passengers intended to travel to Canada, where they would use their Costa Rican passports to circumvent Canada's entry visa restrictions for Chinese nationals.

The BI chief commended the officers who prevented the departure of the Chinese nationals, foiling a plot to facilitate the illegal entry of two aliens into North America.

The BI officers processing the travelers' Costa Rican passports discovered irregularities, which reportedly foiled the plan.

The officers claimed that the passports had Philippine immigration arrival stamps, which the forensic document laboratory at the BI confirmed to be fake.

Both passengers were unable to speak Spanish, the main language in Costa Rica.

When asked during the interview to reveal their true identities, both passengers handed over their Chinese passports, which also had fake BI arrival stamps.

The intercepted passengers were transferred to the BI Warden Facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City, after being turned over to the BI Border Control and Intelligence Unit (BI-BCIU).

BI-BCIU chief Ferdinand Tendenilla stated that the two had already been charged with deportation proceedings following a preliminary inquiry at the BI main office.