A Filipina has been sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to using a falsified immigration stamp in her attempt to leave the country for Thailand last May.
The Bureau of Immigration on Wednesday said the Metropolitan Trial Court of Pasay City Branch 165 convicted Melissa Dy for using falsified documents. She was sentenced to two years, four months, and one day to three years, six months, and 20 days in prison.
The court found Dy guilty of violating Article 172 of the Revised Penal Code, which penalizes the use of falsified documents.
Dy was intercepted at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 on 28 May, prior to boarding a Cebu Pacific flight to Thailand. Authorities said she had been recruited to work in an offshore gaming company in Mae Sot, with a promised salary of ₱52,000.
She reportedly approached a fixer who offered to process her departure by affixing fake immigration stamps on her passport and boarding pass.
Immigration officers flagged the irregularities and referred her case to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking and the National Bureau of Investigation’s International Airport Investigation Division, which later filed the case.