BUREAU of Immigration (BI) officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) intercepted the other night a Chinese national wanted by authorities in Beijing for trafficking and recruiting Filipino women to illegally work in China.
Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco identified the passenger as 35-year-old Tong Jialong, who was apprehended at the NAIA terminal 3 last April 12 as he was about to board an Air Asia flight to Shanghai.
Tansingco said Tong’s identity prompted a hit in the BI’s Interpol derogatory system which showed that he is subject of a red notice for being a fugitive from justice in his country.
“He was, however, allowed to board his flight after the BI informed the Chinese police about his impending arrival in Shanghai,” the BI chief said.
According to BI-Interpol acting chief Jaime Bustamante, Tong was immediately arrested upon his arrival at the Shanghai airport where Chinese authorities were already waiting for him even before his flight took off from Manila.
“He is already in the custody of the Chinese police and is now behind bars pending his trial for the crimes he allegedly committed,” Bustamante said.
The BI-Interpol bared that an arrest warrant against Tong was issued by the Yongjia public security bureau in December 2018 after a case for trafficking of persons and illegal border crossing was filed against him.
Chinese prosecutors alleged that between April to December 2018 Tong conspired with other suspects in facilitating the travel to Vietnam of some 40 Filipino women who were later transported to China by illegally crossing the border.
The women were later employed either as sex workers or illegal household service workers from which their recruiters profited.
Tong, however, eluded arrest as he left China and stayed in the Philippines since he arrived here in March 2018.
