Immigration operatives who walked into a San Isidro property posing as customers seeking to rent out the entire venue for a corporate retreat left with enough evidence to detain its two foreign operators, the Bureau of Immigration said.
Teryn Jane Spencer, 41, of New Zealand, was the one who greeted the disguised officers, showed them the grounds, laid out the room pricing and packages, walked them through the yoga offerings, and closed the reservation details, investigators said.
That encounter, carried out by the Mindanao Regional Intelligence Operations Unit under the BI Intelligence Division, ended with her arrest on Thursday, July 9, alongside 38-year-old Swiss national Dario Salvatore Di Capua.
Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said tips reaching the bureau had flagged the pair for personally handling a homestay and café operation and conducting yoga sessions for paying guests, none of it covered by a work visa or the permits such activity requires.
Both denied managing anything, describing their role as purely financial. Investigators rejected that account, saying the sales pitch, the client interaction, and the hands-on control of daily operations pointed to something other than passive investment by two people admitted only as temporary visitors.
“A tourist visa is not a license to work or run a business in the Philippines,” Viado said.
The two remain in BI custody as deportation proceedings move forward over violations tied to the terms under which they entered. A completed deportation would carry an additional penalty: placement on the bureau’s blacklist, shutting the door on any future entry.
“We welcome foreign visitors who respect our laws, but those who abuse the privilege of their stay by engaging in unauthorized employment or business activities will be arrested, deported, and barred from returning,” Viado said. “No one is exempt from our immigration laws.”
