The Bureau of Immigration (BI) recently thwarted an attempt by an overseas Filipino worker (OFW), known by the alias Olive, to leave the country from Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 on January 25, after discovering a case of identity duplication.
Olive, heading to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for work, was stopped during primary inspection when officers found records of departures under her identity in 2015 and 2019, despite her claims of being a first-time traveler.
Further investigation revealed that another individual had previously traveled using the exact identity details belonging to Olive. She confessed that in 2014, she was recruited by an agent in Maguindanao who altered her birth year to meet the age requirement for household service workers. Although she paid for a new birth certificate, her application was never completed, and she lost contact with the recruiter.
Olive asserted her ownership of the identity that had been misused. Her case has been referred to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter.