MANILA — The Bureau of Immigration says its operation in Benguet stemmed from information from the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) about a Chinese woman being sought in relation to a recent raid in Bamban, Tarlac.

“Pagdating po ng ating mga operatiba, wala po sa area ‘yung target individual pero nakakita po ng dalawang foreign nationals na nakitaan din po ng immigration violations kaya agad po sila inaresto,” Immigration spokesperson Dana Sandoval said.

(When our operatives arrived, the target individual was not there but they found two foreign nationals who turned out to have immigration violations, so they were arrested)

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“It’s a big possibility po [related to POGO] since they were found in the same location pero tinitingnan pa po natin ‘yung kanilang mga links,” she added.

(It's a big possibility that they are related to POGOs since they were in the location where the subject of the operations was supposed to be, but we are still checking if there are links)

The two arrested foreign nationals are now in the custody of PAOCC while undergoing deportation proceedings.

According to an earlier report, the operation involved the BI, PAOCC, the Philippine National Police, and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

Meanwhile, the BI said it has not received any information from the PAOCC on who owns the house where its personnel arrested the two foreign nationals.

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 "Wala po kaming official information on that, we just worked on the information we received from PAOCC," Sandoval said.

"Ang naging focus natin ay ‘yung mga foreign nationals in the area but ‘yung peripherals po, we have no information received po from PAOCC."

(Our focus was on the foreign nationals in the area)

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