BUREAU of Immigration (BI) agents at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) arrested on Saturday a Chinese woman wanted by authorities in Beijing for involvement in human trafficking.

In a report to Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco, BI intelligence chief Fortunato Manahan Jr. identified the fugitive as 39-year-old Zheng Yuyu, who was intercepted at the NAIA Terminal 2 last Saturday.

Manahan said members of the BI’s Border Control and Intelligence Unit (BCIU) arrested Zheng before she could board a Philippine Airlines flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tansingco immediately ordered the woman’s commitment to the BI warden facility at Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City, where she would remain while undergoing deportation proceedings.

The BI board of commissioners, which Tansingco chairs, is expected to issue an order for Zheng’s summary deportation and her inclusion in the bureau’s blacklist of undesirable aliens.

According to BI-BCIU Overall Deputy Chief Joseph Cueto, the suspect has been on the BI’s wanted list since April 9 this year when she, along with another Chinese named “Chen Dongxin,” was charged with deportation by the bureau’s prosecutors for being undesirable aliens.

Cueto said the charges against Zheng and Chen were filed after the Chinese embassy in Manila informed the BI that the two were wanted in their country for “large-scale” human trafficking.

They were accused of allegedly organizing people to illegally and secretly cross China’s territorial borders.

Cueto added that Chen, who remains at large, is an undocumented alien as his Chinese passport has already expired.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Jun I. Legaspi