‘I love this guy’: Duterte backs his immigration chief amid probe on illegal Chinese workers
- Jaime Morente, Duterte’s close ally, is being ‘assessed’ for links to an operation which saw officials letting Chinese nationals into the country for bribes
- The immigration chief has said he was not aware of the ‘pastillas operation’, and has no power over the immigration officials
“Mahal ko yan (I love this guy),” Duterte said of commissioner Jaime Morente, a former Davao police chief whom the president recently described as “mabait” – good.
But on Friday, presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo told reporters that Morente would be “assessed” as part of an investigation into the “pastillas operation” – so-called because the Bureau of Immigration (BI) officials were paid in cash tightly wadded inside rolled paper that resembled pastillas, a local milk candy.
Those who took bribes would be charged with corruption and the Chinese nationals who entered illegally would be deported, Panelo added.
The immigration officials who were relieved of their duties have not been fired or dismissed, but have been put on floating status, pending investigation or reassignment.
Teresita Ang See, the chair of the Movement for Restoration of Peace and Order, an anti-crime watchdog, said: “I don’t know what he meant by just ‘relieved’.