What gives these BI officials at the airports the right to stop Filipinos from travelling abroad?

Under the Constitution, the freedom to travel is guaranteed. All that is needed is a valid passport and a visa.

If a Filipino citizen is to be restrained from travelling abroad, then only the Courts can do that, by issuing a Hold Departure Order in connection with a pending criminal case. Not just any cases, but grave offenses cognizable by the Regional Trial Court.

The DOJ can also do that but only in enforcement of a warrant of arrest issued by the Courts.

But it seems BI officials stationed at the airport have arbitrarily clothed themselves with the authority to restrain citizens without pending warrants or HDOs from exiting the country in enforcement of the so-called anti-human trafficking law. But where in the law is it provided that Congress has explicitly and validly delegated this awesome power to immigration officials?

The standards are rather poor. On mere suspicion, from just the way a Filipino traveller looks or responds to trick questions about yearbooks, visas, employment status, a BI official can delay, stall, or halt a Filipino from boarding.

Granted, the intention is noble, to prevent Filipinos from being trafficked as scammers, prostitutes, domestic workers abroad. But is this still the lookout of the government as pater familias, when the traveller is an adult and in full possession of their senses?

If they’re foolish enough to be trafficked abroad despite all the warnings and cautionary tales widely publicized in the media, let them suit themselves. We can do something about it later, after they have learned their lessons.

But let not the vast majority of Filipino travellers be victims of capricious BI officials acting as little tinpot gatekeepers.

A Congressional investigation is in order. Ot let’s just fire the BI Commissioner.

Photo: Atty. Wilfredo Garrido FB