Newly-issued, machine-readable passport forged

MANILA, Philippines - The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has started a manhunt for members of a syndicate believed to be behind the manufacture of fake machine-readable passport, a report aired by GMA News' 24 Oras said Friday. This after authorities arrested woman who was allegedly involved in illegal recruitment of workers for London. The report identified the suspect as Ness Gomez Campued, who allegedly also uses the aliases of "Lina Lisa Romero," "Lina Lisa Manalo," and "Nanette Manalo" in her activities. The report said the suspect recruited the victims to work as caregivers in London and promised them good salaries. In exchange, the suspect asked at least P200,000 from each of the victims as processing fee. But when they got their passports with UK visa attached, the victims learned that the suppose to be tampered proof passport – was tampered. Unlike the old modus of tampering the old passport by replacing the picture in the original owner - which is called “Baklas,"- the head of the inter-agency of the Department of Foreign Affair tasked to distinguish fake passport said a whole page of the new machine readable passport was altered. “Yun passport na ito ay genuine. Only that the data page was forged. Katunayan yung tunay na holder ng passport ay ibang tao bukod sa nakalagay na pangalan dito,’ said Ariel Esparto, chief of the inter-agency committee against passport irregularities. Esparto added that the altered machine readable passport don’t have holograms. “This is the first case (of altering the machine readable passport) mabuti naman nahuli na," said NBI director Nestor Mantaring. The DFA advised the public that if they have doubt on their passport, visit the nearest DFA office so it can run on to the machine. Aside from the illegal recruiting, Campued will be charged for violating the Passport Law and illegal use of alias. - Fidel Jimenez, GMANews.TV