Mass wedding of 1,000 couples probed for recruiting prostitutes, nannies
By Bobby Timonera
MANILA - Wedding bells set off the alarm.
Did the grooms offer to have and to hold their brides
or did they offer them jobs?
This is what the Bureau of Immigration is trying to
find out after the "mass wedding" held last
Jan. 23 between mostly South Korean men and nearly
1,000 Filipino women.
The exchange of "I dos," the bureau suspects,
may be an operation to illegally recruit domestic helpers
and prostitutes.
Immigration Commissioner Leandro I. Verceles Sr. said
his office will observe with "extreme caution"
in approving the departure of the Filipino brides.
He also ordered investigations into the suspicious
weddings.
"This could be a case of mail-order-bride-in-reverse
operation which is illegal under our laws," the
commissioner said.
The mass wedding of 984 couples at the Philippine International
Convention Center was supposed to be only a religious
rite and thus has no legal effect, Verceles pointed
out.
'Moonies'
It was under the auspices of the Seoul-based Holy Spirit
Association for the Unification of World Christianity
whose members are also known as the "Moonies."
They are named after the controversial Rev. Sun Myung-moon
of South Korea, leader of the church.
The Rev. Chung Hwang-kwak, representing Moon, blessed
the couples, which included people from the United
States, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, but mostly
South Korea.
Verceles said the Koreans probably came over for the
wedding ceremony when immigration agents at the Ninoy
Aquino International Airport (NAIA) prevented 300 Filipino
women from departing last month. They claimed to be
members of the same church as the "Moonies".
Verceles dispatched immigration agents to the wedding
site to gather the names of the couples.
At the same time, he also alerted immigration personnel
at the NAIA to prevent the brides from leaving while
investigations are being conducted.
Citing an intelligence report from the Department of
Foreign Affairs, Verceles said that the "Moonies"
had previously sponsored the recruitment of a large
number of Filipino women to work in Korea.
The same report said that late last year, 184 Filipinas
were brought to Korea aboard a chartered plane. They
were reportedly brought to a training center where
they were housed for three days before being deployed
as domestic helpers and prostitutes.
The Unification church said it had no immediate comment.
Not first time
It was the second mass wedding conducted in Manila by
the said church. Last year, about 3,000 Filipinos
were married in a basketball gym in Manila as part
of a mass wedding performed by Moon via satellite from
Seoul. They were among 360,000 couples married worldwide
in that ceremony.
"Originally, the blessing was available only to
adherents of the Unification Church," a statement
from the group said. "Now, however, anyone wanting
to (can) participate, regardless of religion, race
or nationality."
Prison term
The church, founded by Moon in 1954, claims 3 million
members worldwide and has business interests in soft
drinks, machinery, auto parts and publishing in countries
including the United States and Japan.
Moon, a South Korea native, served 13 months in a U.S.
federal prison on charges of tax evasion before being
released in 1985.
Need for workers
The Phil. Overseas Employment Administration also announced
that South Korea is in need of 40,000 workers "to
give ailing small companies a shot in the arm."
There is reportedly a shortage of workers there. But
Koreans recruit workers not full-fledged employees
but "trainees." Or brides. INQUIRER
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