The Bureau of Immigration Saturday intensified its campaign against human organ smugglers preying on poor women in the provinces, especially in the South.

BI Commissioner Nonoy Libanan ordered officials of the newly-created immigration area offices in Mindanao to coordinate with local authorities in running after the organ smugglers.

Libanan said he was alarmed by reports that the smugglers have already victimized many poor residents in the South who were enticed to give up their kidneys in exchange for money.

The BI chief also revealed that members of the syndicate usually courted and married Filipina women and after which, they sweet-talked their wives to donate organ to be used allegedly for charity.

“These organ smugglers are committing a serious form of transnational crime and they have been taking advantage of the poverty of our countrymen,” the BI chief said, adding that “the brains behind these syndicates should be identified and barred from leaving the country.”

Libanan instructed the immigration area directors to coordinate with other members of the Inter-Agency Council against Trafficking (IACAT) in launching a campaign that would unmask the organ smugglers so they can be charged and prosecuted in court.

Aside from the BI, the council is composed of the Departments of Social Welfare and Development; Foreign Affairs; Labor and Employment; Interior and Local Government; and the National Bureau of Investigation; Philippine National Police, and Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).

Earlier, Cotabato Rep. Emmylou Mendoza exposed the alleged rampant operations of human organ smugglers in Cotabato and nearby provinces.

Mendoza alleged that the smugglers have already victimized at least a dozen women in her province who were paid P200,000 in exchange for their kidneys.

The lawmaker sought the arrest and prosecution of the organ smugglers before they victimize more women in Mindanao.

Human organ trading was designated as a penal offense under the anti-trafficking act of 2003 and those convicted of the crime can be sentenced to a jail term of 20 years and fined up to P2 million.