--Aesop
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- Was Carl Benito a victim of the dreaded Pinoy crab mentality?
Immigration consultancy business must now be thriving that those in the industry are reportedly the ones destroying each other by tipping off authorities with false allegations.
Benito was only one of the latest foreign-based Filipino immigration consultants who fell in disgrace after being accused of committing fraudulent deals involving workers and immigrants intending to live permanently in Canada, an accusation not yet proven with absolute truth in a competent court.
In other parts of Canada and in the United States, a similar misfortune befell other Filipinos engaged in the business of immigration consultancy.
If they don’t “pirate” applicants, they reportedly accuse one another of charging exorbitant fees and operating without license and authority in order to discourage prospective clients.
One of them is a Filipino-Canadian immigration consultant in British Columbia in Canada who is now being investigated by the consulate and immigration authorities after he suspected that a fellow Filipino-Canadian immigration consultant “destroyed my reputation.”
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He requested strict anonymity pending the results of an “important meeting this week” where he made an appeal to be heard on the controversy he was implicated.
“It’s a plain and simple crab mentality,” sobbed the embattled Fil-Can immigration consultant. “Once your business is doing good somebody (in the same industry) will feel bad about it and invent intrigues to destroy you,” he added.
The Fil-Can immigration consultant swore his business is legal and his agency is duly-licensed.
“In fact, I have helped a lot of clients who are now permanent residents in Canada,” he disclosed.
Meanwhile, Benito is a former Alberta Progressive Conservative Member of the Legislative Assembly who’s home and office were raided on August 16, 2018 by Canada’s immigration authorities on suspicion of immigration fraud schemes.
Seized by the Canada Border Services Agency during the raid were more than $250,000 in cash, mostly in bundles of $100 bills.
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Benito has been accused of counseling dozens of Filipino immigrants on how to fraudulently extend their stay in Alberta through bogus applications for study and devious work-extension permits.
As an immigration counselor, Benito was also accused of illegally employing at least one and possibly several fellow Filipino immigrants since Sept. 16, 2016.
Border Services officials had been reportedly tipped off Benito has been conducting fraudulent immigration schemes since Nov. 11, 2015.
However, it was reported that no charges have been filed in court yet against Benito and none of the allegations in the documents have been proven in court.
Some of his supporters suspect “his jealous business rivals could have fed authorities with half-truths and false information in a bid to sabotage his good business.”
Benito has not made any official statement about the raid as of this writing.
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Even if they suspect that some immigration consultancy firms operate in dubious manners, many desperate Filipinos continue to play deaf and blind thinking they can still nevertheless enter in Canada, US, Australia, and New Zealand and other highly developed western countries to escape poverty in the Philippines.
This is being exploited by some unscrupulous “immigration consultants” who take advantage of the clients’ “bahala na” attitude.
And this explains why “immigration consultancy” agencies have mushroomed in the Philippines these past years.
There are still many legal and prestigious immigration consultancy agencies that are actually helping facilitate and fast track the papers of their clients and have never been tainted with shady transactions.
He requested strict anonymity pending the results of an “important meeting this week” where he made an appeal to be heard on the controversy he was implicated.
“It’s a plain and simple crab mentality,” sobbed the embattled Fil-Can immigration consultant. “Once your business is doing good somebody (in the same industry) will feel bad about it and invent intrigues to destroy you,” he added.
The Fil-Can immigration consultant swore his business is legal and his agency is duly-licensed.
“In fact, I have helped a lot of clients who are now permanent residents in Canada,” he disclosed.
Meanwhile, Benito is a former Alberta Progressive Conservative Member of the Legislative Assembly who’s home and office were raided on August 16, 2018 by Canada’s immigration authorities on suspicion of immigration fraud schemes.
Seized by the Canada Border Services Agency during the raid were more than $250,000 in cash, mostly in bundles of $100 bills.
-o0o-
Benito has been accused of counseling dozens of Filipino immigrants on how to fraudulently extend their stay in Alberta through bogus applications for study and devious work-extension permits.
As an immigration counselor, Benito was also accused of illegally employing at least one and possibly several fellow Filipino immigrants since Sept. 16, 2016.
Border Services officials had been reportedly tipped off Benito has been conducting fraudulent immigration schemes since Nov. 11, 2015.
However, it was reported that no charges have been filed in court yet against Benito and none of the allegations in the documents have been proven in court.
Some of his supporters suspect “his jealous business rivals could have fed authorities with half-truths and false information in a bid to sabotage his good business.”
Benito has not made any official statement about the raid as of this writing.
-o0o-
Even if they suspect that some immigration consultancy firms operate in dubious manners, many desperate Filipinos continue to play deaf and blind thinking they can still nevertheless enter in Canada, US, Australia, and New Zealand and other highly developed western countries to escape poverty in the Philippines.
This is being exploited by some unscrupulous “immigration consultants” who take advantage of the clients’ “bahala na” attitude.
And this explains why “immigration consultancy” agencies have mushroomed in the Philippines these past years.
There are still many legal and prestigious immigration consultancy agencies that are actually helping facilitate and fast track the papers of their clients and have never been tainted with shady transactions.
