MANILA --  The election season only a few months away, Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Jaime Morente made renewed warning to foreigners asking them to respect the law and defer from interfering with Philippine politics. Morente stressed that foreigners are prohibited by law to engage in partisan political activities in the Philippines.

“Foreigners joining mass actions and protests including election campaigns is a disrespect to our prescribed laws and is considered as a violation of their stay in the Philippines,” he said.

According to Morente, even those holders of permanent residence visas are not vested with the same political rights and privileges as a Filipino citizen and thus, cannot engage in such activities.

Morente further shared that they have zero tolerance for foreigners who will be “meddling in the internal affairs of the Philippines as a sovereign nation.”

“We are sending this early reminder as we have encountered so many deportation cases of foreigners who have engaged in political activities in the past,” he warned.

“Those foreigners who will be found guilty of such acts, especially electioneering, shall be deported and blacklisted, perpetually barring them from returning to the Philippines,” Morente warned.

Earlier, Morente issued a warning to employees of the Bureau reminding them to remain apolitical both offline and on the internet. (BI)