INQUIRER file photo / ALEXIS CORPUZ
MANILA, Philippines—Security has been tightened at the Bureau of Immigration (BI) detention facility in Bicutan following a raid leading to the discovery of VIP treatment that some foreign detainees were getting.
Justice Undersecretary Jose Dominic Clavano said authorities also segregated detainees who are fugitives from their native countries and those who are detained for only violating the Philippines’ immigration laws.
“An order was issued yesterday by the commissioner of immigration segregating now the fugitives from the non-fugitives in the Bicutan Immigration Detention Center,” Clavano told reporters.
On Tuesday (Jan. 31), the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) conducted Oplan Greyhound inside the BI’s detention facility and discovered several prohibited items including gadgets.
READ: Gadgets, cigarettes, cash seized inside detention center for foreigners
Clavano said the seized gadgets had also been segregated according to who owned them to preserve those belonging to four Japanese nationals who face deportation.
The four Japanese, Clavano said, have standing warrants in their country for theft, fraud and robbery. It is believed that one of the four is “Luffy,” the brains behind a series of robberies in Japan and who was believed to be operating remotely while in BI detention.
The mobile phones have been referred by the BI to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for forensic examination. Clavano, however, said the NBI declined to examine the phones in the absence of a court order.
“Since its already a Japanese issue, we would rather that they take care of the case seeing that the cases here seemed to be contrived anyway and that the cases there [in Japan] are the real cases, we would rather that they take a look at the mobile phones,” he told reporters.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is hoping that cases pending before the Philippine courts against the four Japanese nationals will be dismissed to clear the way for their deportation which was preferred by the Japanese government.