PNP Headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City. (Photo from the PNP Facebook page)
MANILA, Philippines — Xinchuang Network Technology Inc., a Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo), asked the police on Tuesday to leave its Las Piãs compound a week after they conducted a human trafficking raid there.
In a letter dated July 3 and sent to the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Tuesday, Xinchuang questioned the legality of the private property being used as an immigration holding area for the thousands of “rescued” workers.
The firm was represented by the Vargas Law Office.
Last June 27, police raided the firm’s compound on Alabang-Zapote Road in Barangay Almanza Uno.
“Regardless of your opinion that the foreign nationals being detained therein are ‘victims,’ who are eligible for repatriation, there is no question that the subject premises are neither a holding nor a detention facility of the Bureau of Immigration. After all, immigration matters are no longer within the ambit of the powers of the PNP,” lawyer Ananias Christian Vargas said.
The letter was addressed to the heads of the PNP task force that served search warrants on Xinchuang:
- Maj. Gen. Edgar Alan Okubo, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office
- Brig. Gen. Sidney S. Hernia, director of the Anti-Cybercrime Group
- Maj. Gen. Jon Arnaldo, head of the Directorate for Intelligence
- Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco
Vargas demanded that the PNP return all confiscated items which were not the subject of the warrants and pay for damages incurred by his client because of the raid.
“Worse, we have validated reports and witnesses who will prove that you destroyed properties belonging to my client, including CCTV cameras, door locks, other fixtures and items, and the 124 safety deposit boxes or vaults that you have removed from the premises and forcibly opened, but which are not the subject of the warrants that you implemented,” Vargas said.
The lawyer also noted that the PNP’s “continued commandeering” of the Pogo compound was “nothing more than an illegal disruption of my client’s operations and deprivation of business and property without due process of law.”
He also accused the PNP of arbitrary and illegal detention as more than a thousand of its workers continued to be held in PNP custody.
Vargas gave the PNP 24 hours to leave, return the 124 safety deposit boxes that were seized, and pay the damages incurred by Xinchuang — “lest we be constrained to file the appropriate legal actions — criminal, civil, and administrative — against you and everyone under your command and implementing your illegal orders, without any hesitation.”
PNP responds
The PNP brushed aside the lawyer’s demands and allegations.
“The PNP is acting under the authority of valid search warrants issued by the court. As of now, continuous search and processing of evidence is being undertaken.. which will take some time due to the numerous computer sets being examined aside from other sets of evidence that needs to be processed,” the PNP public information office chief, Brig. Gen. Redrico Maranan, told reporters in Camp Crame on Tuesday.
Maranan said all of the 1,534 rescued Filipino workers were already allowed to go home on Saturday, while authorities were still working to complete the personal profiles of the remaining 1,284 rescued foreign workers.
He also maintained that the raid was a “legitimate operation,” saying the PNP had yet to complete the implementation of the seven search warrants (five involving the extraction of computer data) issued by Las Piñas Regional Trial Court Executive Judge Elizabeth Yu Guray on June 26.
PNP spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo earlier said the rescued victims could not be brought to a police station as it would be too crowded for them.
Having the victims stay in the compound was the “most humane thing to do for now” with the profiling and investigation still ongoing, Fajardo added.
Five Chinese nationals, who were tagged as maintainers of Xinchuang, were presented for inquest proceedings at the Department of Justice in Manila last Friday for violation of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act and the Cybercrime Prevention Act.
They were not among those listed as respondents in the warrants issued by the court.
On Monday, the PNP said four fugitives wanted in China were also among the individuals under its custody following the June 27 raid. Their identities were not disclosed.