DOJ: China refuses to help gov’t deport Pogo workers

Jesus Crispin Remulla—SENATE PRIB

China has refused to help the government in deporting some 400 Chinese workers of Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) who were arrested for various criminal offenses, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla told the Senate on Monday.

Fielding questions from Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, who presided over a hearing on the proposed P34.5-billion budget of the Department of Justice (DOJ) for 2024, Remulla said China had been deliberately delaying the release of travel documents for their detained citizens, prolonging the deportation proceedings at the Bureau of Immigration (BI).

He said the Chinese detainees, many of whom did not have their passports in their possession, were arrested during the various raids on Pogo establishments allegedly involved in online fraud.

READ: Senate body: Pogos must go; give them 3 months

Priorities

“When we seek the assistance of China for this, they don’t rush to our aid to document their people. They take their sweet time,” Remulla told the senators.

“Their priorities are only those they want to deport. That’s why we have detainees who have been here for over a year,” he added. “China did not want to help us regarding this matter.”

According to the justice secretary, he had actually tried to personally bring the matter to a senior official of the Chinese Embassy in Manila.

The DOJ, however, did not get any positive response from the Chinese official, he said.

“The last time I spoke with the official from their embassy was when I got a negative comment from their chargé d’affaires… and I found it very offensive when he spoke to me in that manner,” Remulla lamented.

“That’s why I let the other (DOJ) officers handle the request with the (Chinese) embassy because they are not very respectful of our country. They do not want to cooperate fully,” he noted.

READ: 2nd Senate panel backs phaseout of Pogos

Review

Angara said the DOJ should coordinate with the Department of Foreign Affairs in facilitating the immediate deportation of all foreigners being held in various prison facilities in the country.

“Tell those foreign countries that [their citizens] have been fed by [the Filipino people] for a long time. Maybe it’s time for those countries to get them back,” Angara said.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III agreed, adding that the DOJ could use the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty that the Philippines had signed with other countries to expedite the return of foreign detainees.

Pimentel also said that the DOJ should not let Beijing “dictate the phase” of the legal process in deporting arrested Chinese nationals, particularly those facing criminal charges in China and were already “a burden to Philippine society.”

“We should review the entire system [to determine] if we can return them to their countries of origin at the soonest possible time,” the opposition senator said.

“Those deserving to be deported must be deported,” Pimentel stressed.

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Criminal liabilities

Remulla, who defended the DOJ’s budget request for next year, also disclosed that some enterprising lawyers had been in cahoots with their foreign clients in carrying out what he described as “demanda me” scheme, wherein the aliens would fabricate complaints to prevent the BI from ejecting them.

He cited the case of a Japanese fugitive whose extradition was requested by the Japanese government.

After his arrest, the justice secretary said the lawyer of the Japanese argued that his client should not be sent away since he was facing 12 complaints for violation of Republic Act No. 9262, or the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act.

“However, we found that the woman who filed the complaints was regularly visiting the Japanese,” Remulla said.

‘Reverse demanda me’

Quizzed on the matter by Pimentel, Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said the criminal cases “must take precedence over all other cases” filed against detained foreigners.

“We do not deport them because these foreign nationals may have criminal liabilities to the state considering that the cases are ‘versus people of the Philippines,’” Tansingco explained.

The immigration chief added that they have also recorded a “reverse demanda me” modus wherein foreigners indicted for criminal offenses in the Philippines would manufacture complaints in other countries to have them repatriated and avoid prosecution.

“We are also taking note of the instances where foreigners themselves ask for voluntary deportation to escape criminal liabilities,” he said. INQ