BI chief: Korean freed for P1M

FOR P1 million, some Bureau of Immigration employees facilitated the escape of a Korean detainee from the BI facility in Bicutan, Taguig City, the head of the agency said Tuesday.

BI Commissioner Siegfred Mison said Seongdae Cho, who was recaptured on Saturday in Parañaque City, tagged around 10 BI employees who allegedly helped him escape on Sept. 29.

“The (escape) was done in connivance with some of our own personnel. Through our own fact-finding commission, we will make a recommendation to the Department of Justice so that they will be punished accordingly,” Mison said, adding that Cho had executed an affidavit that would be used against those whom he had bribed.

The implicated personnel, whose names were withheld pending investigation, had been transferred to the BI main office. “A complete overhaul” of personnel at the bureau’s warden facility in Bicutan would also be implemented, the bureau chief added.

Cho,who arrived in the country in 2012, has been charged with human trafficking and robbery-extortion in the Philippines and with extortion in Korea, Mison said. The Korean embassy has already cancelled his passport.

According to Mison, Cho provided fellow Koreans with women for sex but later had them entrapped in a police “raid.” He would then demand P2.5 million to P5 million from his compatriots if they don’t want any charges filed against them.

On Sept. 9, the BI issued a summary deportation order against Cho for being an undesirable alien and in view of his canceled passport.

The 50-year-old Cho is one of the 58 foreign fugitives arrested this year by the BI, more than half of them Koreans, Mison said. Jodee A. Agoncillo