BI bars Chinese fugitive

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has blocked a Chinese woman from entering the Philippines after she turned out to be wanted in her home country for fraud.

Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said that a BI personnel stopped Fan Wenxin, 44, on June 10 when she arrived in Mactan, Cebu province on a Malaysian Airlines flight from Singapore.

Fan, a naturalized citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis, also presented a Vietnamese passport under the name of Troung An Lan to hide her real identity.

She was arrested after immigration records showed she was on the Interpol list, being wanted for fraud by the municipal public security bureau in Daqing, Heilongjiang, China.

Chinese prosecutors alleged that Fan had profited from the illegal transfer of land use rights, an offense punishable by a 7-year prison term under China’s laws.

A representative from China’s Interpol bureau and two Chinese policemen escorted Fan back to Fuzhou, China aboard a Xiamen Airlines flight on June 13. —Julie M. Aurelio