Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin C. Remulla on Tuesday, Jan. 31, said the Bureau of Immigration (BI) has started investigating why foreigners detained at the bureau’s facility in Taguig City have cellular telephones.
In a press conference, Remulla said he was informed that the BI confiscated numerous mobile phones from the detained foreigners including the four fugitive Japanese nationals.
He said that one of the four Japanese nationals was found in possession of six iPhones.
“It’s very unfortunate these criminal enterprises may have been run from inside their jail cells,” he lamented as he expressed his disgust.
Remulla said the confiscated mobile phones will be subjected to forensic examination. “The NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) has been directed to look at this but we have offered this also to the Japanese authorities to also look into the matter,” he said.
“We will cooperate with the Japanese police if they are sent over to look at these telephones as evidence of wrongdoing,” he assured.
“This is a subject of an investigation now within the Bureau of Immigration because these cannot be tolerated,” he said.
“This reeks of corruption and the people who are responsible for the behavior of all the people under detention will be dealt with severely once proven that they did not do their jobs in ensuring that the use of communication tools are only used for lawyers and family calls,” he declared.
The DOJ held the press conference to answer media queries on the request of the Japanese Embassy on Monday, Jan. 30, to deport four Japanese in the custody of the BI.
The four Japanese are fugitives wanted in Japan and are believed members of the robbery ring led by a certain “Luffy” that is behind a spate of burglaries in Japan where a 90-year-old woman died.
“I am sure he (‘Luffy’) is one of the four being sought for deportation and repatriation to Japan,” Remulla said.
He expressed hopes that the four fugitive Japanese nationals could be deported before President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. goes to Japan this Feb. 8 for a state visit.
“We will deport who we can deport legally. When the request came yesterday (Jan. 30), we were working on limited time. But my commitment to everybody is we will deport who we can deport immediately,” he said.
Remulla explained “there is a rule that we cannot deport anybody with a pending criminal case in the Philippines.”
He said that the DOJ learned that one of the four Japanese nationals has been charged in court with estafa but was already dismissed, while, the three others have pending cases for violations of Republic Act 9262, the Violence Against Women and Children (VAWC) Act.
“There maybe more but we are looking if these cases are in court or are already filed with the prosecutors,” he said.
But Remulla said he suspects that the pending cases may have been contrived with the help of their lawyers to prevent the fugitive Japanese nationals from being deported back to Japan.
“One of the cases was filed by a girlfriend of the detainee who regularly visits the jail, plants a kiss on his cheek and behaves sweetly to the person who is supposed to have inflicted injury on her,” he said.
“So, why would a woman wronged and have filed a case be visiting her boyfriend,” he added.
Explaining the attitude of the woman, Remulla said such tactic of using contrived cases has been known to be used by lawyers to prevent their foreign clients from getting deported.
“These tactics will not be dealt with lightly by the DOJ. We will file cases against lawyers who do not respect the rule of law in our country and who contrive cases just to prevent the ends of justice from being met,” Remulla stressed as he threatened to have these lawyers disbarred.
TAGS: #DOJ #BI #Japanese nationals #’Luffy’ #Cellular phones