An African national, who was able to leave the Philippines despite a hold departure order (HDO) issued against him by a Paranaque City court in 2000, was arrested upon his arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) last Jan.27.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Feb. 1, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado identified him as Oscar Ogie Mbang who arrived onboard a Philippine Airlines flight from Singapore.
Viado said that Ogie Mbang, a citizen of Cameroon, was taken into custody at the NAIA after the African’s name prompted a hit in the bureau’s automated derogatory check system.
He explained that the hit indicated that Ogie Mbang is subject of a blacklist and watchlist orders issued by the BI in August 2019 after a deportation complaint for undesirability was filed against him before the bureau.
At the same time, the records showed that an HDO was issued against Ogie Mbang by the Parañaque City regional trial court (RTC) in 2020 for fraud.
“We have no record of his departure and we suspect that he left the country via illegal means to evade criminal prosecution for his crime,” Viado said.
Ferdinand Tendenilla, acting chief of the BI’s border control and intelligence unit (BCIU), said the Ogie Mbang was committed to the BI detention facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City pending resolution of his criminal and immigration violation cases.
Tendenilla said that if convicted, Ogie Mbang will first have to serve his court sentence before he can be deported by the BI and perpetually banned from re-entering the Philippines.