Instead of the state visit of President Marcos to Japan last week, Japanese media hyped on the deportation of four fugitives wanted in their country for a string of robbery-holdups even to the point of bulldozing our own officials.
Shortly before President Marcos’visit to Japan last week, the Japanese media bulldozed Philippine bureaucracy in complying with its government’s request to repatriate the four robbery suspects, facing criminal charges in their country.
Japanese media stunned their Philippine counterparts with aggressiveness that local guys described as “grabe.” But to the Japanese press, the aggressive behavior is normal.
To the Japanese audience, the repatriation was more important than the state visit of President Marcos, Jr. to Japan.
Truth is, they used the visit to bamboozle the government to cut corners to expedite the arrest and deportation of suspects Toshiya Fujita, Kiyoto Imamura, Tomonobu Saito, and Yuki Watanabe.
The speed with which the Bureau of Immigration had worked to send the four suspects back to Japan just before Marcos landed in Tokyo for the state visit was commendable if not unprecedented. It was also believed the Japanese government steamrollered the whole affair.
And the tremendous support from mainstream Japanese media outlets such as the newspapers and TV networks here in Manila and back in Japan was obvious.
Note that as soon as the state visit of Marcos was announced, the Japanese media geared up to pressure the Philippine government into repatriating the four fugitives.
They have a way of needling their government into action. Something like this happened on January 30 when the Japanese government officially requested that the Philippines to deport the suspects allegedly behind a string of robberies in Japan.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla was quick to say that his government has aimed to resolve the issue in time for the President’s visit to Japan.
The criminal activities of the Japanese in the Philippines are the priority stories widely and zealously covered by Japanese correspondents and their Filipino assistants. These stories get a big play in mainstream newspapers such as the Yomiuri Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, Tokyo Shimbun, and intermittent airplays on TV networks such as the NHK.
Such stories – whether in news form or commentaries-- sent by the Manila correspondents had bordered on speculations and exaggerations as soon as facts and verifiable information had run out.
Japanese criminals hiding in Metro Manila and elsewhere are always a favorite staple for their police stories.
A veteran local correspondent, Alfredo Hernandez, who became deputy bureau chief for the Philippines of Japan's biggest newspaper network, Tokyo-based Yomiuri Shimbun tells how Japanese media behave in getting their stories.
He recalled on August 2, 1990 about the release by the New People’s Army of Japanese aid worker Fumio Mizuno and US Peace Corps volunteer Timothy Swanson based in Negros Occidental from their two-month abduction. The NPA rebels had accused Mizuno and Swanson of spying for the local military, which is why they abducted and held them.
The Japanese media came to Bacolod City in full force and posted their Filipino correspondents in the city.
“For almost two months, nobody knew, including the military where Mizuno was being held by the rebels. All the media reported were just speculations and wild guesses,” Hernandez explained.
Mizuno’s walk to freedom in August 1990, was a big media event in Japan.
No different
The repatriation of the four fugitives is no different to the Mizuno story in terms of Japanese media passion to get the Japanese public attention, including use of speculations and wild guesses.
Case in point is that claim that “Luffy,” the robbery mastermind, was issuing orders to his gang from the Bureau of Immigration Warden Facility in Taguig, a holding area for those subject to deportation. This claim was never confirmed by both Philippine and Japanese authorities.
This led to the reorganization of the BIWF, a wholesale slaughter where everybody got replaced and transferred to central office to do back- end work, following a raid in the facility where contrabands were found.
Japanese media needling of their government and ours for the fast return of the fugitives worked such that in several occasions our own Secretary of Justice assured the public that the four fugitives will be returned to Japan before Marcos lands in Tokyo, Hernandez said.
To those in the know on the processes in deportation, the speed by which the fugitives were flown back to their country is unbelievable and refreshing as it gives hope that the Department of Justice can move faster if it wants to, than what it used to do.
Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco, in an expression of excitement, said his office is glad for the support given by the DOJ in resolving cases that led to the faster process in deporting the fugitives
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Tags: #DoJ, #Japanesemedia, #statevisittoJapan, #fugitives’deportation