Illegal aliens facing deportation have hatched new schemes to delay the processing of their cases, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) noted.
During a recent hearing of the Senate Committee on Finance, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla bared to lawmakers the scheme being employed by arrested foreign nationals in the BI’s custody.
Tagged by Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco as “demanda me”, this often involves aliens initiating “frivolous” lawsuits against themselves with the connivance of unscrupulous lawyers.
Tansingco said these aliens take advantage of the fact that deportations of foreign nationals cannot be implemented if they have pending cases here in the Philippines.
One such case involved a Japanese fugitive who faced a case of violence against women and children filed by his wife, who continued to visit him on a daily basis.
“Obviously, the case is made up so as to delay his deportation,” Tansingco noted.
Immigration officials said such scheme is a factor in the current “overcrowding” of the bureau’s holding facility for illegal aliens in Taguig City.
The facility, which can carry only 100 suspects, currently houses 276 foreign nationals.
Of the total number, more than half have uncleared criminal cases on record, 53 percent of which are fugitives from justice.
“This is really a modus of fugitives to escape arrest in their home countries. With the DOJ running after lawyers and courts who perpetrate such schemes, I’m sure no one would dare use this scheme again,” Tansingco added.
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