By Dean Aubrey Caratiquet
As part of the Bureau of Immigration’s (BI) pursuit against foreign fugitives, an American, a Chinese, a Taiwanese and two Koreans were arrested recently in separate operations by members of the BI’s fugitive search unit.
Arrested last Dec. 2 in Kabankalan City, Negros Oriental was American Paul Raymond Ross, 66, who is wanted in Pennsylvania for extortion and harassment.
He is said to have pled guilty in April 2008 to one count of extortion through threatening communications for which he was sentenced to 27 months in prison and three years of supervised release.
Last Dec. 3, BI-FSU operatives arrested overstaying Koreans Jung Yunjae, 26, and Jeon Hyeonuk, 41, in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu.
The duo has an outstanding warrant of arrest issued by the Ulsan District Court in Korea where they were charged for luring a victim to work in Cambodia as a model for indecent advertisements.
Arrested on Dec. 6 was Chinese national Ji Shunchao, 64, who is wanted by the Shishi Municipal Public Security Bureau in China for claiming fraudulent tax refunds.
He allegedly bought an export declaration information sheet and used it, along with counterfeit VAT special invoices, to avail of export tax refunds amounting to almost 14 million RMB, or roughly USD 2 million.
Finally, on Dec. 8, Taiwanese national Ye Tian Hao, 32, was arrested in Pasay City due to a warrant of arrest issued against him by the district prosecutor in Taichung, Taiwan where he was indicted for fraud.
All five aliens are presently detained at the BI warden facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City pending deportation proceedings.
Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado declared that the alien fugitives will be deported for being undesirable aliens and blacklisted to prevent them from re-entering the country which they used as a sanctuary to evade arrest and prosecution for their criminal offenses.
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