The Bureau of Immigration warned foreigners in the country to respect Philippines laws, as it ordered the deportation of more than 1,500 foreigner in 2017 for violating Philippine immigration laws.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said that the 1,508 aliens deported last year was nearly four times higher than those expelled in 2016 when only about 400 foreigners were sent home.
Chinese nationals topped the list with 1,248, followed by Koreans, 115; Indians, 33, Americans, 29 , Vietnamese, 13 and 11 Japanese.
Morente said the aliens were deported after they were found guilty of committing acts inimical to the national interest and which posed a risk to public safety.
He said among the deportees were 232 alien fugitives wanted for serious crimes in their homelands and who hid in the Philippines to evade prosecution or service of sentence.
Immigration offenses of the other deportees included overstaying, working without permit, being undocumented, and undesirability.
More than two-thirds or 1,145 of the deportees were Chinese arrested in 2016 at the Fontana Hotel in Clark, Pampanga for allegedly engaging in illegal online gaming operations.
“The Nov. 24, 2016 Fontana raid as the biggest single mass arrest of aliens in the bureau’s history wherein some 1,300 Chinese workers were rounded up by joint operatives of the BI and PNP’s special action force,” Morente said.
BI Legal chief lawyer Arvin Santos said that the agency implemented mass deportation of aliens last year twice, the first in the bureau‘s history.
The first batch of 46 Chinese nationals were flown to Xiamen last Dec. 1 while the second batch of 47 Koreans were deported on Dec. 14. 2017.