THE Department of Justice (DOJ) has initiated drastic reforms in the Bureau of Immigration (BI) detention facility made necessary by their experience with Japanese crime ring leaders who orchestrated criminal activities in Japan while under detention in the Philippines.
“We have pinpointed the weaknesses in the system” of Immigration detention, Jesus Crispin Remulla said in an interview with Kyodo News.
Remulla admitted that the government has learned lessons from the case, in which four leaders of the crime ring orchestrated crimes in Japan in 2021 and 2022 while inside the Immigration detention center.
Kiyoto Imamura, who according to Japanese police used the pseudonym Luffy and his three cohorts planned and executed the crimes in Japan even as they were jailed by Philippine Immigration authorities.
Remulla gave assurance that such incidents “will not happen anymore.”
Remulla disclosed that following the deportation of Imamura and three others to Japan in February last year, the DOJ strictly regulated the detainees’ access to such communication tools as smartphones at the detention facility.
The DOJ also transferred or dismissed some guards at the facility and has implemented regular shuffles of personnel.
Remulla said he intends to make a surprise visit to the facility to check the situation there.
“It became very apparent when this case came because the jail facility was treated seemingly like a kingdom of jailers, that they seem to earn money from everything that people were doing inside. So we have to put a stop to that,” the Justice Secretary said.
With the four Japanese men having sought to avoid deportation by requesting lawyers in the Philippines to file trumped-up domestic charges, Remulla also warned that the lawyers involved in such underhanded schemes could face disbarment, he said.
The main Immigration detention facility had 17 Japanese detainees at the beginning of 2023 before the deportation of the four men, and the number decreased to 12, the DOJ said.
The total number of detainees at the facility currently stands at over 270, more than twice its capacity, and the majority are nationals of China and South Korea, Remulla said.
Remulla emphasized that the Philippines’ improved coordination with the governments of China, South Korea and other countries whose citizens are detained in the Philippines for their swifter expulsion.
The Japanese crime ring is suspected of being involved in a total of over 50 cases of robbery, theft and other crimes across 14 prefectures in Japan. The four ringleaders were indicted for some of the cases in December last year.
