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Friday, March 29, 2024

BI execs doctored Wang Bo’s records

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IMMIGRATION officials fabricated case records of suspected Chinese crime lord Wang Bo to justify ordering his release on May 21, official government documents show.

A nine-page transcript of the May 21 Board of Commissioners’ meeting showed Commissioner Siegfred Mison and Deputy Commissioners Abdullah Mangotara and Gilberto Repizo agreed to make it appear that Wang had been admitted into the country so he could be charged as an “undesirable and undocumented alien, in possession of a cancelled passport, involved in illegal gambling in China.”

Found him. After claiming that his client was missing,
lawyer Dennis Manalo prepares to meet with Chinese
businessman Wang Bo, who is at the center of a
multi-million-peso bribery scandal. Wang turned out
to be held in isolation at the Bureau of Immigration
detention facility in Taguig City. LINO SANTOS

Wang was intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport from Malaysia on  Feb. 9  and had not been admitted into the country until May 21.

Instead of being sent back to Malaysia on the first flight out, Wang was held under custody, even though the bureau had never admitted him.

“What will we do now? How can we deport someone who is not admitted here in our country,” Mison asked.

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“And we even detained him. How do we explain that? Why don’t you answer that first? Because we might be exposed and the Chinese Embassy will get angry. They want to get a hold of this person. That’s why we did that. Instead of excluding him, we let him in so that we can turn him over to the Chinese. But now we can’t turn him over based on that resolution (the May 21 release order),” Mison said in Filipino.

Mison castigated his men and demanded answers and insisted that Wang should have been admitted first before he was charged with the issues raised by the Chinese Embassy.

A person identified as HRA—who turned out to be the bureau’s hearing officer, lawyer Homer Arellano, replied that Wang was not admitted because he was blacklisted.

Mison then said Repizo wanted to grant Wang’s motion for reconsideration to reverse the bureau’s summary deportation order, but said also said Wang could not be deported if he was not admitted.

“How can we deport someone who was not admitted in our country?” Mison said.

Arellano said there were instructions at the airport to bring Wang to the bureau immediately, but Mison said he should have been admitted first.

Arellano then proposed a “deferred admission.”

“Sir, what if we say there was no res judicata (a matter judged) and then furnish the Chinese Embassy with the resolution?” Mangotara suggested.

Mison agreed.

“If the other members of the board will be comfortable, I agree with the proposed resolution, except that before we sign it we need to fix the paperwork. We cannot deport someone who was not admitted,” Mison said.

The May 21 release order, written by Repizo, directed acting chief of the Immigration Regulation Division to “make a deferred admission on the respondent Wang Bo’s Passport G28622643 with date of arrival on 10 February 2015.”

But documents marked as Annex F and G showed the recall of an exclusion order and effected admission over Wang in order to initiate deportation proceedings.

Based on detention records, Wang was already committed at the BI Warden’s Facility on  Feb. 10  or before the recall exclusion was issued.

All three commissioners signed the May 21 release order that reversed the summary deportation order and lifted the blacklist order issued against Wang.

The release order also directed the release and return of Wang’s passport.

It also directed Wang to update his stay and visa within 30 days from receipt of the May 21 resolution.

“Can we decide and sign the resolution as written? Are we comfortable with that? Mison asked Mangotara and Repizo.

“Since I’m the proponent, Sir… Of course I’m pushing for this and this is without prejudice,” Repizo replied.

“Let’s include in the order a directive to admit this person on this on such a date,” Mison told the board.

On Monday, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima debunked claims by Wang’s lawyer that his client had gone missing.

Wang remained detained in isolation at the Bureau of Immigration’s facility in Bicutan, she said.

De Lima also denied that Wang was also being kept from his lawyer, Dennis Manalo.

She said Wang’s lawyer can always ask her permission and she would allow him to see his client.

De Lima said she provided strict instructions that no one would have any access to Wang unless there was clearance from her.

“I just want to make sure that he (Wang) is not being accessed by the wrong people… that would exploit this issue. This issue only became controversial because of the first speculation that came out, which is… absolutely preposterous,” she said, referring to allegations that money that Wang paid for his release went to bribe lawmakers to approve the Bangsamoro Basic Law and to Liberal Party campaign funds.

“That one I can assure you is totally without any basis or truth,” she added. – With Rey E. Requejo

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