THE Chinese nationals arrested at Fontana Resort and Casino in Clark, Pampanga on Friday for engaging in illegal online gambling activities claimed that they were victims of illegal recruitment and fishing expedition by Philippine authorities.
In a joint counter-affidavit filed with Department of Justice, the Chinese nationals through lawyers Jonathan Sarte and Irene Bianca Distura asked the DoJ prosecutors to dismiss the charges against them even as they questioned the holding of the preliminary investigation by the DoJ.
According to them, the raiding team at Fontana’s Villa 736 was led by the DoJ’s Office of Cybercrime, the same office that filed the complaint for illegal gambling and violation of the Cybercrime Law before the Justice department.
“The DoJ is therefore acting as complainant, prosecutor and judge, all at the same time. As such, we do not expect to have a fair proceeding and we believe that this is a blatant violation of our right to due process,” stated the counter-affidavit of the 39 Chinese nationals.
The respondents also impugned the validity of the mission order by the Bureau of Immigration, which became the basis for the issuance of a search warrant.
Under Rule 5 of the Immigration Memorandum Circular No. SM 20150-10, the mission order should contain the following: the true name, aliases, the best description possible, peculiarities, place of residence to clearly indicate the aliens to be arrested, immigration status, purpose of the mission order, period of validity, among others.
The respondents lamented that the mission order used in raiding Fontana Resort and Casino does not contain any particular name or description that can be subject of verification and investigation.
“It merely states the subject thereof as “foreign nationals violating Philippine Immigration laws…This is an overly broad description that, to the point of absurdity, cover all illegal aliens anywhere in the country,” the affidavit said.
The mission order specifically authorized the operatives to effect a warrantless arrest of aliens violating Philippine immigration laws.
“We are being charged before the Department with violation of anti-gambling laws, not immigration laws. This is, therefore, a criminal proceeding and not a mere administrative one. With more reason, then the Constitutional guarantees must be afforded to us,” they lamented.
Due to the broad scope of the mission order, the lawyers said “it makes the person against whom the warrant is issued vulnerable to abuses.”
During the raid, the respondents were not working. Some were sleeping, chatting outside the villa or just in the villa to visit their friends.