KOREAN businessman Kang Tae Sik on Monday asked the Court of Appeals to stop the deportation order that Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II issued against him purportedly because the matter was already decided in January 2016.
In a petition, Kang, through his lawyer Redentor Viaje, stressed that the March 7 resolution issued by Aguirre was done with grave abuse of discretion considering the earlier order of his predecessor barring the Bureau of Immigration from deporting the businessman.
Kang asked the CA to quash the warrant of deportation and commitment order against him because the matter was already reversed in January 2016 by then Justice Secretary Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa.
“The March 7, 2017 resolution of the respondent Secretary of Justice, reversing the final and executed decision of the DoJ, was made without jurisdiction, grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack of jurisdiction and should be declared null and void,” the petition said.
The petitioner said that since the Caguioa’s order has attained finality, his decision could no longer be disturbed.
Kang said Caguioa’s decision attained finality after the BI did not file any pleading to prevent it from becoming final and executory with then Immigration Commissioner Ronaldo Geron even issuing an order dated Feb. 19, 2016 clearing Kang of any derogatory records.
Kang’s lawyer lamented that Aguirre gravely abused his discretion when he gave due course to the motion for reconsideration of lawyer Alex Tan and made it as a basis in reversing the already final and executory decision of the DoJ.
Tan was a former lawyer of Kang and the one who filed the deportation complaint against him.
Viaje said the BI should have been the proper party to seek a motion for reconsideration and not Tan.
The petitioner also took to task Aguirre for his claim during a Senate hearing on the kidnap-slay of Korean businessman Jee Ick Jo, that the case maybe the handywork of the “Korean Mafia” and that Kang should have been deported already because he has been trifling with the country’s laws.
Aguirre identified Kang as such citing an official of the Duterte administration whom he did not identify but the Korean Embassy in a statement vouched for Kang’s integrity saying he had no derogatory records and had nothing to do with Jee’s case.
Viaje said Aguirre’s statement coupled with the recent development of the case showed the need for the CA to stop the deportation and to declare the March 7 resolution null and void.
“As stated above, the respondent DoJ Secretary, for reason unknown to us, has taken the matter of deporting the petitioner, too personal and at all cost. By announcing in that august chamber and before the rolling cameras of national radio and televisions his relentless desire to deport the petitioner, is an [indisputable] proof that the Honorable Secretary became the prosecutor and the judge of the petitioner. Thus, unless a TRO or a writ of preliminary injunction be issued, grave irreparable damage and injustice will be suffered by the petitioner,” he added.
Sought for comment, Aguirre defended his move to issue the resolution adding that Kang could be arrested since he is due for deportation.
“He is due for deportation, so he could be arrested to implement it,” Aguirre said, rejecting the claim that Kang was denied due process.