A TOTAL of 135 foreigners wanted for various crimes they committed in their homelands were arrested by the Bureau of Immigration in 2016, more than double the 61 wanted foreign criminals nabbed by the bureau in 2015.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said nearly all of the fugitives arrested were already deported to their countries of origin where they are now serving their sentences or are being tried for various offenses.
“They were also placed in our blacklist to prevent them from re-entering the country,” the BI chief said, adding that the aliens’ presence here posed a risk to public safety.
Morente promised the BI will continue to relentlessly pursue its campaign against foreign fugitives, saying “the Philippines should not be used as a sanctuary for foreign criminals who want to evade prosecution and punishment for crimes they committed in their homeland.”
Statistics from the bureau’s fugitive search (FSU), said 80 South Koreans topped the list of the captured fugitives, followed by 25 Chinese and 19 Americans.
Also in the list are three Taiwanese, two Canadians, an Australian, a Japanese, a German, a Pakistani, a Bangladeshi, and a Kazakhstani.
FSU records also revealed that 60 of the captured aliens were wanted for cybercrime fraud, 49 for economic crimes, and 12 for sex offenses.
Three of them were charged with murder while others were involved either in smuggling, human trafficking, aggravated assault, drug pushing, and desertion.
BI intelligence officer Bobby Raquepo, FSU acting chief, said 86 of the aliens were subjects of mission orders issued by Morente; 37 were issued deportation warrants by the bureau’s board of commissioners; seven were intercepted at the airports; and five voluntarily surrendered.