Thursday, May 01, 2008 ‘Not kidnapping,’ BI says on detention of Koreans
TWO Korean nationals were reported to have been kidnapped by unidentified men in Cebu City yesterday, prompting the police to respond.
It turned out the supposed abductors were agents of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) in Manila, who did not coordinate with the local office in arresting couple Lee Dong Bum and Kim Sun.
Lee was once the complainant in graft, misconduct, and bribery charges against BI 7 agent Dilasuan Sarip Montor of Talisay City, civilian assets Mabert Impas and Daniel Gumba, and alleged female accomplice Donna Deriaga in October last year.
National Bureau of Investigation 7 agents arrested Montor, Impas, and Gumba in an entrapment operation for allegedly extorting P500,000 from the Korean businessman.
In that operation, Lee claimed that the immigration personnel demanded money from him over alleged violations of certain immigration laws.
Yesterday, Immigration agent Bernard Cruzata said Lee and Kim were arrested for violations of the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940 by engaging in business and working without the necessary permits.
He, however, did not say what business the Korean couple was into.
Lawyer Augusto Go, Philippine consul to South Korea, said he learned that Lee and Kim’s arrest was a BI operation.
But he will also investigate the matter after the Koreans complained to him that they were not told why they were being arrested.
Cruzata explained that the operation was covered by a mission order issued by Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan.
Lee and Kim were arrested inside a building on Gov. Mariano Cuenco Ave. at 12:30 p.m., and were brought to Mactan Cebu International Airport, where they took a Philippine Airlines flight to Korea at 5:20 p.m.
Cebu City policemen and a lawyer allegedly tried to intervene in the arrest after they were informed of a possible kidnapping.
In a telephone interview, Cruzata said he made sure their Cebu operation was in order and did not commit any lapses.
The incident came 13 days after BI agents also caused an uproar in the southern town of Boljoon, Cebu after they forced two Indian nationals into a black van in the town market.
People who witnessed the incident thought the two men were being kidnapped, prompting the police to alert their counterparts in neighboring Santander.
When Santander operatives stopped the black Starex van, it turned out the men were BI personnel who arrested the two Indians for being unregistered aliens.
In a text message to Sun.Star Cebu, Chief Supt. Ronald Roderos, Police Regional Office 7 director, also said Charlie Shin of the Cebu Korean Association told him around 2:55 p.m. yesterday that the no Koreans were kidnapped.
“He (Shin) further stated that the alleged kidnapping may have been attributed to the rumor that a Korean couple, who eloped and hid from the woman’s husband in Korea, may have spread the rumor of kidnapping,” Roderos said.
“The alleged rumor may have started when Choi Kwon Joong arrived from Korea and inquired…whether his wife, Choi Pyong Eun, entered the country because he was looking for his wife who was missing and may have been kidnapped,” he added.
Roderos said BI records showed that Choi Pyong Eun indeed came to Cebu “but has already left for an unknown destination.”
“The husband left for Korea today,” he said. (EOB with a report from JST)
