TWO more Japanese fugitives were sent back to their homeland from the Philippines on Wednesday evening, February 8, 2023.
Bureau of Immigration (BI) spokesperson Dana Sandoval said Saito Tomonobu and Yuki Watanabe flew back home after getting a deportation order following the dismissal of charges against them before a Philippine court.
The two were among the four Japanese nationals whom the Japanese government earlier asked the Philippines to deport due to their involvement in a series of high-profile robbery incidents in Japan while they were detained here in the Philippines.
The two others, Fujita Toshiya and Imamura Kiyoto, were deported on February 7.
The group was allegedly operating by instructing their co-conspirators in Japan via an encrypted messaging app.
The BI relieved 36 of its personnel after it was found that the four Japanese fugitives, who were under its custody, have communication devices.
The deportation of the Japanese criminals was just in time for the official visit of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to Japan.
Marcos flew to Japan on February 8 where he is expected to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to strengthen the bilateral relations between the two countries.
The President, in an interview with reporters on their way to Japan, said the deportation of the four suspects are only coincidental, noting that it has been scheduled prior to planning the trip.
“It was a request from the Japanese government and so we are always going to acquiesce to that request. We thought perhaps it would clear the decks as it were for the talks that we will have with the Japanese,” Marcos said.
“Well, we basically follow the same criteria as an extradition. Although hindi na natin ginawang extradition kasi ang request nila para mas mabilis mag-deport na lang. So that’s precisely what we did,” he added. (SunStar Philippines)