Recaptured Korean says he paid P14M to escape BI custody
A Korean fugitive has admitted paying P14 million to a fellow Korean and two Filipinos who allegedly helped him escape from the custody of three Bureau of Immigration (BI) personnel after attending a court hearing in Quezon City.
Testifying at the resumption of the Senate investigation on Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) on Tuesday, Na Ik-hyeon said he first tried to arrange his escape after his compatriot promised to help him in June 2023.
Na, who attended the hearing via video link, said he paid P8 million to the Korean, who he identified as Kim Song-hwan, but the latter failed to deliver on his promise to get him out of the BI detention facility.
He said Kim used to work in a casino at Clark Freeport, Pampanga, but has since “ran away” to Malaysia.
“The Korean promised me that he will bail me out from the Philippines. But I wasn’t able to escape,” said Na, who needed an interpreter as he answered questions from Sen. Risa Hontiveros.
According to Na, two BI “workers,” who were known to him only as “Paul” and “Raul,” later approached him in November 2023 and offered to facilitate his escape in exchange for P6 million.
“Raul and Paul told me that, ‘If you trust us, we will bail (you) out of (your) situation,’” he said.
Na, who is wanted in South Korea for fraud, said Raul claimed being a police officer while Paul said he was an official of “high position” in the BI.
Hearing Na’s testimony, Hontiveros sighed: “This is getting more and more painful.”
Na said his escape on March 4 was actually his third attempt after the first two, as arranged by Paul and Raul, failed.
Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said the Korean fugitive was recaptured in Angeles City five days after his escape.
Na was first arrested on May 31, 2023, at Clark International Airport after he presented a fake Philippine passport.
Viado said the BI was able to secure the photos of the two persons who allegedly arranged Na’s escape.
These two, he said, were not among the three BI personnel who had escorted Na on the day he ran away.
“We have already filed criminal and administrative cases against them,” Viado said. “All of them have already been dismissed from the service.”
“Our investigation is not confined to these three individuals. There are other (personnel) being investigated inside the bureau,” he added.
Transit flights
Also during Tuesday’s hearing, senators learned that a BI policy that allowed deportees to take transit flights practically facilitated the escape of Chinese and Vietnamese nationals who used to work for Pogos.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian did not hide his frustration after learning that 21 Chinese who were supposed to be deported to their home country had disappeared during their layover in Malaysia on March 7.
Gatchalian said the foreigners were arrested in a Pogo facility that was allegedly being used for online scamming activities.
According to him, he received information that the group of Chinese had proceeded to Cambodia, a known hotbed of scam hubs similar to Pogos, shortly after disembarking from their flight in Kuala Lumpur.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Gatchalian told Viado, who confirmed Hontiveros’ exposé that foreign Pogo workers were being allowed to book their own flights out of the Philippines.
“In my humble opinion, they should go back to their country of origin. That should be very clear. The (flight) diversion became a way for them to escape,” he said.
Gatchalian echoed Hontiveros’ concern that these “undesirable aliens” might eventually find their way back to the Philippines using fictitious identities or continue their illegal operations in Cambodia and other countries hosting scamming facilities.
“They went to Cambodia because that’s really their business. We cannot stop criminals from doing criminal activities,” the senator said.
According to Viado, the Chinese were supposed to travel to Guangzhou in Guangdong province after their transit flight.
Surprised by Viado’s admission, Gatchalian pointed out that Kuala Lumpur was actually far from Guangzhou, which is in the southeastern part of China near Hong Kong.
Hontiveros, who presided over the hearing of the Senate subcommittee on justice, said a similar incident involving 10 Vietnamese citizens was also brought to her attention.
Last week, she disclosed that three Chinese suspected to be the “bosses” of a raided illegal Pogo in Pasay City had evaded deportation to China after they went missing during their transit flight to Hong Kong.
Old law
This time, Hontiveros said the BI let the Vietnamese take a connecting flight to Phnom Penh on Feb. 24 instead of a direct flight to Hanoi, which normally takes less than four hours.
“Mandating direct flights [of deportees] is not prohibited, right? Can you do that?” Hontiveros asked Viado.
The immigration commissioner admitted that a law passed by the Commonwealth government in 1940 did not stop the BI from boarding undesirable aliens on direct flights to their countries of origin.
But Viado tried to justify the policy, saying that the pre-World War II measure did not also prohibit deportees from taking layover flights and for paying for their own tickets.
“And there are costs to deportation and detention (of foreign nationals). We also have to take that into consideration,” Viado said.
In response, Hontiveros pointed out that Viado himself conceded that he has the authority to order all deportees to be sent back directly to their home countries, but he did not exercise this discretion.
“The continued permission of connecting flights where direct flights are available is a boon to the continuation of transnational crimes,” she said.
“The commissioner could very well, as the head of our border control, prohibit connecting flights for Pogo workers or ensure stricter protocols like coordination between the borders,” Hontiveros stressed.
