CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – Employees of a company here decried the alleged harassment made by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) when the latter apprehended Chinese nationals last week.
Based on the police blotter filed by two employees of Soar High Industrial, a construction supply company, in Zone 9, Barangay Cugman, this city, a group composed of seven operatives led by a certain Ansari Macaayan identified themselves as BI personnel, entered the establishment and handcuffed Chinese workers Xiaokang Ruan, Kang Yang, and Qiu Liao.
Macaayan is said to be an officer of the BI intelligence division.
The blotter said the BI agents “allegedly harassed” the Chinese nationals during the operation as they were escorted to a waiting vehicle.
Among the three foreigners, only Qiu was the subject of the BI mission order 2023-037, for allegedly overstaying in the country and working without the proper visa and permit.
A mission order is a document signed by the BI commissioner authorizing Immigration agents to conduct an operation related to their mandate.
The apprehension of the Chinese citizens on March 14 prompted two of the company’s staff members to go to a police station in Cugman and had the incident be put on record.
For his part, Felipe Alano Jr., the alien control officer of the BI district office based here, said the arresting agents may have made several blunders, foremost of which was their failure to coordinate with the police and barangay officials prior to the operation.
“Even my office was not informed of the operation. I only knew of it when police officers from the Cugman precinct came to my office and checked if the arresting team was really BI agents,” he said.
After seeing a security video footage, Alano said he was able to confirm the operatives are really from the Immigration.
Alano added he also noticed that when the BI team entered the Soar High Industrial premises, they did not read to the three Chinese nationals the mission order and even confiscated the foreigners’ cellphones.
The video footage showed the BI agents flashing their badges before handcuffing the three Chinese.
“The mission order is very important when Immigration agents conduct an operation, so the subject persons will know what their violations are as they also have rights, one of them the right to a lawyer,” he furthered.
Alano said if only the agents had shown the mission order, the business establishment’s staff members would not have gone to the police to report the incident.
He said the Chinese nationals have already been brought to the Immigration office in Manila for preliminary investigation. (davaotoday.com)
Bureau of Immigration, cagayan de oro, Chinese nationals
