The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has detained 14 foreigners ? mostly Chinese and Taiwanese ? who were arrested by the authorities last month for involvement in cybercrimes.
BI officer-in-charge Siegfred Mison said the agency arrested the nine Taiwanese and five Chinese nationals after learning they had posted bail and were about to be released from the Las Pi?as City Jail.
He said the foreigners will remain behind bars at the BI Detention Center in Bicutan, Taguig while undergoing deportation proceedings. But, Mison stressed that the BI will not deport the aliens until the court has rendered its verdict on their case.
?If convicted, they will have to serve their sentences first before being deported,? he said, adding the aliens? detention at the BI jail will ensure they do not leave the country while under trial for their crime.
Mison declared that the BI?s ?good guys in, bad guys out? campaign is in full swing and that more arrests of illegal aliens will be made in the next few weeks.
According to Jose Carlitos Licas, BI acting intelligence chief, the foreigners were among the 35 Chinese and Taiwanese nationals arrested by police anti-cyber crime operatives in Manila, Las Pi?as City, and Imus, Cavite last Aug. 6.
Licas said members of the PNP?s anti-cyber crime Group raided the suspects? lairs on the strength of a search warrant issued by the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 46 Judge Rainelda Montesa.
The lawmen reportedly seized from the suspects several gadgets, including computers, Wi-Fi routers and credit cards, that were being used in their illegal activities.
Police said the cybercrime syndicates victimized rich people in mainland China and Taiwan who were coerced into giving large sums of money after being blackmailed by the suspects.
Charges of violating the Access Devices Regulation Act were later filed against the aliens before the Department of Justice. — Guillermo Abad, PNA
