Philippines Immigration cancer of corruption under protection of DOJ, despite changes, it remains the biggest criminal syndicate In the ongoing fight against corruption in the Philippines government agencies, there has been dramatic exposure by net citizens or whistleblowers, enough to have 3 famous senators charged, arrested and detained without bail. The 3 senators were suspended from their duties. In the Philippines Immigration, the most famous deal maker Arvin Cesar Santos, ex-chief of legal, was arrested and charged on December 19, 2013 for Graft and Corruption practices, not only got to keep a position in the legal department but also received a promotion to serve directly under the Chief Commissioner Siegfried Mison. How can ex-chief of legal Arvin Cesar Santos was arrested not less than 9 months ago and charged with Graft and Corruption practices by the Manila prosecutors office on December 19, 2013 for helping a Korean fugitive released from Bicutan, See article rappler/nation/46260-charges-immigration-officials-escape-korean-park keep a position and get promoted under the most important man in the Philippines Immigration? There are logically 2 ways, either money or blackmail, lets look at the possible scenarios. First at money payoffs, it is a well known fact that millions of pesos were passing through the hands of fixers to the legal department prosecutors who in turn paid off the chief of legal, Arvin Cesar Santos, who was the buffer for the corrupt commissioners. All these payoffs were for either fixing visa violations or obtaining visas for foreigners. Bicutan Immigration detention center became a processing factory for foreigners, if the foreigner did not pay the exorbitant amount of extortion money, which ranged from 200,000 php to 10 million php ($5000-$175,000), depending if the foreigner had administrative violation or if they were fugitives from their country. The foreigners could be held for days or up to years, they became commodities, illegally detained until their will was broken and they paid the extortion amount demanded. If the foreigner did not pay and decided to take the legal recourse, it became a long a grueling process. The legal department first action is to file a charge sheet and detain the foreigner, thus he is caged like a trapped animal. The foreigner will file a Motion to dismiss charge sheet and Motion for bail. Bail is never given, how can you extort them for large payments if they are free? The process is as follows: 1. Throw away the first filings by the foreigner, thus have him wait 2-3 months until his lawyer makes inquiries, only to find out that it has gone missing despite being stamped and mark received. 2. Refile the same filing and have to wait another 2 months for a reply, which is a definite rejection. 3. Then file a Motion for Reconsideration, which will be rejected. After another 2-6 months a summary deportation order is issued. 4. Then a Motion for Reconsideration must be filed, which could take another 2-6 months to get an answer, if at this point the foreigner does not pay the extortion money, it will be rejected. 5. The foreigner has the option to file an Appeal Memorandum before the Department of Justice or the Office of the President. 6.If the foreigner goes before the Philippines DOJ, he will then face the corrupt Chief Counsels and prosecutors who handle Immigration cases and is coordinating with the corrupt immigration legal staff. 7. Again the foreigner will face extortion by the DOJ prosecutors to quickly resolve the appeals in a short period of time or it will be rejected. 8. If the foreigner does not pay, the appeal process will face delays negligently beyond the 3 month time period to resolve, it could be delayed for 12-15 months. 9. Once a rejection of the appeal has been decided, the foreigner must file a Motion for Reconsideration , which will take 6-10 months to decide, obviously negative. The DOJ will then send back to the Immigration commissioner Siegfried Mison for comments, once again you will be approached to pay extortion money in order to get a positive comment. 10. Once the MTR is decided, then the foreigner can file an appeal with the Court of Appeals, which will take 6-12 months. This whole process could take 24-36 months, while the foreigner is kept locked up. No bail is given, the reason is to pressure the foreigner into paying the extortion money. Bicutan immigration detention center is a holding facility for victims of extortion. Most victims are Chinese, Koreans, Indians and Europeans. The foreigners with money. Philippines Immigration Commissioner Siegfried Mison and now promoted OIC Arvin Cesar Santos have a long history. Hundreds of dirty deals have been made and millions of pesos has changed hands, extorting foreigners, approving visas, releasing child rapists and anything that needed fixing. shamelessimmigration.blogspot.gr/2014/02/immigration-commissioner-chief-siegfred.html?m=1 When Arvin Cesar Santos was arrested and charged with Graft and Corruption just 9 months ago, he was not suspended for helping a Korean fugitive escape and also issued him an employment visa, he was promoted by BI Chief Siegfried Mison. Why? 2 main reasons. 1) Money - If Arvin Cesar Santos was suspended or transferred out of the legal department, then Siegfried Mison had no one he could trust to make his deals. Who would be the buffer? His dirty money would finish! 2) Blackmail- If Arvin Cesar Santos is to take all the blame, then he will take down Siegfed Mison with him. Partners in crime! See articles posted: BI Ex-chief of legal, Arvin Cesar Santos in fear of his life, tells all about corrupt DOJ prosecutors and immigration legal department shamelessimmigration.blogspot/2014/02/bi-ex-chief-of-legal-arvin-cesar-santos.html Immigration ex-chief of legal Arvin Santos tells all, Siegfred Mison knew everything that was going on, he was neck deep” shamelessimmigration.blogspot/2014/02/immigration-ex-chief-of-legal-arvin.html Philippines Immigration Chief Siegfred Mison is neck deep in illegal activity within Bureau of Immigration shamelessimmigration.blogspot/2014/02/philippines-immigration-chief-siegfred.html The Department of Justice which is headed by Leila De Lima is the agency that oversees the Philippines Bureau of Immigration. So why does the DOJ not take action? Simple answer, Leila De Lima and Siegfried Mison go back a long way to law school, they are close friends. How can 1 friend discipline another? This is a criminal syndicate, if one goes down, so does the other. Leila De Lima knew what Siegfried Mison was doing, all his dirty deals, but she turned a blind eye and deaf ears in order to recommend him as Chief Commissioner. How can she oversee the Bureau of Immigration when her own agency is over ridden with corruption and deal making prosecutors? The Foreigners for Justice group has uncovered and provided evidence of extortion, payoffs, bribery, violence, drug dealing, human rights and legal due process violations by the Philippines Immigration headed by Siegfried Mison, yet only 1 person has been arrested and charged, Arvin Cesar Santos, and his punishment is to be promoted? Webpages, blogs, media have all exposed corruption in the DOJ and Immigration, even the President calls them a criminal syndicate but not 1 official has been convicted and the same criminals are in the same positions or get promoted. philippinesimmigration.info/ foreign-assistance-center There are thousands of websites and blogs written about the corruption in the Philippines Immigration, just Google Philippines Immigration Corruption, it will give you years of reading. How can such a criminal syndicate operate for such a long period of time? They lock up and detain pregnant women, children, handicapped, elderly, foreigners and extort them in order for a release. Remember Bicutan Immigration Detention center is supposed to be a temporary administrative holding facility, why are foreigners being held on an average of 6 years? There are foreigners that are being held for 7, 9, 11, 14 years in Bicutan. Despite criminal complaints filed with Commission of Human Rights, Philippines Ombudsman, DOJ, Senators, Office of President, Manila Prosecutors office and many other agencies, nothing is being done. The only way to clean up this cancer of corruption is mandatory early retirement for the entire legal staff including the Board of Commissioners. Replace with younger, in-corrupt staff that will look for a better Philippines, one that looks for the future not for their pockets, looks for humanity and legal due process, not their pockets. Hopefully the next president will be serious of cutting the corruption cancer out and replace with new, its the only solution. ireport.cnn/docs/DOC-1180207
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 07:44:11 +0000
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