BI creates own Interpol office

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said yesterday it has created its own Interpol office in a bid to intensify the campaign against foreign fugitives hiding in the country.

Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez Jr. said the new office, to be known as BI-Interpol Sub Bureau, is specifically tasked to coordinate with foreign and local law enforcement agencies involved in arresting alien fugitives.

The BI chief stressed the office would closely work with the Philippine Center on Transnational Crimes (PCTC) and National Bureau of Investigation, which have both established a tie-up with the Interpol main office in France.

Fernandez said the bureau recognizes the need to create an office that would monitor and handle cases of fugitives and coordinate with other law enforcement agencies, including police attaches of foreign embassies in Manila.

BI records showed Americans, Japanese and Koreans topped the list of fugitives who have been caught and deported by the bureau over the last few years.

BI anti-fraud division chief Simeon Vallada, who has been assigned as head of the new office, likewise announced an ongoing computerization project that will establish a link between the bureau and PCTC.

Vallada said the project would expedite and improve government’s operations against foreign fugitives in the country as it will provide faster, more efficient and a more effective mechanism for inter-agency coordination.

Fernandez, however, stressed the new Interpol office would just further boost the bureau’s campaign against foreign fugitives since the BI has already successfully arrested wanted aliens hiding in the country over the past years.

Arrested foreign fugitives have been deported back to their home countries to face prosecution of their respective crimes, except for some who still face cases in local courts.

"All of them have also been blacklisted after they were deported so that they will not be able to re-enter the country," Fernandez said.