Bureau of Immigration probes Subic mauling case

The Bureau of Immigration said it is mandated to investigate any offense brought before its attention against any alien in the country and decide on what appropriate actions should be taken.

This was stressed by lawyer Arvin Cesar Santos, officer-in-charge of the case involving American national Curtis J. Perry and his pilot friends Capt. Steven Ouellet and Don Hill and one Andy Wrightstown, regarding Perry’s mauling of Eduardo Prieto, a resident of Subic.

Santos said Prieto even personally appeared before the office of Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo to hand over his written testimony, medico-legal report from the James L. Gordon Memorial Hospital, pictures of the injuries he sustained as a result of the incident, and the testimonies of two witnesses at the Vasco’s Nautical Pub supporting his claims about the mauling incident.

"It is the duty of the bureau that is tasked with looking at the desirability of aliens in the country to find out if there is truth to such complaints against them and what actions need to be taken against the erring aliens," Santos said.

Santos has summoned Prieto, Perry and his friends to a hearing on Thursday in connection with the mauling incident that occurred last Dec. 17, at about 11 p.m., at the Vasco’s pub at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

Records which Prieto submitted to the BI showed that Perry, a member of the board of trustees of the Brent School in Subic, has been the subject of complaints in at least two instances in the past, also for physical injuries.

Perry is said to be a holder of a Special Subic Investor’s Visa, which upon confirmation with the BI alien control officer in Subic, a certain Mr. Pelia, showed that it was not registered with the office neither has Perry paid the annual report fees.

The Special Subic Investor’s Visa (a multiple entry visa) was given on condition of the grantee’s continuing investment of $250,000 within the Subic Special Economic and Freeport Zone.

Perry’s visa was issued on Jan. 11, 1999 in Olongapo City by Antonio Rex Chan, then the chief operating officer of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).

Members of the Subic community and Brent International, where the Prieto children are in their elementary grades and where Perry is a trustee, have voiced their concern about the division that the mauling incident had caused their community and expressed hopes that the case would be resolved amicably soon.

Perry also figured in other violent incidents in the past. One of them occurred on Sept. 14, 1994, for which he was charged with physical harassment by the Manila Yacht Club’s boatmen and employees for hurting a fellow boatman, Lope Mata. Previous to this, he slapped one Bonifacio Tayong in 1982. Both incidents were reported to the board of the yacht club.