Cases filed vs. Japanese robbery suspects maybe ‘invented’ — DOJ chief

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 31) — Pending cases of the Japanese nationals suspected of operating a robbery ring in Japan may have been contrived just to keep them in the Philippines, Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla said on Tuesday.

Remulla noted that the government cannot deport foreigners with pending criminal cases in a Philippine court.

"Upon research we found out that three of them still have pending cases in the cities of Taguig, Pasay, in the province of Maguindanao, in the city of Bacolod,” he said in a press briefing. "One had a case in the City of Makati, which was dismissed and another had a case in Quezon City, which was dismissed also. Most of the cases, if not all, involved violence against women and children."

"But we are of the impression that these cases were invented or not real cases," he added. "These were contrived cases filed against them just to keep them in the Philippines.”

Remulla made the claim based on his experience as he cited the recent deportation of two Chinese nationals, who also had contrived cases that were dismissed.

He pointed out that one of the cases was filed by the girlfriend of one of the Japanese nationals "who visits him regularly in jail and even plants a kiss on his cheek every time she visits the jail."

"So, you can read from the body language that it is not an honest-to-goodness case of violence against women since they still exhibit very sweet behavior to each other," said Remulla.

The Justice chief said his department is currently validating the records in different courts where the supposed cases of the Japanese nationals are pending.

The Japanese Embassy earlier requested the deportation of the four suspects arrested in the Philippines, including the supposed robbery ring mastermind who goes by the alias "Luffy."

Remulla also warned that lawyers who file false and deliberate cases against foreigners could be disbarred from practice.

"Many will lose their license if they continue doing this and we will file cases even against the lawyers if they will insist on filing cases which are contrived,” he said.

The DOJ gave assurance it will finish the deportation proceedings before President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s visit to Japan in February.

"Hopefully, we can deport two by the end of this week," Remulla said. "But the other two, we will see how fast we can act on these matters."