SEA Games coaching staff arrested at NAIA

A member of the Philippine coaching staff to the recently concluded 24th Southeast Asian Games in Thailand was arrested at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on charges of illegal recruitment, airport officials said Wednesday. Colonel Arthur Lingon of the NAIA Police Intelligence and Investigation Division said Eduardo Ponce, the subject of a court-issued arrest warrant, was collared Saturday night at the NAIA Terminal 2. Ponce had just disembarked from a Philippine Airlines flight PR-165 from Bangkok when he was taken into custody at 6:15 p.m. "At around 1830H (6:30 p.m.), Mr Ponce was invited by (Immigration) personnel to their office and later endorsed" to a team from the regional Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Calabarzon "for proper appropriate action and disposition," the report read. In Lingon's report, the 62-year-old Ponce was described as a "coaching staff of the Philippine Team delegates to the Southeast Asian Games held in Bangkok, Thailand." Ponce was arrested on the strength of a warrant issued by Judge Manuel Luna of the regional trial court-Branch 39 in Calapan City in Mindoro Oriental, Lingon added. Luna ordered authorities to "arrest Eduardo Ponce, who is to be found in 2nd Floor, Dorm-B, Philsports Complex, Pasig City or elsewhere and who has been charged before me ... and bring him before me to be dealth with according to law." Ponce was accused of Illegal Recruitment in Large Scale, or for violating Sec. 6 in relation to Sec. 7(b) of Republic Act 842. Luna's order was dated December 10. He did not recommend bail for Ponce. The aiport police said lawyer John Rio Bautista, head of the Operations and Surveillance Division at the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA), coordinated with them for Ponce's arrest. - GMANews.Tv