PHL deports Taiwanese, this time to Taiwan

On the heels of a deportation row with Taiwan, the Philippine government has once again deported a Taiwanese fugitive, this time to the island nation and not mainland China. Authorities identified the Taiwanese as Huang Yu Ping, who is wanted for fraud in Taiwan and was arrested last December in the Philippines. Huang passed through regular passenger inspection and boarded a commercial flight (China Airlines Flight CI 704) to Taiwan's capital, Taipei. Like Huang, 14 other Taiwanese nationals were also arrested around the same time in December. Unlike Huang, however, the 14 were deported by the Bureau of Immigration to China. The move irked the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office, demanding that the 14 be brought to Taiwan instead. The incident later prompted Taipei to an apology from Manila, and Taiwan tightened its requirements for Taiwan-bound Filipino workers. To polish tarnished relations President Benigno Aquino III sent as an emissary to Taiwan, his runningmate in the May 10 elections — former senator and defeated vice presidential candidate Manuel "Mar" Roxas II — to polish relations between the two countries that the deportation row had tarnished. The 14 Taiwanese nationals along with 10 Chinese were deported even after the Department of Justice (DOJ) junked the complaints filed by the National Bureau of Immigration (NBI) against them. DOJ prosecution attorney Gerard Gaerlan said there was no sufficient evidence to charge the 24 suspects with estafa and with violation of Republic Act No. 8484, or the Access Devices Regulations Act of 1998. The NBI arrested the 24 foreigners in two separate areas: in Bel Air Village in Makati City, and in Ayala Alabang Village in Muntinlupa City. The foreigners were supposedly engaged in a multi-million dollar criminal activity using the Internet and telecommunications devices. — With Mark Merueñas/VS, GMA News