Philippines to deport two Japanese robbery suspects Tuesday
Two Japanese nationals, who are allegedly involved in a series of robberies in their country, will be deported on Tuesday, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said.
''Deportation will proceed tomorrow for the two,'' said Remulla Monday afternoon.
Remulla said the Japanese who will be deported tomorrow are Kiyoto Imamura and Toshiya Fujita. He added that they will board JAL at NAIA Terminal 1 on Tuesday 9 am.
Remulla said the deportation of other two Japanese ''is hopefully by Feb. 8''.
Remulla said he is hoping that the Pasay Regional Trial Court, which is hearing the cases of Yuki Watanabe and Tomonobu Saito, '' are going to decide the case tomorrow so that we can deport by Wednesday. That is the logical outcome that we are looking for.''
''We expect the court to grant it because of the one thing that happened today - the lawyer for the defense ? instead of embracing the fact that the person to be cleared, or the case can be dismissed against his client filed a motion for inhibition on the judge,'' explained Remulla.
''Meaning to say, they didn’t want the judge to rule on the dismissal even if they are the defense lawyers. So you can see that it is really a device used by them to prolong the detention and to prevent the deportation of their clients. And that is as expected. So, they filed a motion for inhibition, which was refused by the court this morning,'' added Remulla.
Watanabe is allegedly “Luffy”, leader of the reported robbery group.
Imamura’s violence against women and children case (VAWC) was dismissed on January 25, while Fujita’s light threats case was dismissed on February 1.
A hearing was held earlier Monday at the Pasay Regional Trial Court (RTC) for the violence against women and children cases against Watanabe and Saito.
In a separate ambush interview, Pasay RTC branch 109 clerk of court Maria Abigail Aguba-Dospueblos said there was a motion to withdraw information for Watanabe’s and Saito’s cases.
Asked if the next hearing scheduled tomorrow will proceed, Dospueblos said, “No order yet, so I cannot speak if there will be a hearing tomorrow.”
She said they will give a copy of the resolution of the cases through email or registered mail to the Department of Justice (DOJ) but she did say if they would give it within the day.
“This is urgent in nature according to the rules of court. If this is a motion, the judge has 30 days. But due to the urgency of the case maybe it will be decided or resolved immediately,” Dospueblos told reporters.
Both accused appeared online while staying at the Bureau of Immigration detention center in Taguig. The complainants and partners of the accused appeared, covering their faces as they entered the courtroom. DMS/Jaspearl Tan
