An ex-chief of legal, Arvin Cesar Santos, at the Bureau of Immigration who was arrested and charged by the Manila Prosecutors office for Graft and Corruption, during his term, has revealed detailed information of a corrupt syndicate of prosecutors between the DOJ prosecutors and the Bureau of Immigration Legal Department.
The ex-chief of legal, Arvin Cesar Santos said "I will tell all, I am not taking the fall for everyone, I was a small part of a good old boys network". This criminal syndicate consists of DOJ and Immigration prosecutors that were classmates, alumni, and fraternity brothers Law Universities. These brothers, which I was a part of, controlled the fate of hundreds of foreigners charged with immigration violations. These foreigners were detained until they paid, they either paid us or if they appealed our negative decisions to the DOJ prosecutors, they would have to pay them to get a positive decision in their favor. If foreigner case files were reviewed over the past 4 years, they will see that no hearing before the Special Board of Inquiry was ever heard, only 3 cases of bail were ever granted and those 3 had to pay 100k under the table to get them approved! We made it crystal clear, no bail was granted!
Arvin Cesar Santos with remorse in his voice told that "these poor foreigners were denied bail at immigration and denied bail at the DOJ, we would make sure no one got bail, this would break their will power, force them to pay big money!" Their cases were administrative in nature, if they did have criminal charges in the courts, they had already granted bail, but we denied them anyway so that we could fill our pockets
The ex-chief of legal admitted that if the foreigner resisted or filed complaints with any agency like the Ombudsman or Office of the President, we would retaliate by losing filings and motions, delay answering until the last possible minute, place their file at the bottom always, never seeing the surface. We would make a simple resolution last years, all the while, the foreigner remains at the Bicutan Immigration Detention center. "If they complained against our brothers, we would make the foreigner and his family suffers, we gave a clear message, resist and you will suffer!"
When asked who was involved in this criminal syndicate of prosecutors, Arvin Cesar Santos replied "Take your pick, who would refuse payoffs of 300,000 - 2,000,000 php?" Every prosecutor at the DOJ that handles Immigration appeals and the Immigration legal department is involved! All this going on right under the nose of DOJ Secretary Leila De Lima.
Arvin Cesar Santos stated "If the case files of foreigners, that had cases on appeal were ever reviewed, they would find cases of arbitrary decisions" When asked for an example;
Arvin Cesar Santos described a case of an Indian national who paid 2.2 million php, in November 2013, to DOJ prosecutors to overturn his Summary Deportation Order. Thangam Madhana Gopal was charged with being an overstaying alien and in possession of fraudulent immigration papers/ visa stamps, married to Filipina with 2 children. He had been convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude, hoarding, black marketing or profiteering and was set for deportation. Thangam Madhana Gopal's release was based on humanitarian reasons. The Indians resolution only took a few months because of the large payoff.
Arvin Cesar Santos could not remember names but he said an Estonian who was 17 years overstay and had several criminal cases pending in the courts was issued a release order by the DOJ prosecutors but there is a recent case with an American businessman who was 2 months overstay and has yet to be arraigned on a minor criminal charge has been denied bail and his Summary Deportation Order upheld by the DOJ prosecutors because he filed a complaint about a corrupt BI prosecutor, Mark Anthony Antonio, that was handling his case and was fired from the Bureau of Immigration, some of his classmates are DOJ prosecutors that were handling his case when it was appealed, they upheld the SDO not because of its merits but because they were going to punish this American for complaining.
Arvin Cesar Santos also disclosed another case that is presently in the DOJ prosecutors office on appeal for a Summary Deportation Order issued by the Bureau of Immigration, he states "A Greek businessman that owns a call center in Cebu that employs hundreds of Filipinos was illegally arrested and detained by BI, he has no visa violation and his passport was in order, he had no criminal case in the Philippines". He was charged as being an "undesirable alien" because of a mere letter from the USA embassy asking to validate his entry into the Philippines and if his passport was authentic, allegedly a fugitive but no authenticated copies of the arrest warrant were ever produced. The Greek embassy verified his passport and citizenship was authentic, BI verified that all his visa renewals were confirmed legitimate. "We tried to squeeze him for millions of pesos but he refused to pay." Instead, the Greek businessman started filing criminal complaints against various BI officials which included ex-commissioner Ricardo David Jr., ex-Special Prosecutor Liza Julie Interior Madera, ex-chief of intelligence Marie Antonette Bucasas Mangrobang, Executive Director Eric Dimaculangan and Field agent Armello De Castro. Most have either resigned, reshuffled or presently being investigated by the Commission on Human Rights and will be charged.
His current appeal at the DOJ has been in review for almost a year, add in the 6 months prior in the Bicutan Immigration Detention center, "he has been detained for over 16 months and he has not violated any laws." Arvin Cesar Santos added that "This Greek businessman will be made to suffer as long as the DOJ prosecutors can drag out his case." They want reciprocity for him causing problems and filing complaints. He is one of the reasons the BI Bicutan money making machine has halted. He has cost corrupt BI officials millions of pesos in payoffs.
Commissioner Siegfred Mison continues to say publically "come forward and tell us who these corrupt BI officials are, so that we may deal with them" but complaints are filed, evidence is presented and yet the corrupt BI officials are either reshuffled or left in the same positions. The foreigner complaining is the one punished!
Arvin Cesar Santos said "The list of cases are endless, there was no Due process of law, every case has human rights violations and I knew it all, now I am in fear for my life, I know too much about the corrupt officials at BI and the DOJ prosecutors office." If I do not reveal all now, I will be executed in the streets or they will go after my family, we are currently in hiding! The Philippines press will not run my story; we all know how the Philippines media is controlled. "I must reveal all just to protect myself and my family, I have no choice."
https://shamelessimmigration.blogspot.com/2014/02/bi-ex-chief-of-legal-arvin-cesar-santos.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR12JlMFJ--A0oDyLMHMD755hwMZ6xR-FRfjBfI3vyHVYMSIAPFmKV0u10o
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