The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said it would not speculate whether a group of fraud suspects arrested in the Philippines earlier this week would be deported to China, as they are still in the process of confirming that they are Taiwanese.
Acting on a tip from Chinese police, Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group officers on Wednesday arrested 25 foreign members of an alleged telecom fraud ring in the northern Philippines.
The detainees, who are believed to be from Taiwan and China, are suspected of posing as judges, prosecutors and bankers to trick people in China into transferring money to designated accounts, group spokesman Artemio Cinco said.
Ministry Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Deputy Director-General Chang Chun-yu (張均宇) said that diplomats were late yesterday scheduled to visit the suspects believed to be Taiwanese to confirm their identities.
He declined to speculate whether the suspects would be sent to China, even if confirmed to be Taiwanese, as happened earlier this year.
“Each case is different and we are still confirming their identities to gain a better understanding of the case, so we will not speculate” whether wrongful deportations would happen again, Chang said.
On April 4, the Philippines deported 78 Taiwanese fraud suspects to China. They were among 158 people arrested on Jan. 13 for alleged involvement in fraudulent telecom activities. The deportation drew strong protests from the government.
The Manila Economic and Cultural Office said that the suspects were sent to China because the case was solved through the joint efforts of the Philippine Department of Justice and Chinese police, and that the decision was in line with an Interpol red alert.
The suspects would be tried in China, because all the victims lived there and all the evidence was collected there, the office said in a statement.
Office Representative Angelito Banayo in an August interview told the Central News Agency that the office had tried to adhere to the precedent of deporting Taiwanese to Taiwan for investigation, but had not been not successful.
“Sorry about that incident, but our Ministry of Justice had to respond to the request by Interpol,” he said.
Banayo said that since the incident, the office has worked more closely with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines to ensure quick exchange of information whenever Taiwanese are arrested in the Philippines.
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