5 celebrities face deportation

Five more foreign actors and actresses working in the country without the required work permits and visas face arrest and summary deportation if they do not heed the summons for them to appear within one week at the Bureau of Immigration (BI).

Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo gave the ultimatum to the celebrities even as she signed a mission order for the performers’ arrest by BI intelligence agents.

The subjects of the BI arrest and order are Rafael Rosell IV and Billy Crawford, Maureen Larazabal, Amanda Griffin and Ladine Roxas.

Domingo said investigations conducted by the bureau showed that the five celebrities arrived in the Philippines on tourist visas and have been engaged in gainful occupation without securing the necessary work permits – a violation of immigration laws.

"Unless these actors and actresses voluntarily turn themselves in and explain why they have been violating our immigration laws, we would have no choice but to arrest and deport them," Domingo said.

Also, Domingo yesterday imposed a P100,000 fine on television actress and commercial model Nancy Castiglione after she and her lawyer appeared at the BI commissioner’s office and Castiglione admitted she has been working in the country without the appropriate visa and work permit.

Castiglione is a Canadian citizen who arrived in the Philippines as a balikbayan tourist and had never applied for a work permit from the BI, Immigration executive director and chief of the task force on illegal performing artists Roy Almoro said. –Rey Arquiza