Probe on Korean’s flight expanded

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Justice (DOJ) has expanded its investigation into the escape of a Korean fugitive through the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) last March 19.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima yesterday said she had directed a fact-finding team to look into possible liabilities of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) for the issuance of a working visa to Park Sung-jung last August when a summary deportation warrant was issued against him.

“Officials and personnel of the BI legal division will have to explain the circumstances behind this,” she said.

De Lima confirmed Park was wanted in Seoul over a $25-million investment scam. The BI had issued a summary deportation order in June 2012.

A deportation warrant was subsequently issued in August, but Park was still able to secure a working visa from the BI, she added.

“We strongly suspect that it was deliberately done by the encoder. We’re looking also at the possible involvement or culpability of the hearing officer who handled the deportation who, I was told, also handled his application for working visa,” De Lima said.

Park was able to fly out of the NAIA on March 19 despite a request from the South Korean government to monitor his movements.

De Lima last March 27 constituted a three-member fact-finding team led by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Aileen Maries Gutierrez to look into Park’s case.

She believes the case involved possible corruption or bribery.

Park bought his ticket just hours before his flight, checked in late, and got on the Philippine Airlines flight directly with a stamped boarding pass. His departure from NAIA at around 1 a.m. was not registered in the immigration database and was only discovered in the flight manifest.

Korean authorities at the Incheon International Airport in Seoul arrested Park, who fled his country last year after being tagged in an investment scam.

In 2011, another Korean fugitive – Kim Tae-dong – was able to escape BI custody. Kim, 54, was wanted in his country for cheating at a Seoul casino in 2010. He managed to escape the following month from St. Luke’s Medical Center where he had been confined for hypertension, diabetes and abdominal pain under guard by Immigration personnel.