Aquino orders replacement of Immigration chief Mison

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang replaced Immigration Commissioner Siegfred Mison after being implicated in multiple escapes of a South Korean fugitive last year.

Emmanuel Caparas, spokesperson of the Department of Justice said, said President Benigno Aquino III appointed Deputy Executive Secretary Ronaldo Geron to be at the helm of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) in place of Mison.

New Immigration Commissioner Geron meets with BI officials pic.twitter.com/mTtu46tbfc

— evelynzmacairan (@EZMacairan) January 7, 2016

The STAR reported on Thursday, however, that Mison did not resign but was sacked by Aquino.

The move came following the National Bureau of Investigation's (NBI) report that Mison committed an administrative lapse when he permitted of 49-year-old Korean fugitive Cho Seongdae to be transfered from the Immigration Warden Facility in Taguig City to the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAPF) detention cell at the Camp Aguinaldo military headquarters. This led to his escape.

The NBI recommended the filing of administrative charges of grave misconduct against him and BI guard Juan Rafael Ortega.

Cho, wanted for an extortion case in South Korea, was charged with robbery and extortion in Cavite and was arrested on Sept. 11, 2015. The Korean suspect, however, was able to escape when he was taken to a hospital due to complaints of difficulty in breathing.

He was rearrested and escaped again after paying BI personnel as accomplice, and was arrested for the third time on Oct. 10, 2015, but again escaped when he was transferred to the ISAPF facility.

The fugitive was arrested for the fourth time on Nov. 2, 2015 by joint BI and ISAPF agents and was detained at the NBI headquarters in Manila since then.

Aside from Mison, 17 others were held liable for the multiple escapes of Cho. BI security guards and some ISAFP custodians were recommended for charges of evasion through negligence or violation of Article 224 of Revised Penal Code. Other bureau guards and confidential agents also face administrative charges for gross neglect of duty. — with reports from Edu Punay