414 aliens face deportation

Some 414 foreigners are facing arrest and deportation for failing to pay P48 million which they owe the government when they availed of the government’s amnesty program for illegal aliens five years ago.

Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo has issued an ultimatum to the foreigners, who are mostly Chinese and Indians, to pay their fees on or before Friday, or the Bureau of Immigration will have no choice but to cancel their permanent residence visas.

Domingo issued the ultimatum after the bureau had extended the deadline for the payment of the fees several times after they became due early this year.

The aliens were among more than 16,000 foreigners who illegally entered the country before July 30, 1992, and applied for the benefits of the Alien Social Integration Act (ASIA) of ‘995 which the bureau implemented from 1996 to 1997.

Also known as Republic Act 7919, the law allowed aliens who had illegally entered the country before July 30, 1993, to apply for permanent residence provided the applicant paid an integration fee of P250,000 to the government.

The ASIA also allowed the applicant to include his spouse by paying an additional P50,000 and his dependents for P25,000 each.

However, the law authorized ASIA beneficiaries who could not pay their integration fees in full, to settle them in installments over a period of three years.

Domingo warned that should the aliens fail to pay their fees on or before Dec. 14, the bureau will have their visas canceled and they will be subjected to deportation proceedings. — Rey Arquiza