BI lawyer gets 12 years over bribe from Yakuza suspect

A Manila court sentenced an immigration lawyer yesterday to suffer 12 years in prison and barred him from government service after he was found guilty of receiving at least P105,000 and a television set from a Japanese national suspected of being a member of the Yakuza crime gang.

Manila City Regional Trial Court (MCRTC) Branch 34 Judge Romulo Lopez found Eleuterio Balina, who works in the Bureau of Immigration’s legal department, guilty of asking favors from complainant Milagros Castillo Lapuz, who is the sister-in-law of Japanese national Ishikawa Kiyoshi.

Lopez sentenced Balina to six to 12 years at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) and cancelled the bond he posted for his provisional liberty.

The judge also ordered Balina to pay Lapuz P105,000 to cover the attorney’s fee and the television set.

Records show that Kiyoshi arrived in the country on June 11, 2002 but was deported back to Japan on suspicions that he is a member of the Yakuza, a Japan-based criminal organization.

On Aug. 20 of the same year, Lapuz wrote a motion to lift blacklist order to the BI went to Balina’s office, where he demanded various documents from her and told her about the P100,000 “legal fee.”

On Oct. 16, Balina informed told Castillo that her request had been approved and she handed him the money in a white envelope. Kiyoshi was able to enter the country on Nov. 11.

He appeared before Balina the next day for a secondary inspection. They ate lunch at a restaurant in Binondo, Manila, and Lapuz said Balina told her that she should pay him a P300,000 legal fee, a television set and a scooter for Kiyoshi to be removed from the blacklist.

Lapuz bought a 28-inch television set at a store in Manila and left instructions for Balina to pick it up. She gave the sales invoice to the attorney and when he picked up the item, he presented an identification card.

Balina denied the allegations, saying that Lapuz wanted to extort money from him because he was retiring. He retired on Aug. 1, 2005.     – Evelyn Macairan