'Don't allow 6 Chinese to leave RP'

TUGUEGARAO CITY , Philippines  – The Philippine National Police yesterday has called on the Bureau of Immigration to put on hold the departure of six Chinese apprehended last week for illegally extracting black sand along the northern Cagayan River.

This, after an Aparri (Cagayan) regional trial court approved earlier this week the foreigners’ petition for bail after the PNP filed charges against them for violation of the 1995 Mining Act, said Cagayan police director Senior Superintendent Mao Aplasca.

“We have requested the Immigration bureau to put these Chinese on hold-departure order after we had discovered that, aside from illegal mining violations, they also had expired visas, which were not even working visas,” the police official said.

The Chinese, reportedly all from Yu-ch’ien town in eastern Zhejiang province, were nabbed by authorities while mining for magnetite or black sand along the banks of Cagayan River in Barangay Jurisdiction, Lal-lo town Cagayan on early evening of July 22.

According to Aplasca, the six – Lin Derong, 36; Lin Jianxin, 38; Lin Qingmu, 26; Lin Wende 50; Lin Zhenbing, 41; and Lin Zhenquo, 45 – who were charged for violation of Republic Act 7942 or the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, were each released on P25,000 bail.

Aplasca said that although his men filed initial charges against the foreigners, he expected the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to push through with the prosecution of the case.

“We expect that the DENR will play the lead role in prosecution since the Chinese have been charged with violation of the Mining Act. We also call on Immigration officials to probe if the foreigners made other immigration violations,” he said.