EDITORIAL - Harboring fugitives

There must be something in the country’s air that foreign fugitives and the criminally minded find so inviting.

In November, Indian native Sajid Akram and his Australia-born son Naveed spent 28 days mostly in Davao before returning to their home in Australia and, two weeks later, killing 15 people celebrating Jewish Hanukkah in Sydney’s popular Bondi Beach.

Over the holidays in Bulacan, Bureau of Immigration agents arrested a Nepali wanted in his country on suspicion of leading an extremist group plotting to assassinate top government officials in Nepal. BI agents, meanwhile, are trying to recapture two South Koreans wanted in their country for drug smuggling and burglary, who escaped from BI detention in Muntinlupa on New Year’s Day.

At the Ninoy Aquino International Airport also on Jan. 1, authorities intercepted a Mongolian wanted overseas for a drug offense and a Turkish national wanted for sexual exploitation and prostitution.

BI agents have also been rounding up and deporting Chinese nationals wanted in their country for various offenses. Many of the Chinese used to work for Philippine offshore gaming operator firms, now banned.

At least the foreign fugitives are getting caught. Local law enforcers seem to have a harder time catching Filipino fugitives. Especially those who used to belong to the uniformed services.

It took eight years, for example, before “the butcher” Jovito Palparan, a retired Army major general, was arrested in Sta. Mesa, Manila, for the kidnapping of University of the Philippines students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño by soldiers under his command in Bulacan. The two victims have not been found.

During the holidays, Bureau of Corrections chief Gregorio Catapang drew the ire of Kalinga after saying that his predecessor Gerald Bantag, wanted for the 2022 murder of broadcaster Percival Mabasa or Percy Lapid, was being protected by a Kalinga tribe. Catapang said authorities already know where Bantag is hiding.

The Kalinga police, which could be in hot water if Catapang is correct, denied this, saying Bantag is of Ifugao and Benguet descent and does not belong to the Kalinga tribe.

Also at large is former police superintendent Rafael Dumlao III, a former member of the Anti-Illegal Drugs Group, convicted of kidnapping for ransom and executing South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo. Dumlao’s wife reportedly works for the National Bureau of Investigation.

Fugitives can’t evade the law on their own. The country has enough laws against those who harbor wanted criminals. Along with an intensified manhunt, authorities must not hesitate to apply the law against those who harbor fugitives.