The Bureau of Immigration (BI) is deporting an overstaying American who has been the subject of complaints by residents and establishment owners in Ermita, Manila, for being a mendicant and troublemaker.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said the 47-year-old Victor Didenko was picked up last Friday at the corner of M.H. Del Pilar and Salas Streets, Ermita, operatives of the bureau’s fugitive search unit.
Morente said Didenko, who is now confined at the BI detention facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City will be deported for being “undesirable, overstaying and undocumented” alien.
“Aside from being a notorious troublemaker, he will be deported for holding an expired US passport and overstaying his tourist visa,” the BI chief said.
He added that the American has become a “public charge” or a burden to society as he had been the perennial subject of complaints by citizens who saw him frequently roam the streets of Manila and Pasay, begging for money from strangers and engaging in acts that disturb the peace.
“We cannot allow unruly foreigners like him, who have no means of support, to stay in our country any longer, lest he becomes primarily dependent on the government for subsistence,” Morente said.
According to BI-FSU chief Bobby Raquepo, Didenko was charged last July before a Manila court with violating a city ordinance for breach of peace.
The charges were filed after policemen arrested him along Mabini Street, Ermita for shouting in public at the top of his voice, uttering insulting remarks on Filipinos and challenging everyone to a fistfight. (Jun Ramirez)