A South Korean fugitive wanted for economic crimes in his country has been intercepted by immigration officers upon his arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
Bureau of Immigration (BI) port operations chief Grifton Medina said 63-year-old Chung Chan Ik was immediately excluded hours after he arrived at the NAIA 3 terminal aboard a Cebu Pacific flight from Tokyo, Japan.
Medina said Chung, who was recently convicted for high tech and intellectual property crimes by the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office in Korea, was apprehended by BI agents upon seeing that his name has a hit in their derogatory database.
“It appears that he fled to Japan after he was convicted and intended to hide in the Philippines afterwards,” Medina said.
According to lawyer Rommel Tacorda, head of BI’s border control and intelligence unit (BCIU), Chung was apprehended as he is the subject of a red notice from Interpol that was issued only last June 18.
Tacorda said Chung was found guilty of uttering false information in a public document regarding the activities of his corporation and for causing the said information to be stored in the Korean government’s commercial registration information system.
“His offenses ranged from embezzlement and breach of trust in the conduct of business and falsifying information in a public document,” Tacorda added.
It was gathered that Chung has been included in the immigration blacklist and banned from re-entering the Philippines. (Jun Ramirez)