
AN African wanted to stand trial by a local court was arrested by Bureau of Immigration (BI) personnel upon arriving at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said 52-year-old Oscar Ogie Mbang, a Cameroonian national, was arrested last Jan. 27 at the NAIA 1 terminal when he was intercepted by immigration officers after he arrived aboard a Philippine Airlines flight from Singapore.
Viado said the African was taken into custody after the BI officer who processed him at the immigration counter saw that the passenger had prompted a positive hit in the bureau’s automated derogatory check system.
The hit indicated that Ogie Mbang is subject of a blacklist and watchlist orders issued by the BI in August 2019 after a deportation complaint for undesirability was filed against him before the bureau.
Moreover, he was also issued a hold departure order (HDO) in October 2020 by the Parañaque City regional trial court where he was indicted for fraud for swindling a creditor.
“We have no record of his departure and we suspect that he left the country via illegal means to evade criminal prosecution for his crime,” Viado said.
Ferdinand Tendenilla, acting chief of the BI’s border control and intelligence unit (BCIU), said the Ogie Mbang was committed to the BI detention facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City where he will remain pending resolution of his criminal and immigration violation cases.
Tendenilla said that if convicted the African will first have to serve his court sentence before he can be deported by the BI and perpetually banned from re-entering the country.