Korean Fugitive in Photo Op with P-Noy

You Hang Mok (Extreme Right), a South Korean fugitive, posed for posterity with President Benigno Aquino III in Malacanang Palace despite being hunted by the Bureau of Immigration. 

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY – A former personnel of the Bureau of Immigration who arrested last year a South Korean fugitive cries for justice. Ronaldo Cayabyab, the security personnel of the BI, who apprehended You Hang Mok for being an illegal alien in the country, has been incessantly sending letters to President Aquino, Justice Secretary Lelia de Lima, and commissioners of the BI for his reinstatement but to no avail. He said his miseries started when You, 50, escaped under his watch in March 14, 2007. He said You has feigned illness thus he was allowed by immigration officials to have medical check-up in Pampanga where he resided and owned a golf course. “He could not speak and understand English so he sought a medical doctor in Pampanga who understood him. That’s why BID officers allowed him to go in Pampanga,” Cayabyab said. The former BI agent said two days before the May 2007 election, he asked permission verbally from his superior for a two-day leave so he could vote here. Cayabyab left two BI guards to watch the Korean in his house in Pampanga. “When they woke up the following dawn of March 14 (2007), they found the South Korean and his live-in (common law) wife to have absconded,” he said. For three months after the escaped, Cayabyab said, members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, intelligence service of the Philippine Air force in Clark, Pampanga, and others have been combing the province for You, to no avail. The former BI guard said two months after You went into hiding, he was given a 90-day preventive suspension by the hierarchy of the BI. In 2010 he was sacked from the service due to grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service. He said even he was no longer connected with the BI, he continued looking for You, using his own money. With a former colleague from BI in tow, he located his prey in Ozamis City in Mindanao. With assistance from the local BI there and policemen he handcuffed You and whisked him immediately into a bus bound to Pagadian City to catch the first flight to Manila. “Nagbiyahe na kami with three convoys of police patrol cars to Pagadian (City) because political friends of You reportedly plan to abduct him at the police station. The former agent said after he surrendered the Korean to the BI office, he read on the dailies that the fugitive section of the BI took credit of the capture in Mindanao, although they were not there. “Instead of joy, it was another saddest moment of my life when I read in the (Philippine) Star newspaper that the Fugitive Section of BID was the one which apprehended You, when in fact it was me who arrested him by putting my life and limb on stake” he wrote to Secretary de Lima October 15 this year. He said You even offered him two million peso bribe to let him free as they were boarding the plane bound to Manila, but he refused, thinking he would be reinstated into office. Cayabyab said high ranking government officials like President Aquino, Secretary de Lima and the bosses at the BI did not respond to his request for reinstatement. He said he even saw You in Malacanang posing with a picture with the president when the former was being hunted by him. “I had colleagues who were on duty when some foreigners escaped, but they have been reinstated although the foreigners are still at large,” he said. He said after he borrowed two hundred thousand pesos from relatives just to arrest the Korean, he is now scrimping after he found himself jobless. “I have a family to feed and my son and daughter are studying in the University. I know that you’re a righteous person to decide based on the merit for my arrest of the subject (person)”, Cayabyab appealed to President Aquino