AGENTS WANT BI OFFICIAL IN CHINESE CASE RELIEVED

THREE agents of Bureau of Immigration on Wednesday asked the Department of
Justice to suspend a ranking immigration official who is under
investigation for allegedly securing the release of an illegal alien
reportedly running an illegal drug trade in the country.

In a six-page position paper immigration intelligence officers Ansari
Macaayan, Maclin Lanto and Andrian Amangondato asked Acting Justice
Secretary Maria Merceditas Gutierrez to suspend Associate Commissioner
Teodoro Delarmente while an investigation is being conducted against him.

The three agents were the ones who nabbed Chinese Li Yong-cheng, a
suspected illegal drug trader, on June 26.

"We pray that pending investigation, Associate Commissioner Delarmente be
relieved of his function as associate commissioner for intelligence. His
actions of harboring and ordering the release of an illegal alien, who is
suspected of being a drug trafficker, is illegal and highly irregular,"
said a part of the agents' position paper.

The agents said Delarmente scolded them for apprehending Li on a Saturday,
and without a mission order, before he ordered the Chinese's release. The
agents pointed out that this was not the first time that Delarmente became
aware of an arrest made by bureau's agents, particularly Macaayan, on a
Saturday and without a mission order. The previous arrest made without a
mission order happened on June 19, 2004, when four Indians were nabbed.

The three agents said it was highly questionable why Delar-mente did not
question the arrest, but acted differently when Li was arrested under the
same circumstances.

The three agents maintained that the arrest of Li was within the parameters
of immigration laws since the Chinese was in continuous violation of the
country's laws.

The justice department had already ordered Immigration Commissioner Alipio
Fernandez Jr. on July 9, 2004, to investigate allegations that Delarmente
had committed an irregularity when he asked for the release of the
undocumented Li.

Before his arrest, Li had been placed under a month-long surveillance owing
to a police report that he was operating an electrical supply shop in
Caloocan City as a front for illegal activities. The immigration agents
arrested him after he failed to produce personal documents and his passport
was found to have expired in 2002 yet.