A policeman detailed with the Bureau of Immigration was relieved of his duties after he was arrested for duping a Japanese into paying P100,000 for a phony permanent residence visa.
Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez Jr. relieved Senior Insp. Joel Candelario of his detail at the bureau on October 18 and ordered him recalled to his mother unit at the Philippine National Police.
Candelario was relieved a day after being arrested in an entrapment operation where he was supposed to collect P20,000 from the complainant, identified as Roy Rarang.
Rarang is a friend of the Japanese Paul Hidaki Hirakawa, whose permanent visa Candelario allegedly promised to process.
Investigations showed that sometime in July, Rarang was asked by Hirakawa to help him secure a visa from the bureau.
An acquaintance had referred Rarang to Candelario, who supposedly demanded P100,000. Rarang said he gave Candelario the amount in August.
Rarang said that when Candelario returned Hirakawa’s passport, it only had a temporary visa stamped on it.
Candelario allegedly told Rarang that Hirakawa will get a permanent visa after a year and at the same time demanded an additional P10,000.
He was also told that Hirakawa needed to secure an alien certificate of registration and special return certificates, which would cost another P20,000.
Rarang later found out that the visa stamped on Hirakawa’s passport was fake, prompting him to file a complaint with the National Bureau of Investigation.