Japanese nationals post bail; charges to be filed today

THE 68 Japanese nationals who were arrested in a raid inside their office at the Cebu IT Park last week

were released after each of them posted P1,000 bail last Saturday afternoon.
Assistant regional director Augusto Isidoro of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said the

Japanese consul visited the detained nationals, who worked for the Japan Intertrade Call Center Corp.
Isidoro said four lawyers from the Davide law firm then visited their office to show a written petition

for bail that was approved by the court.
“There is a written agreement that the lawyers will make sure that the Japanese nationals will be on

call for any progress of the issue just in case,” he said.
Despite their release, Isidoro said charges will be filed against the Japanese nationals for violation

of Presidential Decree 442 or the Labor Code of the Philippines at the Cebu City Prosecutors’ Office

today.
He said the NBI is also studying the possibility of filing anti-graft charges against Bureau of

Immigration (BI) officials who issued provisional working permits to the Japanese nationals despite

their lack of requirements.
“According to them (the Japanese), they felt duped since they were allegedly told by the BI that

everything is okay,” Isidoro said.
He said some officers of the call center company claimed that most of their workers are interns.
But the NBI later found out that the Japanese employees are 19 years old and above and have worked in

the company for five years now.
Isidoro said the company officials showed provisional working permits signed by an immigration officer

even without the alien employment permits (AEP) from the Labor department.
“We talked to the BI officials to check but they had no office over the weekend and they assured that

they will verify these claims on Monday (today),” he said.