A Japanese who had been hiding in the Philippines since he is wanted by authorities in Japan for defrauding a compatriot of half a million yen was ordered deported by Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Ricardo David Jr.

Ryuchi Ohira, 45, was deported last Feb. 15 aboard a Japan Airlines flight to Narita, Tokyo, that left via the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.                           

BI records show that elements of the BI fugitive search unit arrested Ohira last November 21 at a house along Dr. J. Garbriel St. in Baclaran, Parañaque City, upon the request of the Japanese Embassy in Manila which sought the bureau’s help in locating the fugitive’s whereabouts.

According to Atty. Maria Antonette Bucasas-Mangrobang, BI acting intelligence chief, Ohira is wanted to stand trial before district court in Kofu, Japan where he was charged with fraud and falsification of sealed private document.

She said the case stemmed from an incident on July 22, 2005 in Yamanashi prefecture, Japan when Ohira allegedly withdrew 500,000 yen from the postal savings account of another Japanese by falsifying the withdrawal slip and signature of the depositor.

Ohira has since been on the wanted list of the Japanese police since September last year when the said court issued a warrant for his arrest.                   

Mangrobang said Ohira is an undocumented alien since his Japanese passport already expired last January 4 and the bureau’s records revealed that he had been hiding in the country since October 29, when he arrived in Manila after fleeing Japan to evade prosecution for his crime.

Ohira was expelled pursuant to a summary deportation order issued against him by the BI’s  Board of Commissioners, which also ordered his inclusion in the BI blacklist, thus banning him from reentering the Philippines.   Itchie G. Cabayan