CJFF: Immigration raids Filipino family home, husband has heart attack

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CJFF writes:

October 21, 2010

For press/blog release…

Afternoon of October 13, 2010 immigration officers questioned Victor de la Cruz in his work site at Gako Ishikaya located at the basement of Tokyo’s Shimbashi station of JR line. The immigration officer is asking if he and his wife, Susan Lubos de la Cruz who is an employee of an African embassy and Victor as her dependent are real husband and wife. There is no established case and Victor went home afterwards.

Today, October 20, 2010 at around 11:30 a.m. the immigration officers went to the home of Mr. and Mrs. de la Cruz in Meguro-ku and Victor was alone in the house. Later an immigration officer who gave his name as Mr. Kato of Shinjuku immigration with telephone number 03 5155 0496 called Susan, the wife of Victor, informing that they, the immigration officers, sent Victor to the National Organization Tokyo Medical Center at around 1:00 p.m. Victor suffered heart attack and in comatose given a 10-20 % chance to live by the doctor as of this writing (October 20, 2010, 11:50 pm).

Susan learned that her husband heart have stopped beating for an hour before Victor was sent to the hospital. Upon arriving home, Susan found all of their things and belonging are scattered and she also learned from the immigration officers that they went to their house to look for evidence if their marriage is real or not.

The fact is Victor and Susan have been married since 1989 or 21 years now and have been living together in the same house in the past 15 years in Japan. Susan and Victor have three children.

Susan, a member of Gabriela-Japan, a chapter of the Philippine national women organization Gabriela with 2 seats in the Philippine House of Representatives, is asking her organization for legal assistance and possibly to question the Immigration Bureau about the legality of their actions. Nobody knows what transpired and what kind of treatment, pressure, or intimidation or whatever the immigration officer employed to make Victor to suffer from heart attack. Susan is also doubtful about the legality of the immigration officers’ action in raiding her house.

The Gabriela-Japan, together with its Philippine national chapter Gabriela Philippines and its parliament representatives in the Philippine House of Representatives, is launching the JUSTICE FOR VICTOR AND TO ALL FOREIGN MIGRANTS VICTIMS OF UNJUST ACT OF AUTHORITIES, ABUSE OF POWER AND MALTREATMENT. The campaign network will seek to unite various groups and individuals to push for legal actions in demanding the Ministry of Justice and legal courts to rule on the legalities on handling the Victor case.

The Justice for Victor Campaign Network is calling on all foreign migrants support groups and justice loving people of Japan to joint the cause. As initial move, we are asking all the network supporters to make a barrage of inquiry to the Justice Ministry regarding their knowledge about the Victor case and to register our strongest protest against excessive use of power of immigration officials in raiding foreign migrants suspects that cause the sufferings and being in state of comatose of Victor at present.

For all interested parties to join the Justice for Victor Campaign Network please send an email to sa_ryo AT hotmail DOT com

Justice for Victor and to all foreign migrants victims of authorities excessive abuse of power!

Cesar V. Santoyo
Mission Director, Center for Japanese-Filipino Families (CJFF)

http://home.att.ne.jp/banana/cjff/homepage.htm
ENDS

10 comments on “CJFF: Immigration raids Filipino family home, husband has heart attack

  • So, would this be the 5th gaijin death this year in the custody of Immigration authorities? including suicides in detention centers and the drug mule with a stomach full of nasty stuff who was denied medical treatment despite asking for it.

    Still, there must be another side to this story. Being questioned solely regarding a sham marriage after 21 years and having 3 kids just doesn’t make sense. Waiting for the other shoe to drop before I get outraged. Too many unvetted stories deliberately omitting critical details from NJ with claims of getting screwed by the J cops, the yakuza, J Immigration, etc.

    Reply
  • —Still, there must be another side to this story. Being questioned solely regarding a sham marriage after 21 years and having 3 kids just doesn’t make sense.—-

    I agree. Although not much surprises me anymore when it comes to being NJ and living in Japan.

    Reply
  • I am sorry to say but this story doesn’t fully make sense.

    Reasons:

    “Susan learned that her husband heart have stopped beating for an hour before Victor was sent to the hospital.”
    >> If your heart doesn’t beat for one hour, you cannot be alive anymore!

    “Susan Lubos de la Cruz who is an employee of an African embassy”
    >> Does she have diplomatic status? We don’t know. And how come a Filipino is employed at an African embassy in Japan anyway? (Usually embassies employ their own citizens plus local staff … but staff from a third country?)

    According to the information above it cannot clearly be said that the heart attack was really related to the visit by the immigration officers. Before making any assumptions in that direction I believe what caused the heart attack should be established by a medical doctor.

    Even though it’s true that there are fake marriages in Japan as well as in other countries, to have such a suspicion if a couple has three children together … that simply doesn’t make sense. Because the fact that you have three children implies that the marriage must have been real … otherwise the children wouldn’t be there, right?

    With all respect for the “Justice for Victor Campaign Network” I cannot advise joining that campaign at this stage. Because unless we know what caused the heart attack and what the immigration officers really did (and why) there are too few OBJECTIVE facts to decide for or against such a campaign.

    Reply
  • “>> If your heart doesn’t beat for one hour, you cannot be alive anymore!”

    I was just going to comment on this myself. This may be a result of poor reporting, or simply an English mistake given the fact that the person who wrote the article is clearly not a native speaker/writer. Maybe the man was unconscious for an hour before he was taken to the hospital? Of course I’m just speculating.

    I, too, would like to know the details of this case, particularly what exactly prompted the investigation. Like Level3 above, I also believe there’s more to this story.

    Reply
  • I appreciate knowing about this, but I do believe that that campaign group needs to step out in front on this first. For example, if you check the link, they aren’t featuring it on their own site.

    I think the controversial quote about the heart stopping was meant to say that the Mrs. de la Cruz didn’t find out until an hour after. I don’t think the man was on the floor without a pulse for an hour. It’s the mistake using present prefect tense and number agreement (“heart have stopped beating”) that leads me to think there’s one more drafting error.

    Reply
  • Although the details are currently unclear, in this case, I would recommend letting as
    many people know as possible the current information available on the case instead
    of showing restraint. Spreading the word is the right thing to do in this situation.

    Reply
  • >> Does she have diplomatic status? We don’t know. And how come a Filipino is employed at an African embassy in Japan anyway? (Usually embassies employ their own citizens plus local staff … but staff from a third country?)

    Many Filipinos, both women and men, work for diplomatic missions in Japan. Most if not all are employed as housekeepers/maids, nannies, cooks, drivers and security guards. They do not have diplomatic status and thus no immunity. Their visas status is usually “Designated Activities” and they are sponsored by the mission or individual diplomats themselves based upon an annual contract as required by Japanese immigration authorities.

    Embassies usually employ their own citizens and local Japanese staff for administrative and office work, though there are some cases where they do jobs similar to what Filipinos do. It is common for Filipinos to work at many embassies and an African embassy is no different, since they are the predominant third country employee of diplomatic missions in Japan mainly because they are capable with the English language and therefore easy to communicate with for diplomats, do not cost the same as local employees, may have an established track record of working for diplomatic missions in Japan, and their visas can be easily transferred for sponsorship between missions and diplomats.

    — Yes, I was surprised how many people from The Philippines the USG employs, even in Japan.

    Reply
  • “(Usually embassies employ their own citizens plus local staff … but staff from a third country?)”

    Wrong. The US embassy employees many filipinos as domestic workers, they even got a dormitory for them. There are many other nationalities paid by the state dept working there also as local hires. Most of them are from 3rd world countries.

    Reply
  • Can’t find the original articles on the treatment of the guy who died while being deported, but guess here is also good. The same crap is happening now in the UK.

    –>Jimmy Mubenga family call for inquiry into deportation system
    Relatives of Angolan who died while being deported warn of potential ‘systematic problems’ in way deportees are removed
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/01/jimmy-mubenga-family-deportation-inquiry

    And another case just the other day:
    –>Witnesses ‘thrown off plane’ during deportation flight
    Two students who tried to voice concern about ‘violent’ deportation say they were questioned by armed police
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/oct/31/witnesses-thrown-off-deportation-flight

    Of course US raids on immigrants working in sweatshops, etc., especially after 9-11 arr also infamous.

    — Thanks. Let’s try to triangulate and tie this back to Japan somehow.

    Reply

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