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Businessman arrested in PH freed; prosecutors find complaint flawed
Takayuki Umeda, a Japanese businessman who was recently arrested with six other persons in the Philippines for alleged human trafficking, was released early this week after the country’s Department of Justice found the police complaint to be flawed.
According to news reports in Manila, the DOJ ordered the release of Umeda, two other Japanese nationals, and four Filipinos, after investigating prosecutors found that the police failed to submit evidence in filing the charges of violations of Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2012.
The DOJ panel, however, did not immediately dismiss the charges and instead gave the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission an opportunity to present evidence at a hearing on April 2.
DOJ only dismissed the separate charge of illegal possession of firearm against the defendants after the police admitted that the confiscated .22-caliber revolver was not covered by the search warrant and failed to produce documents to show that the gun had no license, according to news reports.
Philippine authorities arrested Umeda and six others during a raid last March 17 on an English learning school in Pangasinan province, which was reportedly a front for an online dating service for foreigners.
The learning center’s female Filipino employees were allegedly used to entice older Japanese men to go to the country for sex in exchange for money.
In 2005, a CNMI Superior Court jury acquitted Umeda and Club Micronesia of 18 charges of employing illegal aliens and exploiting an underaged exotic dancer. The court also dismissed two counts of unlawful exploitation filed against Umeda and Club Micronesia.
