Authorities nab 26 undocumented Chinese in Butuan City

BUTUAN CITY — Operatives from the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) and the city police office arrested Wednesday morning at least 26 undocumented Chinese working in small-scale gold mining projects in two villages in the city, a police report said Thursday. An initial report to the Caraga regional police office claimed the Chinese only possessed temporary visitors’ visa, but were caught working in the mine sites in Barangays Bilay and Maibu that are known for its small-scale mining activities. Police and immigration agents from Manila headed by Immigration Officer Angelo Geronimo identified the Chinese as:

1. Liu Wei 2. Meiqiang Feng 3. Hong Chao Chen 4. Rongze Cai 5. Jie Ma 6. Shouzhong Xu 7. Fayou Wang 8. Liliu Jiang 9. Zhiwei Chen 10. Wei Jiang 11. Yong Zhong Wu 12. Zhiyang Zheng 13. Lihua Zheng 14. Youmei Wen 15. Hongfu Chen 16. Shaohua Kong 17. YU Cao 18. Shangbing Li 19. Jinsong Cheng 20. Haitao Kong 21. Anmin Yang 22. Jiaobai Shi 23. Hong You Chen 24. Bingying Chen 25. Xiarong Kong 26. Hsu Yi-Chen

The report said the 26 foreigners have no legal documents to work and to stay in the country for a long time. According to the police, the 26 are in custody of BID agents and will be brought to Manila for proper documentation. Even though the government declared the two mine sites as hazardous and landslide-prone areas, unabated and rampant illegal mining activities have allegedly continued for years. Environmental groups are blaming alleged corruption in concerned government agencies for the continued illegal mining activities in the area. — Ben Serrano/LBG, GMA News