The Bureau of Immigration’s Fugitive Search Unit arrested a South Korean fugitive in Mandaluyong City after years of evading authorities following his escape from a provincial jail in Leyte.
Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado identified the fugitive as Gim Sihun, 31, who was wanted in South Korea for fraud and had been listed among the country’s top ten most wanted prison escapees operating abroad.
BI-FSU operatives, working with the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission and the Philippine National Police Intelligence Group, arrested Gim along Doña Julia Vargas Avenue in Mandaluyong City.
According to the BI, Gim escaped from the Abuyog Sub-Provincial Jail in Barangay Loyonsawang, Abuyog, Leyte, in late 2023.
The Seoul Central District Court had issued a warrant for his arrest for fraud under South Korean law.
Viado said Philippine records showed Gim had already been tagged for deportation as an undesirable alien as early as 2020.
Gim is now detained at the BI holding facility while authorities process his summary deportation, which will allow him to face his pending criminal cases in South Korea.