By WILLIAM B. DEPASUPIL, The Manila Times Reporter

The Bureau of Immigration has set up its own Interpol office to boost its drive and capability to run after foreign criminals who may be hiding in the country.

Commissioner Alipio Fernandez Jr. said on Tuesday that the new office, known as BI-Interpol sub-bureau, would serve as the bureau’s arm in coordinating with foreign and local law-enforcement agencies involved in catching alien fugitives.

Fernandez said among these agencies are the Philippine Center on Transnational Crimes and the National Bureau of Investigation, which have established tie-ups with the main Interpol office in Lyon, France.

He stressed that before the office was created, the bureau has been involved in catching foreign fugitives who have entered the country.

Fernandez said that except for some with pending cases in courts, all of the fugitives were deported to the countries where they either facing trial or convicted for their crimes.

"All of these fugitives were blacklisted after they were deported so that they will not be able to reenter our country," he added.

Fernandez said there is a need to form an Interpol office in the bureau that will handle the cases involving foreigners and coordinate with law-enforcement agencies, including police attachés of foreign embassies in Manila.

Simeon Vallada, the bureau’s antifraud division chief, was appointed Interpol office chief.

Vallada noted that Americans, Japanese and Koreans topped the list of fugitives who have been caught and deported by the bureau over the past several years.

He could not give an exact breakdown of the nationalities of the foreigner who were arrested, but hopes to do it soon once the bureau has updated its computer database.