Here’s a piece of news I just read today …it really falls under the heading of mixed blessings, for sure:

Former Immigration chief accused of illegal detention

CHARGES have been filed before the anti-graft court against three former Immigration officials and a warden for illegally detaining a German national for more than a year.

The Office of the Ombudsman filed the charges against former Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo, Immigration officers Maynard Marinas and Arthur Solito III, and Mandaue City warden Elmer Napilot for detaining Alfred Lehnert Jr., the complainant.

Prosecutor Russell Labor said Marinas and Solito arrested Lehnert on Sept. 27, 2002, while he was following up his Immigration papers in Mandaue City on Domingo’s orders.

They then detained Lehnert in Mandaue City, and later in Bicutan, Metro Manila, before releasing him on March 25, 2004, after one year and six months … read the full article here:

On the plus side?  I was actually quite happy to see that a criminal complaint against Filipino officials by a foreigner has been taken seriously … even including a former official of near cabinet secretary level, and an official well known to have a lot of political "clout" in the Philippines.  The Anti-graft Ombudsman court has taken the charges filed by the foreigner quite seriously.  Many foreigners are under the impression that as non-Filipinos the dice are loaded against them in the Philippines.  Obviously, when a person has a serious and valid complaint the laws indeed will support him.  This is a good thing to note.

On the other side of the coin, though, take a look at what happened to this individual.  He was instructed to go to a local Bureau of Immigration office so that officials there could review his status, based on complaints the BI had received.  The foreigner did so.  When he got to the immigration office he was arrested and slapped in prison, absent any other legal procedures and held for what seems to be a 18 full months … a year and a half out of his life.  I know I am never going to go to the immigration office with quite the carefree attitude I have had up until now.

The gentleman’s alleged crime?  Ah, that’s the area a lot of my foreign compatriots should look at and consider very carefully.  It is alleged that this German national had sex with the wife of another man.  Now to many of us this would seem to be a serious breech of morals … but this is the year 2008, and I dare say there are many folks who never think about going to prison because they chose to commit a sexual indiscretion with an adult partner, who happened to be married to someone else.  better tink again.

I know many foreign men who have dome here to the Philippines to meet with and sometimes cohabit with women who are already married.  it is very common here for a couple to decide they don’t want to live together any longer and to separate.  Sometimes they do this informally … as in one spouse or the other just leaves.  Sometimes they do it in the form of  a legal separation procedure … a very common legal condition here.

But legal separation or not, the couple are still married to each other and the law clearly states that the union of the marriage must be preserved, unless the couple goes through the expensive and prolonged process of receiving a decree of legal annulment for the marriage … not to be confused with the annulment process of the Catholic church, which is another process entirely.

Unless the woman has a decree of annulment, if she was ever married, she is almost assuredly still married … and under Philippine law her spouse still has many rights .. includingthe rghts to charge anyone who has an intimate relationship with her of the crme of adultery … not to be taken lightly.  Also, as in this case, a principle of law I only became familiar with here in the Philippines cna come into play .. estafa.  Losely defined, it means

Estafa is committed by a person who defrauds another causing him to suffer damage, by means of unfaithfulness or abuse of confidence, or of false pretense opt fraudulent acts. (See Article 315 of the Revised Penal Codefor more)

As you can see, just committing or aiding in committing an act which causes a person to suffer "damage from unfaithfulness" is not just a possible moral crime, it’s a recognized criminal offence.

So when in the Philippines, do as yu conscience dictates … I’m certainly not going to be your moral judge … i have other thins to do.  But before you publicly cohabit with another man’s wife?  You might want to think if it’s worth 18 months in jail?  It appears Herr Lenhert may win his case, but no one can give him back his 18 months.  Married is married and separated is still married.

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