Immigration authorities in the United States have deported a Filipino man who confessed to performing surveillance in the Philippines on behalf of a law enforcement taskforce linked to the disappearance of a number of politicians opposed to the current government. 42-year-old Regor Cadag Aguilar was deported by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) less than two months after he was apprehended in the area of San Francisco Bay by ICE agents.
Aguilar touched down in Manilla at noon last Wednesday on a commercial flight, escorted by officers from ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). He originally arrived in the country 15 years ago on a US visa, but overstayed. In removal proceedings, Aguilar admitted to working for a law enforcement task force as a surveillance agent in the Philippines targeting rival political figures, an ICE press release claims.
Although Aguilar claims that he was unaware of the illegal activities being carried out by the task force, he admitted that one of the people he was spying on vanished and was presumed dead, that his surveillance was relied upon by task force members to kidnap and murder a political figure, and that he had overheard superiors ordering the torture of abductees. His deportation was ordered in 2010 and finally carried after Aguilar had exhausted his options for appeal.
“This day has been in the making for more than a decade, but it should leave no question about ICE’s resolve to hold human rights violators accountable for their actions,” said Daniel Ragsdale, the deputy director of ICE.