No airport brawl this time: BI deports Japanese 'general' harassing fellow passengers

Masanori Kikuchi, in fatigues, shows his bona fides to immigration officer Conrado Colanta after he was stopped from harassing other passengers. Authorities were quick to avert a brawl between the drunken Japanese and passengers he kept pulling out of the immigration queue, telling them they're not welcome in "my country (Philippines)." ERIC APOLONIO

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InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5

MANILA, Philippines – This time, airport authorities were prompt in averting a brawl. A visibly drunk Japanese national, clad in fatigues and claiming to be a general and a “good friend of President Aquino,” was harassing other passengers as they lined up for immigration processing at the NAIA Terminal 2 late Friday evening.

Masanori Kikuchi was wearing a Philippine Air Force uniform and presented himself as a three-star general “heading the Army, Navy and the Air Force” when he arrived at NAIA Centennial 2 from Macau on Philippine Airlines flight PR343.

The Bureau of Immigration officers said that Kikuchi appeared to be drunk and kept bugging passengers lining up at the immigration hall.

Occasionally he would suddenly pull aside passengers waiting for their passport to be stamped by immigration personnel, telling them they are not welcome to enter his country (Philippines).

Wishing to avoid a brawl, as what happened three weeks ago in NAIA 3, immigration agents immediately stopped Kikuchi, and invited him to the immigration office for investigation. He was then asked to surrender his passport, but the Japanese continued to shout invectives at the officials and pointing to decorative patches in his uniform.

Terminal 2 Immigration supervisor Danny Calabio, intelligence officer Conrado Colanta and Travel Control Enforcement Unit (TCEU) officer Anthony Lopez sent him back to his port of origin. They allowed in a Japanese companion of Kikuchi since he was behaving decently, but he declined to come in, saying, “I cannot enter Philippines alone and I cannot leave him because he is my boss.”

Immigration officer Colanta said that they had to execute an Order of Exclusion on Kikuchi because of his behavior, pursuant to Section 29 (a)(5) of the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940. They recommended he be blacklisted as an undesirable alien.

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