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Simpson Cheung

A Hong Kong man has been returned to a Philippine prison in what his legal team condemned as “illegal detention”, after severe weather halted his deportation following his release.
Tang Lung-wai’s Philippine lawyer, Blessie Rose Carpena, told the South China Morning Post that prison authorities escorted Tang to the Bureau of Immigration last Friday.
However, because government offices were suspended due to a passing typhoon, he was returned to the maximum-security New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa.
“[The Bureau of Immigration’s] delay of his release can constitute illegal detention,” Carpena said, describing Tang as “frustrated and devastated.”
Tang was arrested in the Philippines in July 2000 for possessing methamphetamine, also known as ice, and sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2011. He has maintained his innocence and fought the conviction for more than two decades.
In late July, a Manila court ruled that Tang’s sentence was fully served after factoring in good conduct time allowances, ordering his immediate release and deportation.
Carpena said the prison was ready to release him, but the Bureau of Immigration could not accept him without approval from its commissioner.
She added that deportation backlogs in the Philippines remained common, noting that another foreign client had waited six months for repatriation, while several others have faced delays exceeding a year.
Former lawmaker Paul Tse Wai-chun, a lawyer assisting Tang for two decades, argued that the Hongkonger was now a free man and should be allowed to wait for deportation in a hotel rather than a prison.
“It is outrageous. How can he be brought back after he is released from prison?” he said, echoing claims that holding Tang at the correctional facility amounted to unlawful detention because authorities no longer had grounds to imprison him.
Tse said he had already sought help from Director of Immigration Benson Kwok Joon-fung, who pledged to follow up on the case with China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
However, former Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok said that since Tang has no rights of residence there, Philippine authorities had the power to confine him during a legal deportation process.
He said he was confident Tang could return home in a reasonable time frame, subject to the Philippines’ administrative process.

A spokesman for Hong Kong’s Immigration Department said the government placed great importance on the lawful rights of residents detained overseas.
He said the department had immediately contacted Philippine authorities through the Chinese embassy in Manila to learn about Tang’s length of sentence served and his subsequent deportation arrangements.
It had also forwarded relevant information to the embassy to facilitate identity verification and travel document issuance once deportation arrangements were finalised.
Tang’s case previously drew high-level diplomatic attention. In 2018, then-city leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor wrote to Rodrigo Duterte, the country’s president at the time, to urge him to push immigration authorities to hasten their search for records believed to prove Tang’s innocence.
Although the records indicated that Tang was not in the Philippines during the period local police said he was under surveillance, the Philippine Supreme Court dismissed his final appeal in 2020.


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Freed Hongkonger sent back to jail as storm delays deportation from Philippines

Tang Lung-wai was sent back to the Muntinlupa prison after severe weather in the Philippines halted his deportation following his release. Photo: EPA-EFE

General view of Immigration Tower in Tseung Kwan. Photo: Sun Yeung

Family seeks help after Hongkonger held in Philippines despite finishing jail time

Tang Lung-wai (right) was originally arrested in 2000. Photo: SCMP

Hong Kong’s Carrie Lam in 2018 urged Rodrigo Duterte, the country’s president at the time, to push immigration authorities to hasten their search for records believed to prove Tang’s innocence. Photo: AP

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Tang Lung-wai (right), 49, has been behind bars in the Philippines for 20 years. Photo: Raissa Robles

(front second left to right): Billy Tang Lung-piu, brother of Tang Lung-wai; and Lawmaker Paul Tse Wai-chun, meet the media at the Immigration Tower in Wan Chai regarding Tang Lung-wai’s latest situation in the Philippines. Tang Lung-wai, a Hong Kong citizen, has been serving a 40-year term in the Philippines on drug charges, received crucial immigration records that could prove his innocence. 15AUG18 SCMP / Roy Issa

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Hong Kong

Lawyer says Tang Lung-wai’s return to maximum-security prison constitutes ‘illegal detention’ after severe weather halts deportation


Lawyer says Tang Lung-wai’s return to maximum-security prison constitutes ‘illegal detention’ after severe weather halts deportation.


Freed Hongkonger sent back to jail as storm delays deportation from Philippines

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Lawyer says Tang Lung-wai’s return to maximum-security prison constitutes ‘illegal detention’ after severe weather halts deportation

Lawyer says Tang Lung-wai’s return to maximum-security prison constitutes ‘illegal detention’ after severe weather halts deportation