Chinese teacher with no working visa faces raps for airport fight

FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—An unruly Chinese tourist who created a scene at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) on Monday is likely to face direct assault charges to be filed against her by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) for getting into a fight with one of its employees.

The bureau identified the tourist as Jiang Huixiang, 38, allegedly a Mandarin language teacher at Xavier School in San Juan City, who arrived in the country via a Cebu Pacific flight from Beijing three days ago with no work permit but admission and multiple extension entries on her passport.

Jiang was apparently the woman captured in a video circulating in social networking sites screaming and fighting off moves of Rashid Rangiris, an on-duty confidential agent of the BI, to push her into a room at the airport.

She immediately got the sympathy of netizens when Rangiris was shown hitting her during the commotion.

But a report from duty Immigration Supervisor Nelson Valdez said Jiang screamed at, hurled invectives, kicked immigration agents and bit the hand of a security guard at Naia Terminal 3 when she was denied entry upon her arrival on Monday.

According to the report, the immigration officer at the counter referred Jiang for secondary inspection when he noticed that she had multiple extensions in her travel document since 2012.

“After establishing that Jiang had violated immigration laws by not presenting a work permit, the officer calmly and respectfully informed her that she cannot be allowed into the country,” the bureau said. Jiang reportedly told authorities that she had been working as a language teacher on a tourist visa since 2012.

Quoting witnesses, the report said Jiang immediately shouted at the immigration official after she was denied entry. This prompted Rangiris to come over and ask her to calm down. But Jiang allegedly screamed and hurled invectives at the immigration employee.

Since she was causing a commotion, airline personnel and other immigration intelligence employees tried to pacify her and asked her to go back to the exclusion room. But she adamantly refused and shouted back at the immigration agents, the report said.

The Chinese national also allegedly lied flat on the floor and appeared to have breathing problems. “Witnesses said Ms. Huixiang looked as if she was trying to kill herself,” the report added.

Before reaching the door of the BI exclusion room, Jiang supposedly “got wild again” and started to kick Rangiris, prompting him to retaliate. “Rangiris appeared to use reasonable force to drive her towards the nearby rest room where she eventually calmed down,” the report said.

On-duty security guard Delisia Yap, who was seen on the video pushing Jiang’s red luggage, also disclosed in the report that the woman became unruly when she moved her luggage from the exclusion room to the airport’s transfer lobby.

Yap added that Jiang bit the right hand of a colleague when the latter tried to restrain her.

Jiang’s flight back to Beijing had to be postponed for a day after she supposedly became unruly when she was being escorted to the plane, compelling airline authorities to off-load her. She was later deported back to Beijing on Tuesday night.

Immigration Commissioner Siegfred Mison said he had informed Chinese Consul General Qiu Jian that the bureau would conduct an investigation, with the possibility of filing charges against those involved. The bureau said it may also file criminal charges against Jiang.

The Inquirer tried to get the side of Xavier School, but principal Jane Cacacho said she did not know anyone named Jiang Huixiang who taught there.

After apologizing and saying she was in a meeting, the phone call was dropped. The Inquirer then called the school’s trunkline, but was told that everybody had gone home.–With Kristine Felisse Mangunay

 Originally posted: 9:07 pm | Wednesday, May 7th, 2014

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