Manila: A former graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point has been appointed by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima as the new chief of the Bureau of Immigrations following the resignation of Ricardo David.
Siegfred Mison, erstwhile immigrations associate commissioner, has been appointed to the post of Immigrations Commissioner in an acting capacity.
De Lima, in television interviews, said that Mison’s administration promises to be more responsive to the needs of foreigners as much as Filipinos.
The immigrations bureau is under the Department of Justice and Mison’s impending formal appointment to post is the latest in the line of former military officials serving in the top immigration office.
Mison was a top lawyer with Malcolm Law, an Ortigas, Pasig City-based law office which resulted from the merger of the Go, Cojuangco, Mendoza, Ligon, Castro Law office and the Pesalam law office.
A former graduate of the West Point under a US-Philippines student exchange programme, Mison had served with the Philippine military from 1987 up to 1999.
“Siegfred went into active legal practice after having been military officer of the Armed Forces of the Philippines [AFP].
“His stint in the Army does not only include his participation in counter-insurgency operations in the provinces of Samar and Bataan but also substantial exposure in the field of security and intelligence,” a description on Mison in the Malcolm Law website said.
Mison obtained his law degree Juris Doctor from the Ateneo de Manila University School of Law in 1996, and earned his Masters of Law degree from the University of Southern California, USA in 2006.
In 2011, he started serving as acting immigrations associate commissioner.
Prior to the appointment of Mison, David, his predecessor had been accused of delaying the deportation of an American detainee at the Bureau of Immigrations for two years.
David, who had served as armed forces chief of staff, had denied allegations by Walter Francis Groves that he was arbitrarily detained and that the agency is unreasonably delaying his deportation without cause.
In a statement, David Jr. debunked the claim of Groves that the bureau violated his rights since he was arrested and detained more than two years ago.
Immigrations agents arrested Groves on March 23, 2010 and on May 4, 2011 the bureau’s Board of Commissioners ordered his summary deportation for being an undocumented, improperly documented and overstaying alien.
