TAIPEI: Taiwan announced yesterday it has signed a crime-fighting pact with the Philippines following a spate of Internet scams that ruffled ties between the two governments.
The agreement is aimed at cracking down on criminals who exploit the lack of official diplomatic relations between the two sides, and could pave the way for similar accords with other Southeast Asian countries.
Raymond Wang, of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Manila, and his Philippine counterpart Antonio Basilio, inked the mutual legal assistance agreement in Taipei on Friday, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
“The pact has set a precedent for more of such agreements the country is seeking in the Southeast Asia,” it said.
Under the deal, the two sides agree to assist each other in gathering evidence, freezing property owned by suspects, and deportations.
Negotiations came about following a diplomatic row in February 2011 when the Philippine government deported to the mainland 14 Taiwanese and 10 other Chinese suspects, who were arrested on allegations of swindling $20m in an international scam targeting mainland China.
Taipei insisted the Taiwanese suspects should have been sent back to the island to face justice and threatened to freeze the hiring of Filipino workers.
AFP
