2 other Japanese in 'Luffy' controversy to be deported Wednesday after cases withdrawn

The two other Japanese fugitives detained in the Philippines are set to be deported Wednesday after a Pasay court granted separate motions to withdraw the cases filed against them, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said Tuesday.

“So there’s no more legal impediment to the deportation of the two Japanese fugitives and we expect them to be  deported tomorrow morning at the same time as to what happened today when we deported the first two,” Remulla said in a press conference.

He said the Pasay Regional Trial Court branch 109 has released two orders withdrawing the cases against Tomonobu Saito and Yuki Watanabe upon the motion of prosecutors.

“The court upheld the grounds that we have been speaking about, these cases looking like fabricated, done as an afterthought or only as a means of frustrating the government to deport the fugitives…So tomorrow, Luffy will be home in Japan,” Remulla said.

Pasay RTC Presiding Judge Christian Castañeda, in separate orders, said "without any proof to show the physical injuries allegedly sustained by private complainant as well as the place of the commission of the alleged acts, the evidence is insufficient to establish probable cause to indict the accused."

"Considering the above findings, the prosecution is gently reminded to scrutinize the complaints filed before them to avoid unnecessarily clogging the dockets of trial courts," he added.

In granting the prosecution's motion to withdraw, Castañeda also ordered the  recall of the warrants of arrest issued against the two Japanese nationals.

Asked if he was referring to Watanabe when he mentioned Luffy, Remulla said only the Japanese police can tell that.

"One of them is Luffy. It's only the Japanese police who can tell. One of the four is Luffy. I don't know who among them," he said.

He added they have turned over to the Japanese police the 24 cellphones and two tablets recovered from the fugitives.

Earlier in the day, the Philippine government deported Japanese fugitives Toshiya Fujita and Kiyoto Imamura back to Japan.

Kiyoto Imamura and Yuki Watanabe, were arrested respectively in 2019 and 2021. Japanese police said the two could be sharing the alias "Luffy," after a character in the Japanese manga "One Piece." The two, together with Toshiya Fujita and Tomonobu Kojima, were suspected of directing a series of robberies in Japan while detained in the Philippines.

Last week, the Japanese government asked the Philippines to deport the four.—AOL, GMA Integrated News