Philippine Immigration Detention: If You Don't Pay, Your Deportation Never Moves
A Chinese surfer held for 41 days in the Philippines saw not a prison but a business with prices posted on everything: beds, boxed meals, phones, lawyer fees. Every item had to be bought. Those who didn't pay were held for years, even over a decade.
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The Immigration Bureau quoted 1.5 million pesos to walk free on the spot
The night Feili was arrested, immigration officers pulled him aside and whispered, "I can help you." After the lawyer communicated, the feedback came back: give 1.5 million pesos, about 160,000-170,000 RMB, and you can be released immediately, no problem at all. Of the 12 to 13 people arrested in the same batch, no one agreed to pay. Everyone thought it was impossible that such a thing could still exist in 2026, and wanted to resolve it through normal legal procedure. But the price of refusal was this: they were transferred from the holding cells of the General Santos police station to the Immigration Bureau detention center in Manila, where Feili ultimately spent 41 days.
— Fei LiWhen his phone was confiscated, the money in Gcash was transferred out
When Feili was detained his phone was taken, and they asked for his unlock code. He assumed this was normal procedure and gave it. His phone unlock code and his Gcash payment password were the same. For the next four or five days, no matter how he applied, he couldn't get the phone back — until he kept pressuring the Chinese consulate and his lawyer, and the phone was finally returned. When he turned it on, the interface had all switched to English, and the Gcash transfer records showed money had been sent out, but then sent back the night before he got the phone. There was only about 1,000 RMB in it. Feili said it wasn't about the amount — it was that the phone had been touched while it wasn't in his hands. He reasoned that many Chinese in Manila doing gray-industry scams who get arrested go through this same layer of fleecing, but they don't dare go to the Chinese consulate, because their phones contain a mass of criminal evidence.
— Fei LiThe air conditioning and takeout the Immigration Bureau promised were another form entirely
For those unwilling to buy their own plane ticket to be transferred, the Immigration Bureau would take turns working on them, saying the Manila immigration facilities were very good — air conditioning, lots of freedom, you could work out, play basketball, order takeout, use your phone. Feili said they weren't lying: there really was air conditioning, you really could order takeout — it was just another form, a completely different form. They arrived at the main detention center at past three in the morning. Getting out of the vehicle, what he saw was a square area, an outer layer of iron grid, a corrugated iron roof above, and all around iron cages like dog kennels, with long communal sleeping platforms inside, hundreds of people. At past three in the morning many weren't sleeping — bare-chested, in just underwear, clinging to the iron cages to look at the newcomers. Feili said he and the other foreigners didn't say a word for several minutes after getting out, then it hit them: they'd been lied to by the Immigration Bureau.
— Fei LiThe detention center is a business invested in by a Chinese boss
What Feili heard inside was that this immigration detention center was invested in by a Chinese boss, in cooperation with the Immigration Bureau, and that the beds, toilets and other facilities had all been newly built by the Chinese boss. Foreigners could just stay, but Chinese who came in had to pay. The lowest-tier communal platform bed was 10,000 pesos a month, about 1,100-1,200 RMB. Wealthy pan bosses and gambling big shots could pay 50,000 pesos a month, about 6,000-plus RMB, for a so-called "air-conditioned room" — actually the bed was the same, just wrapped in tin foil and wooden boards, with a foam box of ice beside it, a hole cut in the box, and an exhaust fan drawing the cold air into the bed. That's where the Immigration Bureau's earlier claim that "there's air conditioning inside" came from.
— Fei LiChinese gangs collect protection money: you don't want to pay and you still think you're getting out?
On his first day inside, the head of the Chinese gang came to Feili to collect a "rumor fee," saying the facilities inside were all their investment and it was impossible to stay for free. Feili said he had no money, he was here to serve time, how could he be expected to pay on top of that. The gang boss said in a threatening tone: you're already in here, you don't want to spend money and you still think you're getting out? Feili learned that the place is run by gangs, and the Chinese gang monopolizes all the food, clothing and daily life of the Chinese, running a Chinese restaurant and a Chinese supermarket. The whole detention center held about 200 people; when Feili went in it was the off season, and there were still over 100 Chinese, more than half of them gambling and gray industry. The Chinese gang's employees were paid — the head chef 10,000 pesos a month, the assistant cook 5,000 pesos — very low wages, but many people couldn't get out precisely because they had no money for a lawyer, so they could only work to earn.
— Fei LiA young man from Yunnan held for over a year, his family thought he'd died in Southeast Asia
A young man from Yunnan asked Feili for help. Before the pandemic he'd been lured to the Philippines by a high-salary recruitment ad; the moment he landed his phone and passport were taken, and he was pulled into a park to do telecom fraud. With poor performance he was shocked daily with an electric baton by his supervisor. After the company was busted he served a few months, then was transferred to the immigration detention center. The normal deportation procedure is simple — a few departments sign off, you buy your own ticket, and you can go — but the Immigration Bureau, in order to extract money, will hold you a very long time, and without paying the procedure doesn't move. He'd already been held over a year, with not a cent, no phone, able to eat only prison food every day, unable to reach his family, who thought he'd died in Southeast Asia. Feili helped him write a letter in Chinese, translated it into English, and through a Japanese man's introduction got to see the warden. The warden had a guard bring Feili's phone, and let the young man add his father on WeChat and send a selfie and a voice message. Afterwards the Immigration Bureau bought a basic phone specifically to solve this problem.
— Fei LiScam company ransom: 3 million pesos per person
The only Chinese person Feili talked with much came from a scam company. The company's 70 or 80 people had been surrounded by the Immigration Bureau together with the police and the NBI, three agencies. The first wave of fleecing was the NBI and police locking each person in a toilet — because there are no cameras in toilets — and taking every valuable thing on them. The second wave was the Immigration Bureau negotiating with the company boss for the release of people, with different quotes per person — 1 million, 2 million, 3 million pesos — depending on the person in charge's mood. That company negotiated at 3 million pesos per person, about 300,000-plus RMB. The boss ultimately ransomed 30 people, exactly the 30 held on one floor; the rest were promised food deliveries until they got out. This young man ran an operation targeting the Japanese market, scamming middle-aged Japanese women. In his best month he made 2 million RMB, and bought a house and a car in his small home county. Later he was kidnapped by a friend, several hundred thousand was transferred away, and a corrupt cop pinned an illegal gun-possession charge on him, so he couldn't leave.
— Fei LiA Philippine lawyer raises the price on the spot when he sees you're Chinese
In Cebu, through a Lithuanian's introduction, Feili met a Philippine lawyer who quoted 200,000 pesos, about 20,000-plus RMB, to get it done in four weeks. After Feili got to Manila the lawyer came to visit, saw he was Chinese, and immediately raised the price, saying that was the old price and the new price required another 120,000 pesos, about 10,000-plus RMB. Feili decided not to use him and gave up the deposit, turning instead to a Chinese middleman. The Chinese middleman quoted 30,000-plus RMB, four to six weeks, no more than six weeks. Feili said a genuinely reliable Chinese middleman knows this procedure inside out, because everyone held in there is Chinese. In the end he was held inside for over 30 days, 41 days total including Cebu. The Lithuanian who introduced the Philippine lawyer still hadn't gotten out when Feili messaged him.
— Fei LiIn their own words · checked verbatim
Give him 1.5 million pesos now and you can be released immediately, and you'll have no problem at all.
你现在给他150万匹所 你可以马上把你给放掉 你就没有任何的问题了
Fei Li10:05
But this isn't about the amount of money. When the phone wasn't in my hands, money was transferred out.
但是这不是钱多少的问题 手机不在我手上的时候 被人转了出去
Fei Li18:21
Look at his corrupt bureaucratic system and his ordinary people as separate things. I still believe Filipinos are by nature very good people. But the bureaucratic system is truly too corrupt — and it's the kind that drinks blood, drinks human blood.
把他的腐败的这套官僚的系统 和他的民众都是分开去看待的 我依然认为菲律宾人 本性都是非常好的人 但是官僚系统 真的是太腐败了 而且是喝血 喝人血的那种官僚系统
Fei Li1:02:48
Figures
| Amount the Immigration Bureau quoted for release | 1.5 million pesos, about 160,000-170,000 RMB | 10:05 |
| Amount transferred out of Gcash | about 1,000 RMB | 18:21 |
| Monthly rent for the lowest bed in the detention center | 10,000 pesos, about 1,100-1,200 RMB | 32:38 |
| Monthly rent for the air-conditioned room | 50,000 pesos, about 6,000-plus RMB | 33:38 |
| Monthly wage of the Chinese gang's head chef | 10,000 pesos, about 1,100-1,200 RMB | 36:41 |
| Monthly wage of the Chinese gang's assistant cook | 5,000 pesos, about 600-plus RMB | 36:41 |
| Amount the Philippine lawyer raised his price by | another 120,000 pesos, about 10,000-plus RMB | 57:32 |
| Quote from the Chinese middleman | 30,000-plus RMB, four to six weeks | 58:33 |
| Total days held | 41 days | 1:02:48 |
Glossary
- Gcash
- The Philippines' mainstream electronic payment app; Feili had set its payment password the same as his phone unlock code.
- POGO
- Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator — the offshore gaming licenses the Philippines issued in large numbers after 2016, allowing companies to operate online for gamblers abroad.
- Synagogue
- A Jewish house of worship; Jewish travelers must find one to solve their dietary needs.
How to listen
Founders and overseas-expansion practitioners interested in the situation of Chinese abroad, the Philippine business environment, and the gray-industry and immigration-corruption machinery.
6:29-9:14 — surfing history and startup background, unrelated to the core mechanism.