NU’s Troy Rike says he was detained by BI for being an ‘illegal alien’
National University forward Troy Rike revealed that officers from the Bureau of Immigration arrested him right after a game in the UAAP Season 81 men’s basketball tournament.
The Filipino-American Rike, in an interview with CNN Sports Desk, said the BI detained him on the grounds that he was supposedly an illegal alien in the Philippines.
The Bulldogs just faced De La Sale at Mall of Asia Arena on Sept. 19 when three immigration officers from the BI allegedly approached him at the mall’s parking lot and served him his warrant of arrest.
Rike, who is also a Gilas cadet, said immigration officers told him that he was an illegal alien studying in the Philippines without a visa. He was then detained for 24 hours at the BI’s main office.
“Even when they were in the parking lot, I was saying I’m a Filipino, I’m a citizen. Why am I being arrested? I haven’t committed a crime,” said Rike in the interview with CNN.
Rike, though, said the officers were respectful of him during the whole time but the experience did leave a negative mark on him.
“It was tough, I’m not going to lie. I got emotional on the way there, I’ve never been arrested before. It was a regular vehicle, the good thing was everyone was very respectful,” said Rike who studied four years of college at Wake Forest before enrolling in NU for a master’s degree.
“At the end of the day, I was detained against my will for more than 24 hours, you sleep on the floor, you don’t know what’s going on. I’m questioning my whole future here.”
Rike was able to produce his passport, a certificate that recognizes him as a Filipino citizen, and his birth certificate as proof of his citizenship and he was eventually released at 6 pm of Sept. 20.
He also said he felt targetted for the arrest
“I’ve only been here for a little bit, I’m not going to pretend to know the intricacies of the law here. I don’t think it was justified what they did, I don’t think they do this in general just rounding up Americans, saying ‘show me your papers’ so I do feel singled out and that’s not okay in my opinion,” said Rike who won’t pursue any legal actions against the BI.
“I don’t want to go after people or wish them ill will, I just want to be left alone, I just want to play basketball,” said Rike. “I don’t care about politics, I just want to play basketball.”
INQUIRER.net is trying to get the side of the bureau but in a story on Sports Desk, BI spokesperson Dana Sandoval hinted that they were acting on a report for “immigration violation.”
“We act on any report or information that we receive from the public. So if we received an information about a possible immigration violation, we act on it. So not necessarily targeting specific people,” Sandoval told Sports Desk.
