Philippine operatives swooped down the Freeport Area of Bataan, just north of the country’s capital, and rounded up 55 Chinese nationals involved in illegal proxy betting.

Lawyer Ma. Antonette Bucasas-Mangrobang, spokesperson for the Philippine Bureau of Immigration, confirmed the arrest of the 55 Chinese fugitives, which she said “posed risk to public safety and security.”

The Bureau of Immigration identified 17 of the 55 arrested Chinese fugitives as Chen Liuhui, Lin Qiulong, Lin Qiuhu, Lin Qinghua, Lin Qiuhuang, Zhu Chenhui, Chen Fan, Lin Tingting, Wu Xiongxiong, Lin Haiyan, Zhang Lili; Shen Weibing, Gao Qingshan, Shi Zhibin, Fang Jie, Chen Zhitian and Li Jianfeng.

“They are all considered fugitives since they all have standing arrest warrants for economic crimes. The Chinese government issued the arrest warrants against them,” Mangrobang told CalvinAyre.com. “For our part, we arrested them because they no longer have legal documents to stay in the country after the Chinese government cancelled their passports.”