Manila court orders release of Hongkonger held 23 years in Philippines
A Muntinlupa City court ordered the release of Hongkonger Tang Lung-wai on July 30 after 23 years in a Philippine prison, yet he remains in custody pending deportation procedures.
Source: South China Morning Post · August 26, 2026 at 1:33 PM · AI-assisted report
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HONG KONG, 26 AUGUST 2026 —
A Muntinlupa City court ordered the release of Hongkonger Tang Lung-wai on July 30 after 23 years in a Philippine prison, yet he remains in custody pending deportation procedures.
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Judge Abraham Joseph Alcantara ruled Tang had completed a 40-year sentence for drug possession on July 5 once good-conduct credits were counted. The court ordered his immediate transfer to the Bureau of Immigration for deportation, correcting prison records that had understated his time served by nine months.
Tang’s elder brother Billy Tang Lung-piu told the South China Morning Post he feared for his sibling’s safety in prison. “I am very anxious. I don’t know if there is any accident before his release,” he said. Billy Tang said his brother would still need a medical check and identity verification before deportation. He said Hong Kong’s Immigration Department told him authorities were waiting for notice from the Philippine embassy in mainland China.
A Philippine consulate spokesperson in Hong Kong said it had flagged the family’s concerns to the Department of Foreign Affairs. In 2018, Hong Kong’s then-chief executive Carrie Lam wrote to then-president Rodrigo Duterte seeking faster access to records; the next day the family received documents suggesting Tang was not in the Philippines during the alleged surveillance period, though he lost his final appeal in 2020. Hong Kong’s Security Bureau declined immediate comment.