CA orders release of Australian-Filipino accused of ties to Sinaloa drug cartel

The Court of Appeals has ordered the release of Australian-Filipino national Gregor Johann Haas after reversing its earlier ruling that had favored his continued detention by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) over alleged drug trafficking charges filed in Indonesia.

In an amended decision promulgated on 29 October 2025 but made public Friday, the CA’s Third Division—chaired by Associate Justice Apolinario Bruselas Jr., with Justices Ruben Reynaldo Roxas and Jaime Fortunato Caringal concurring—granted the motion for reconsideration filed by Haas’s mother, Soledad Tolentino-Haas.

The ruling set aside the court’s 14 May 2025 decision that had previously stopped Haas’s release.

The appellate court found no grave abuse of discretion on the part of Taguig Regional Trial Court Branch 267 Judge Antonio Olivete, who granted the writ of habeas corpus to Haas in December 2024 and allowed its execution pending appeal.

Haas, born in the Philippines in 1978, migrated to Australia in the 1980s and later became a naturalized Australian citizen. He re-entered the Philippines in August 2023 and was arrested in San Remigio, Cebu, in May 2024 after Indonesian authorities accused him of attempting to smuggle narcotics hidden in ceramic tiles from Mexico to Indonesia. An Interpol Red Notice had been issued for his arrest.

The BI ordered his summary deportation, citing him as a fugitive and a threat to public interest. However, Haas’s mother argued before the Taguig RTC that her son had lawfully retained his Filipino citizenship and was denied due process during his arrest.

While the CA initially sided with the BI in May 2025, the amended ruling noted that the Interpol Red Notice has since been cancelled and that neither the Philippines nor Indonesia has filed criminal or extradition proceedings against Haas.

“The writ of habeas corpus is a speedy and effectual remedy against unlawful detention,” the CA said, emphasizing that its execution “even pending appeal, is imbued with a sense of urgency and immediacy.”

The court clarified that it did not resolve the main issue regarding the deportation proceedings, only the execution of the habeas corpus writ.

The decision reinstates the Taguig court’s order for Haas’s release, allowing him to walk free after more than a year in detention.