Filipino intern in Japan gets life for murdering 2 Cambodian roommates

A Japanese court has sentenced a Filipino technical intern to life in prison, as sought by prosecutors, for murdering two Cambodian technical interns with whom he shared an apartment near Tokyo in 2022.

Handing down the ruling at the Chiba District Court, Presiding Judge Satoshi Miyamoto said that although defendant Bulan Roel Bulan, 35, had been experiencing stress and low self-esteem due to failed employment plans and wage disparities between himself and the Cambodian interns, his actions were not justified.

“The victims had treated the defendant kindly and were not at fault in any way,” Miyamoto said of the murders that occurred in Tomisato, Chiba Prefecture. “This was a brutal, one-sided and highly dangerous crime.”

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Noting that the defendant had self-harmed immediately after the murders, Miyamoto said, “The motive to involve the victims in his suicide by killing them is nothing short of selfish.”

The defense argued for Bulan’s acquittal, saying he had schizophrenia since around the time of his arrival in Japan and was legally insane at the time of the killings.

However, the court found the defendant fully criminally responsible, saying he had a proper understanding of his surroundings.

According to the verdict, at around 1:30 a.m. on May 26, 2022, Bulan fatally stabbed Cambodian nationals Mong Samet, then 25, and Chhat Chhit, then 20, in the chest with a kitchen knife at an apartment in Tomisato. /dl