IN A DESPERATE appeal punctuated with a backflip, stranded Grammy-winning hip-hop star Chris Brown got down on his knees begging to be allowed to leave the Philippines and resume his world tour.
The 26-year-old American was stuck in the Southeast Asian nation for two days after a politically influential sect filed a fraud complaint, saying it is owed a million-dollar-plus refund after he skipped a concert last year.
The Associated Press reports that Brown is now finally on his way out of the Philippines.
Brown was able to obtain late Friday a certificate that allows him to leave the country, said Elaine Tan, spokeswoman of the Immigration Bureau.
Journalists saw Brown and around 10 others boarding his private plane parked at an airport hangar, with one taking a selfie before going into the plane.
“Please, please, let us leave, please,” Brown said in a video posted earlier on his official Instagram account, showing him on his knees inside what appeared to be his hotel room. The post was later taken down.
He ended the plea with his signature backflip.
He also appeared to send a thinly veiled distress signal to US President Barack Obama as he captioned the post: “OBAMA!!!!!!!!!!”
In two subsequent Twitter posts Brown said:
This is a very serious situation and someone needs to be held accountable for mixing my name up in all this. I’ve done nothing wrong!!!
He added: “I have nothing to do with anything going on right now. I came back to Manila to do a make-up show for New Years. I did the show three days ago.”
Brown performed to a packed crowd at a Manila arena on Tuesday, But he failed to show up on December 31 last year for a concert sponsored by the Christian group Iglesia ni Cristo at its mammoth 55,000-seater indoor stadium on Manila’s outskirts.
He has reportedly said he lost his passport at the time so he could not travel.
The justice department barred him from leaving Wednesday unless he produces a government document certifying he has no legal obligations in the country.
Brown and his promoter were paid more than $1 million by a production outfit identified with the Iglesia to perform at the sect’s Philippine Arena, according to the Iglesia complaint.
The outfit demanded a refund, but both Brown and his promoter refused to pay, it alleged.
The sect is a minority in the Philippines — where 80 percent of its 100 million people are Catholics — but wields considerable political clout.
It has between two and three million members according to media and votes as a bloc during elections.
“He has to coordinate with the Bureau of Immigration because (it) has the authority to either grant or deny the emigration clearance certificate,” Justice Secretary Leila de Lima told reporters Friday.
Immigration spokeswoman Elaine Tan told AFP Friday that Brown had not yet applied for such a document.
Brown’s spokeswoman and promoter were not available for comment Friday.
- © AFP 2015, additional reporting by The Associated Press
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