Chris Brown Cleared To Leave Philippines

Hip hop star Chris Brown has been allowed to leave the Philippines, where he had been stranded after getting caught up in a legal wrangle.

The 26-year-old singer had earlier taken to social media to beg for help in getting out of the country and insist he had done nothing wrong.

He even posted a video on Instagram, in which he is seen on his knees pleading to be allowed to fly out.

The singer took to Twitter to highlight his plight.

"Please, please, let us leave, please," he said in the video, captioned 'OBAMA!!!!!!' in an apparent appeal to the US President.

But after a three-day wait, Brown has now been issued with a certificate permitting him to leave the country, said an immigration bureau spokeswoman.

She said the performer had obtained the departure clearance at a satellite office and not the bureau's main building in downtown Manila, where dozens of journalists had been camped out.

Brown was later seen boarding a waiting private jet at the capital's airport, along with his 10-strong entourage.

He had been barred from leaving Manila after fraud allegations were made against him and his promoter over a cancelled New Year's Eve concert.

The complaint was brought by the indigenous Christian group Iglesia ni Cristo, which claimed the star failed to appear at a show for which they had paid $1m in full.

But in a Twitter post, Brown said: "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."

In another, he added; "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!!!"

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said state prosecutors will summon Brown for a preliminary investigation into the complaint, but his presence at this stage was not required.

Charges will be brought if prosecutors find probable cause to charge the singer and his promoter.

"What is important at this point is for him to know that there are criminal proceedings against him at the preliminary investigation level," Ms De Lima said.

As a result of his delayed departure, Brown missed a concert in Hong Kong.

He had another show booked in the Chinese city of Macau on Friday night.