Bolante may be deported, faces RP raps
June 18, 2008
After the US Board of Immigration Appeals denied his petition, Bolante elevated the case to the Federal court of appeals. The decision on Bolante’s appeal is expected within this month or July after oral arguments were heard last February 11, 2008, disclosed University of the Philippines law professor Harry Roque.
Roque, who is currently in New York to attend the Assembly of State
Parties of the International Criminal Court at the United Nations, has
obtained a copy of the decision of the immigration appeals board that he
furnished the PCIJ.
This came as Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez approved the filing of charges of
graft and corruption and illegal use of public funds against Bolante and other Department of Agriculture (DA) officials tagged in the P728-million fertilizer scam. Assistant Ombudsman Mark Jalandoni said Gutierrez has created a panel to
conduct a preliminary investigation on Bolante and the other suspects.
“We will start the preliminary investigation on this case (fertilizer
scam) very soon,” he said. “We are just finalizing the initial report
from the (Field Investigation Office).”
Also recommended for indictment were Agriculture Undersecretary Belinda
Gonzales and Assistant Secretaries Jose Felix Montes, Edmund Sana and
Ibarra Poliquit.
In its June 25, 2007 decision, the board upheld the ruling of the
Chicago Immigration Court dismissing Bolante’s asylum request on the
ground that he was suffering from a “genuine fear of political
persecution.” The board agreed with the findings of Immigration Judge
George Katsivalis, who noted that:
* respondent (Bolante) did not present any evidence of past
mistreatment or harm;
* the evidence revealed that there were presently no charges pending
against the respondent with regard to the fertilizer scam and only
an arrest warrant for his failure to appear and testify before the
Senate;
* his prosecution was clearly not a pretext for persecution as he
was never sought out for arrest until he failed to comply with
numerous subpoenas.
“For all the reasons noted by the Immigration Judge, we agree that
respondent failed to establish that he suffered past persecution nor a
well-founded fear of persecution on account of his imputed political
opinion,” declared the board.
It also said that “prosecution for the violation of a law of general
applicability is not persecution, unless the punishment imposed is for
invidious reasons.”
The board similarly rejected the testimony of the witnesses Bolante
presented in court, including himself, finding them not material and
credible.
Bolante’s son Owen claimed that he received “unfulfilled threats and
text messages” from unknown persons. Bolante also argued that a bounty
has been set for his capture, that radical groups may attempt to capture
him, and that government authorities cannot protect him from these groups.
Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Felix Montes testified that Bolante could be harmed if he will be returned to the Philippines as “a lot of people are out to get (him)” and “who might use him as a tool to get at the President.”
Without elaborating, retired Major General Rodolfo Estrellado, Bolante’s
colleague at the Rotary Club, also said the same thing, and even made
mention of the fact that there have been “755 (cases of) political
killings in the Philippines that have remained unsolved.”
The board, however, noted that Montes, who is similarly implicated in
the fertilizer funds scam, “remains unharmed in the Philippines and
similarly not charged.” His testimony, according to Judge Katsivalis was
also “lacking in detail and entirely speculative.”
It also affirmed the judge’s ruling that “unfulfilled threats” do not
support a claim of past or future persecution, and that there was no
evidence presented regarding the existence of a bounty.
As to the political unrest raised by Estrellado, the board said that
dangerous conditions as random isolated criminal acts, civil strife, and
general unrest in the alien’s homeland do not necessarily rise to the
level of persecution in asylum cases.
Bolante has been in detention since his arrest on July 7, 2006 upon arriving in Los Angeles owing to a cancelled visa. He was told by a U.S. immigration
officer that the U.S. Embassy in Manila revoked his B1/B2 visa in light
of the arrest warrant issued by the Senate for his role in the fund scam.
Roque, who along with fellow UP law professors Merlin Magallona and Raul
Pangalangan, filed an amicus brief in August 2006 in an effort to convince the immigration court not to grant Bolante’s request for political asylum, noted that both the courts’ decisions did adopt their arguments and the attached annexes, including copies of the Senate and Commission on Audit reports on the
fertilizer funds scam.
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