BAP ex-officer to be deported for being an alien

Graham Chua Lim, former commissioner of the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP), was ordered deported by the Court of Appeals (CA) on Wednesday for being an "undesirable alien." On March 29 and April 8, 2005, the Bureau of Immigration ordered Lim’s deportation after finding out that he is a Taiwan national. Lim filed a petition with the CA, which however rejected it in an 11-page decision penned by Associate Justice Ramon Bato Jr. of the CA’s tenth division. The CA upheld the resolution of the Office of the President. “It has been substantially proven that petitioner is an alien who misrepresented himself as a Filipino citizen," the CA ruling said. "He is therefore considered as an undesirable alien and must be deported.” The CA said that the last time Lim made use of his fraudulently acquired Philippine passport was on Feb. 13, 2003. The complaint against Lim was filed by a certain Liberato Valenzuela on Feb. 24, 2003. The CA said that Lim’s claim he is a Filipino citizen is not substantial. “The evidence on record proving that petitioner is not a Filipino citizen is so overwhelming that his claim that there must be a prior judicial determination that he is not a Filipino citizen before the Bureau of Immigration can proceed with the deportation case against him in consonance with the constitutional guarantee of due process of law, would be pointless” the CA said. Court records show that on Sept. 30, 2003, immigration special prosecutor Arvin Cesar Santos formally filed a charge sheet against Lim before the BI for being an undesirable alien in violation of the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940. Lim was born on Feb. 7, 1957, in Manila to Chinese parents and was registered as a native born to Chinese national. His petition for naturalization before Branch 51 of the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) was dismissed in 1995. The administrative petition for naturalization filed on 2002 with the Special Committee on Naturalization of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) is still pending. On Oct. 9, 2003, the BI was informed by Assistant Secretary Teresita VG Barsana of the Office of the Consular Affairs that Lim's Philippine passport had been cancelled due to his being a Chinese citizen. - GMANews.TV