Does Pacquiao have a ‘green card’?

(Updated 1:34 a.m., Dec. 10) Amid the controversy surrounding the tax woes of boxer and Sarangani Representative Manny Pacquiao, veteran journalist and blogger Raissa Robles bared the possibility that Pacquiao is a US immigrant.

 

This would mean that Pacquiao should have been ineligible to run as congressman under the Omnibus Election Code according to a "24 Oras" report on aired Monday evening.

Specifically, the Omnibus Election Code says "any person who is a permanent resident of or an immigrant to a foreign country shall not be qualified to run."

According to US Citizenship and Immigration Services, to be eligible for permanent resident status, an applicant must:

• Be eligible for one of the immigrant categories established in the Immigration and Nationality Act
• Have a qualifying immigrant petition filed and approved for you (with a few exceptions)
• Have an immigrant visa immediately available
• Be admissible to the United States

 

Reached for his side, Pacquiao merely laughed off the issue and said he does not have a green card, properly known as a permanent resident card.

Pacquiao's lawyer Tranquil Salvador in a text message also denied that Pacquiao was a green card holder.

 

Meanwhile, Pacquiao's partymate and Navotas Representative Toby Tiangco said Pacquiao only holds a "P1 visa," which would allow Pacquiao to work in the US and pay taxes based on his income there.

According to USCIS, a P1 (Internationally Recognized Athlete) visa is for athletes travelling to the US "to participate in individual event, competition or performance in which you are internationally recognized with a high level of achievement."

Robles, who has published exposes in her blog, said she was tipped off by a commenter that Pacquiao was mentioned as a  "successful (US) immigrant" on the website of the California Wilmer & O’Reilly immigration law firm.

 

Robles was able to reach Richard Wilner, the founding partner of the law firm, who neither confirmed nor denied that Pacquiao was their client.

 

Wilner only supposedly said that the article mentioning Pacquiao was "inaccurate."

 

He added in a separate e-mail to Robles that their work with Pacquiao is confidential.
 

Suspicions over Pacquiao's citizenship raised thornier questions on Pacquiao's tax woes.

Robles posed the question that Pacquiao may have been evasive about his taxes because he doesn't want to be known as a US green card holder.

"Because if Manny Pacquiao has a green card – which makes him a permanent resident or US immigrant – then he can’t be a Philippine congressman," Robles wrote.

"And the best way to clear the air is to show his complete US tax records for 2009 and 2012," she added.

She explained that if Pacquiao is a green card holder, he would have to pay taxes on income in the US and in other countries.

 

Some of  Pacquiao's bank accounts have been frozen over questions from the Bureau of Internal Revenue regarding his income taxes in 2008 and 2009.

He has said that he paid taxes on income from boxing matches in the US in those years, but BIR commissioner Kim Henares said he did not present the proper documents to prove this.

The Court of Tax Appeals has ordered both sides to stop talking to the media and the public about the case. — Marc Jayson Cayabyab/JDS, GMA News