Lim deportation imminent — BID

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said yesterday that the arrest and deportation of Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) secretary-general Graham Lim now appears imminent after the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) cancelled his passport on account of fraud.

The BI’s three-man special board of inquiry is now hearing the case of Lim and the DFA’s ruling seems to bolster the case against the controversial cage official who is alleged to be Chinese.

Lim is said to have knowingly misrepresented himself by claiming to be a Filipino in applying for his passport issued on June 22, 2000.

In a statement, BI commissioner Andrea Domingo said they were actually informed of the cancellation of the passport last Oct. 13, after it was furnished a copy of a letter by DFA passport division director Bernardita Caralla to Liberato Valenzuela, one of two complainants in the case.

The Bureau started investigating the case three months ago after receiving "voluminous documents" from Valenzuela and Emmanuel Juan Perez de Tagle, former BAP secretary-general.

Caralla purportedly indicated in her letter to Valenzuela that Lim "is a Chinese citizen and the Philippine passport issued to him were obtained through fraud." All the country’s embassies and consular offices have reportedly been informed of such cancellation.

Investigation by the BI earlier confirmed the claim against Lim as its records described the basketball official as a "native-born Chinese" since he was born of Chinese parents on Feb. 7, 1957.

Investigators also learned that on Feb. 8, 1995 a Manila court rejected Lim’s petition for naturalization while a similar petition at the Office of the Solicitor General remains unapproved.

Lim, on the other hand, can appeal the decision of the special board of inquiry to BI’s four-man board of commissioners and the Office of the President.

The BI explained Lim’s citizenship case falls under the 1935 Constitution which provides that children born in the country acquire the immigration status of their parents. If a child is born of a Filipino father and a non-Filipino mother he or she becomes a Filipino automatically while those born of Filipino mother and non-Filipino father can only elect Filipino citizenship at the age of 18. –Jose Aravilla.