BAP official refers case to human rights body

Basketball Association of the Philippines secretary-general Graham Lim has referred the ongoing investigation on his "alleged" Chinese citizenship to the Center for Human Rights of the Ateneo Law School.

Lim was accompanied by lawyer Quirino Marquinez, senior partner of Bilog, Marquinez, Pabalate and Associates Law Office and met with Atty. Ray Paolo Santiago, who promised to study the merits of the case and bring it to the attention of the Commission of Human Rights.

Marquinez said the complaint filed against Lim in the Bureau of Immigration, Department of Justice and at the Department of Foreign Affairs was clearly and purely "harassment and oppression."

"The case filed against Graham Lim is highly oppressive and a violation of his human rights as a Filipino and as a citizen of this country," said Marquinez, a former COMELEC commissioner and currently president of the Consumers Union of the Philippines.

"His opponents, for some very dubious reasons, want him deported out of the country, even if they know that Lim was born here and has resided here ever since his birth. And by doing that, they deny Mr. Lim a chance to live peacefully in the land of his birth and perform his functions as secretary-general of the BAP," added Marquinez.

In his letter to the Human Rights Center, Lim cited several instances where his detractors tried to stop him from doing his work in the BAP, including an indirect threat to his life on June 30, when an unidentified person ransacked his home in Binondo.

He said that incident happened the day before several motorcycle-riding men ambushed PATAFA president Go Teng Kok, a known Lim ally.

Lim also took to task the Department of Foreign Affairs which cancelled his passport without due process and merely on the urgings of former referee Liberato Valenzuela and former BAP official Emmanuel Perez de Tagle.

A case was also filed with the Bureau of Immigration. Both cases have not prospered.

Lim said the cancellation of his passport was "grossly arbitrary and in violation of due process of law and equal protection of laws."

"This has got to end," said Marquinez. "We are talking here of a person’s right, and I hope the Commission will extend its assistance to us upon studying the merits of the case."