FORMER Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-joc” Bolante could be headed back to Manila soon, now that a United States appeals court has denied his appeal for asylum.
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago found that “Bolante has not demonstrated a well-founded fear of persecution upon returning to the Philippines,” a decision which upholds two earlier ones made by the U.S. Bureau of Immigration.
What Bolante actually fears, the court said, was “prosecution” and not “persecution.”
Bolante is believed to have engineered the P728 million fertilizer scam. He also sat on the board of the
Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corporation (Quedancor) whose Swine Program went the way of the fertilizer scam, funds unaccounted for and unlikely to be recovered. Bolante was also a director of the Land Bank when the Quedancor obtained a P5 syndicated billion loan from the Land Bank and Equitable PCIBank, whose terms and conditions contributed to Quedancor’s near-bankruptcy.
Bolante was arrested on July 2, 2006 as he tried to enter the U.S. Immigration authorities said he violated the terms of his U.S. tourist visa. At the time, the Senate was investigating the fertilizer fund scam, in which money was diverted into the 2004 political campaign of President Gloria Arroyo. He had refused to appear before the Senate.
“It is by no means a stretch to suggest that the core of Bolante’s fear is, in fact, a fear of prosecution for his role in a corruption scandal,” the court said. (Download US court decision on Bolante)
“Let us now demand from him whether his most influential friend, the President, and her husband gave instructions to him to perpetuate the Swine Scam and the Fertilizer Scam,” said civil society lawyer Harry Roque.
Bolante is detained at the Kenosha County Jail in Wisconsin. In September 2007, He filed a petition for asylum saying he was facing numerous threats in the Philippines, including the threat of kidnapping. An immigration judge turned down his petition, as did the Board of Immigration Appeals.
Although Bolante may yet appeal his case, to the U.S. Supreme Court, Roque said it is unlikely the High Court will overturn the denial.