Graham Lim an alien, Supreme Court rules
By Romina Austria
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:08:00 01/18/2008
MANILA, Philippines--IT'S FINAL and irreversible: controversial Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) secretary general Graham Lim is not a Filipino citizen.
The Supreme Court's Third Division has denied with finality Lim's effort to establish Filipino citizenship, thus quashing a motion for reconsideration he filed in November last year.
The decision was certified by Wilfredo Lapitan, assistant clerk of court, in behalf of Lucita Abjelina-Soriano, clerk of court.
Lim could not be reached for comment as of this writing.
His citizenship bid was both circuitous and controversial. He had sought to overturn a lower court ruling that had found his claim to Filipino citizenship baseless.
Lim, however, encountered bigger problems when former officemates at the BAP alleged he had submitted fake documents to substantiate his claim to Filipino citizenship.
His former deputy in the BAP, Emmanuel Perez de Tagle and international referee Liberato Valenzuela, produced papers substantiating their allegations that Lim was a fake Filipino.
As a result, charges were subsequently filed in court, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
The DFA ruled Lim an illegal alien and eventually withdrew his Philippine passport.
The BI, under former commissioner Alipio Fernandez, likewise officially declared Lim as a Taiwanese citizen. Immigration agents arrested and detained him on March 24, 2006.
Despite the rulings, Lim went on to travel in and out of the country as deportation proceedings were never carried out.
By Romina Austria
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:08:00 01/18/2008
MANILA, Philippines--IT'S FINAL and irreversible: controversial Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) secretary general Graham Lim is not a Filipino citizen.
The Supreme Court's Third Division has denied with finality Lim's effort to establish Filipino citizenship, thus quashing a motion for reconsideration he filed in November last year.
The decision was certified by Wilfredo Lapitan, assistant clerk of court, in behalf of Lucita Abjelina-Soriano, clerk of court.
Lim could not be reached for comment as of this writing.
His citizenship bid was both circuitous and controversial. He had sought to overturn a lower court ruling that had found his claim to Filipino citizenship baseless.
Lim, however, encountered bigger problems when former officemates at the BAP alleged he had submitted fake documents to substantiate his claim to Filipino citizenship.
His former deputy in the BAP, Emmanuel Perez de Tagle and international referee Liberato Valenzuela, produced papers substantiating their allegations that Lim was a fake Filipino.
As a result, charges were subsequently filed in court, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
The DFA ruled Lim an illegal alien and eventually withdrew his Philippine passport.
The BI, under former commissioner Alipio Fernandez, likewise officially declared Lim as a Taiwanese citizen. Immigration agents arrested and detained him on March 24, 2006.
Despite the rulings, Lim went on to travel in and out of the country as deportation proceedings were never carried out.
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