Joc joc Bolante tells his tale of woe to US paper

July 17, 2008

President Arroyo’s former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-joc” Bolante isn’t talking to the Philippine media, but from a news report from the Chicago Tribune, it appears that he prefers telling his tale over his supposed fear of being assassinated if he returns to the Philippines.

The Chicago Tribune, in a July 14 edition, said, from an interview with Bolante, who is currently detained in Kenosha county jail, that the former undersecretary argued that the threats he has been receiving against him are “very real.”

Bolante was quoted as citing dozens of political murders in recent years that, according to US State Department reports on the Philippines, have included judges, journalists and priests.

One of those murders was supposedly the 2005 assassination-style killing of a government whistle-blower who helped bring the scandal to light. The whistle-blower was, however, not identified.

“We have been receiving a lot of nasty calls telling us to be careful,” Bolante was quoted as saying, referring to messages allegedly sent to his family, adding that Bolante had claimed that Manila activists have been shouting that they want him dead or alive, pointing out that “statements like that should not be taken lightly.”

But a Manila-based lawyer, who has

been helping out in the case by presenting official documents from the Philippine Senate in its case against Bolante and providing the court with information and background of the case, yesterday said Joc-joc was merely making himself look like a victim.

University of the Philippines Law Professor Harry Roque, commenting on the Chicago Tribune interview, said Bolante’s claims of threats to his, and his family’s lives should be ignored.

He has been quoted as saying that Bolante is pretending to be a victim when it was evident that United Nations Special Rapporteur Phillip Alston had already pointed to the perpetrators of summary killings in the country as the “renegade state agents.”

It will be recalled that Bolante, while in the US, claimed that the communists were out to kill him, which was the reason he used to justify his plea for political asylum in the US.

Yet from the US-based report, Bolante was quoted as saying that he flew to the U.S. for a 45-day junket to attend a Rotary International meeting in Evanston, get dental implants in Chicago and attend a son’s college graduation ceremony in Arizona. In court filings, he said his attorney in Manila had relayed the trip plans to a committee there that had subpoenaed him to testify.

When his plane landed in Los Angeles, Bolante said, it was only then that he learned his US visa had been revoked, the report said.

The report stated, quoting Bolante: “That’s when the fear dawned on me,” Bolante said. At the suggestion of a US Customs agent, Bolante applied for political asylum.

Arguments by Bolante’s lawyer cited several flaws in the holding by the US immigration of Boante, upon his arrival.

“For instance, there is a dispute over whether the revocation of his U.S. travel visa was lawful. Bolante said he hadn’t been notified and would not have traveled to the U.S. had he known about it.

“He charges that the visa was revoked while he was on the plane. Court records show letters from the U.S. Embassy in Manila informing Bolante several months before his trip that the visa was pulled, though Bolante’s attorneys dispute their validity.

“Since then, Bolante has been denied several legal arguments that could help him, said his attorney Linda Babich.”

The report stated: “How Bolante wound up inside the Kenosha County Jail the last two years is part of a contentious political asylum case that started with a late-night flight to the U.S. in July 2006 and could soon end with his being sent back to the Philippines. Bolante must remain jailed while his asylum application is reviewed.

“Though Bolante has never been charged in the (fertilizer fund scandal, the case has resonated among the Chicago region’s 111,000 Filipinos as a classic example of the decades of corruption that drove many out of their homeland.

“Community leaders helping to send food care packages back home ruefully note that farmers on the islands still haven’t seen a cent of the funds that were meant to boost the nation’s food supply.

“People should be answerable for what they did,” said Maricar Madrid Crost, an attorney in Chicago who has helped lawyers in the Philippines argue for Bolante’s deportation. “It’s morally wrong to seek protection for something he did (of) his own volition.”

“A Department of Justice Immigration judge denied asylum in 2006, ruling that it appeared Bolante was simply trying to avoid justice. An appeal was denied last year. The matter is now before the 7th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals.

“Bolante’s attorneys in Chicago said the case has been a study in the lack of legal rights available to political asylum applicants. Federal judges said they lack the jurisdiction to rule on key facts that are still in dispute.”

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