Jocjoc Bolante must have realized by now that he got the shorter end of the bargain when he agreed to Mike Arroyo’s bright idea for him to seek asylum in the United States instead of coming home to the Philippines and tell the Senate how he diverted the P728 million fertilizer fund to the campaign chest of Gloria Arroyo in the 2004 election.,cheap sunglass
Bolante has filed with a Wisconsin court a petition for the issuance of the writ of habeas corpus or release from jail. Earlier, he filed for a motion for bail and to strike out the amicus brief filed by the group of lawyer Harry Roque, Jr. of the Institute of International Legal Studies at the University, who submitted documents related to Bolante’s involvement in the fertilizer scam.
Bolante, as we all know,Chanel handbags,was the Arroyo couple’s most dependable Rotarian next to Efraim Genuino of Pagcor, when he was calling the shots at the Department of Agriculture where he was installed as undersecretary.
Bolante has been in detention for almost two months. He was arrested on July 7 at the Los Angeles airport for attempting to enter the United States with an expired B1B2 (business and tourist) visa. He was first detained at the San Pedro Detention Center in California. He asked for a transfer to Chicago where some members of his family lives. He is now at the Kenosha Detention Center in Wisconsin, an hour and a half by car from Chicago, where he is lumped with common criminals.
Roque said “Bolante probably didn’t expect to be detained this long by the American authorities.”
Used to making a mockery of the law here in the Philippines with no less than the most powerful couple in the country countenancing his acts, Bolante probably thought he could also engage in legal shortcuts in the U.S. But looks like he is beginning to be desperate.
In his petition for habeas corpus, Bolante argued that he entered the U.S with a valid visa.
As U.S. consular officers always stress, a visa is not a guarantee for admission into the U.S. Roque expects Bolante’s petition for habeas corpus to be dismissed “because the pendency of the removal proceedings in Chicago is precisely a valid ground for his detention.”
In what seems to be a case of favoring one person’s interest over that of the Filipino people, the Philippine Embassy in Washington D.C. is assisting Bolante in his appeal for release after he sought their “humanitarian assistance.” Bert Asuque, foreign affairs spokesman,wholesale replica handbags, said they are obliged to extend assistance to Bolante without verifying whether or not he is really sick under the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995. “Filipinos travelling as tourists or on business or in any capacity is covered by embassy assistance,” he said.
The DFA,however, takes a hands off policy on the Senate request to cancel Bolante’s passport for evading investigation on the fertilizer scam.
But even if DFA , no doubt upon instructions of Gloria Arroyo, tries to work on improving Bolante’s situation, Roque will not make it easy for him. He said he will file an amicus brief opposing Bolante’s petition for habeas corpus as well as ask the court that the proceedings be made open to the public.
Since we, the Filipino people, are paying the Philippine Embassy’s assistance to Bolante, we demand that we be informed of the details of the case.
Those days when Bolante can eat his cake and have it too are over.
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