Thread: US judge grants gay Filipino’s application for asylum

US judge grants gay Filipino’s application for asylum
Friday, May 29, 2009

A US judge has granted the asylum application of a 43-year-old gay man from the Philippines, preventing him from being deported from the United States.

Immigration Judge Loreto Geisse granted the petition of Philip Belarmino, who said his application was based on his persecution in his homeland for being a homosexual.

Expert immigration lawyers are generally agreed that cases involving applications for asylum based on gender are impossible to win.

Another hurdle that Belarmino had to overcome was the one-year statutory bar for the filing of asylum applications from the time of entry in the United States. Belarmino filed his application more than one year after his arrival.

Belarmino was represented by Ted Laguatan, an experienced human rights lawyer and certified expert on US immigration law. He has won major immigration cases against the government and civil cases against corporations involving millions of dollars.

Belarmino was an English professor in the Philippines for 17 years before his arrival in 2005 on a visitor’s visa.

He testified that when he was 9 years old and again when he was 11, he was forced to engage in anal and oral sex by older boys.

And at age 16, threatened with a knife, a houseboy forced him to do oral and anal sex at various times.

He testified that he did not report those incidents to his parents as he did not want them to know he was gay—which would have traumatized them.

He also testified that he did not report the repeated rapes to the police as he was scared that they might just extort money from him by threatening to tell people, especially his parents,that he was gay and even use him for their sexual pleasures.

He said it was a well-known fact in Philippine society that the police were corrupt.

The court was persuaded that the exceptions to the one-year bar applied because Belarmino had faced past persecution in the Philippines due to the forcible rapes and harassments and discriminations against him as a result of his homosexuality.

Judge Geisse cited State Department reports that the police in the Philippines were generally known to be corrupt, and that the Philippine government appeared unable to curtail the corruption.

Laguatan said the judge’s ruling was a major development in the struggle for human rights.

“This decision by Judge Geisse gives a strong message to the world that gay people should not be persecuted for being gay,â€

He testified that when he was 9 years old and again when he was 11, he was forced to engage in anal and oral sex by older boys.

And at age 16, threatened with a knife, a houseboy forced him to do oral and anal sex at various times.

He testified that he did not report those incidents to his parents as he did not want them to know he was gay—which would have traumatized them.

He also testified that he did not report the repeated rapes to the police

Wow, has obtaining asylum in the United States really become so easy? Mr. Belarmino wasn't required to provide one single shred of evidence to substantiate his claims of persecution.

What I don't understand is if he was so in fear of being "found out" for being gay, why did so many people (other children, a houseboy, etc) seem to know he was gay?

I beg to disagree of the ruling! I am a Filipino citizen and a legal immigrant as well. This is not a human rights case! In the Philippines gay people are accepted freely because I happen to have friends and work with them. There's a lot of celebrities, businesss owners, politician and they are accepted in the country. In fact they are well respected.

This ia a gay professional wants to stay here and wants to pass in easily with this kind of assylum visa! He is a disgrace lying about my country, yes there's a corruption but that's not the reason of his unacceptable behavior and lies!

Janne Funderburk