Gay Filipino professor wins political asylum after revealing a 30-year secret of sexual abuse

Posted on June 9, 2009
Filed Under Uncategorized

After his visitor’s visa expired in 2006, Philip Belarmino, an English professor from the Philippines, consulted a San Francisco attorney. He wanted to see if he could stay longer to be with his parents and sister who are permanent residents in the Bay Area.

That bureaucratic immigration path led instead to revelation of a stunning personal secret, recounted during an emotional testimony in an immigration courtroom in San Francisco last month: When he was 9, 11 and 16, Belarmino said he was repeatedly sexually assaulted by other boys.

Recounting the abuse, said the 43-year Bay Area resident, was “like forever. It was like re-entering a harrowing, hellish experience.”

He feared a forced return to the Philippines, “of being hurled back in the world of cruelty.”

That wrenching testimony convinced Judge Loreto Geisse to grant Belarmino political asylum in the United States, ending for now the government’s effort to deport him. The Department of Justice, which has until June 22 to appeal, could not be reached for comment Monday.

Political asylum in the United States for gays and lesbians who fear persecution if returned to their home countries is not new and no one knows how many such cases are granted each year. Immigration Equality, a New York City group that advocates for gay and lesbian immigrant rights, won 55 similar cases last year.

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