MANILA, 23 June 2003 — A retired Saudia pilot who says he was falsely labeled a “terrorist” by Philippine immigration officials and has been unable to leave Manila for six months because of an airport hold order yesterday vowed to fight his case in court and clear his name and reputation.
“It is better to die an honorable death than to live in disgrace,” Saudi national Mohammed Bukhari told Arab News in an interview in a downtown Manila restaurant. He said he was being “persecuted, not prosecuted.”
Now a businessman, Bukhari said his name was included in the Philippine Bureau of Immigration (BI) “blacklist/watchlist” as a “supporter/backer of Islamic extremists” on May 24, 2002, but he did not discover this until he was stopped at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA ) on Jan. 8.
Since then, Bukhari says he has been prohibited from leaving Manila, and despite his repeated demands, BI officials have failed to explain why he is being tagged a “terrorist or terrorist supporter.”
Feeling that his human rights have been violated, Bukhari hired a Filipino lawyer, Renato Peralta, and filed a case against immigration bureau chief Andrea Domingo before a Manila Regional Trial Court, demanding that his name be struck off the BI blacklist/watchlist.
In an affidavit on Jan. 16, Bukhari said: “I categorically deny that I am with any terrorist group, nor a supporter of them, being a legitimate businessman doing business here and abroad.”
Bukhari said he had been traveling in and out of the Philippines since the 1980s as an airline pilot and later for his export business, buying mahogany and soft-wood doors in the Philippines and selling them in Saudi Arabia. He started his business after he retired as a Saudi Arabian Airlines pilot last year.
Bukharis wife, Amna Bushnag, told Arab News from Jeddah that his family is extremely worried about him. “We haven’t seen him for six months,” she said. “Sometimes we speak twice a day and sometimes every other day, but we never lose communication with him.”
One concern was Bukhari’s heart problems, she said.
Amna lives in Jeddah with three of her daughters. The youngest is getting married next month. “We wanted to postpone the wedding, but my husband insisted that the wedding should go ahead whether he is able to make it or not.
“He’s adamant that it should be as big a wedding as her older sisters’,” she added.
She said her husband has nothing to do with terrorists. “My husband went to the Philippines on business all the time,” she said.
“He never had any problems and was never arrested anywhere. He worked for Saudia for almost 30 years, and he is admired by everybody.”
Bukhari said he was included in the BI blacklist/watchlist by Domingo on the recommendation of NAIA immigration head Simeon Vallada. But unlike the four other Arab-sounding names on the list, there were no details under his name. The other suspects had their addresses, approximate ages, physical descriptions, nationalities and even passport numbers listed.
When he was stopped at NAIA on Jan. 8, Bukhari said immigration officials did not arrest or detain him.
He said he was only subjected to questioning for about 30 minutes and was later told to report to the BI main offices in Intramuros, Manila to “clear his name.” However, he was barred from leaving the country.
“If they believe I am a criminal, why are they not prosecuting me or arresting me or even issuing a warrant of arrest?” Bukhari said. “In the name of justice, they should charge me and prosecute me now, and if they can’t do that, they must set me free and clear my name.”
A check by Arab News with the NAIA immigration office revealed that Bukhari’s name is still included in the blacklist/watchlist. But the immigration official could not say why Bukhari was on the list, saying only that the matter was confidential.
Sources said Bukhari was informed by immigration officials that his name was included in the BI blacklist because of an anonymous letter accusing him of “being a supporter of Islamic extremists” that was sent to the US Embassy in Manila.
This prompted Bukhari to speculate that he was being “blackmailed” by a group of former business suppliers whom he had earlier sued before a Marikina court for alleged fraud after a business deal turned sour.
One of those he sued, Bukhari recalled, even called his house and warned that if he did not withdraw the fraud case, “he would report to the US Embassy that I am a member of Al-Qaeda and/or a terrorist or supporter of the organization,” Bukhari said.
“The threat became a reality because I am now on the BI blacklist/watchlist,” Bukhari said.
With this explanation, Bukhari wrote to Domingo on Jan. 15 and on Feb. 17 and demanded that his name be removed from the list.
When the BI officials ignored his letters, Bukhari filed a case before the Manila court on March 18, naming Domingo and Vallada as respondents and asking for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against his airport hold departure order and a writ of preliminary injunction to remove his name from the BI blacklist/watchlist.
On April 3, Solicitor General Alfredo Benipayo, acting as the BI’s counsel, asked the Manila court to dismiss Bukhari’s suit, citing a legal technicality that “such a case could only be filed after any judicial investigation.”
In answer, Bukhari explained that he “had no other recourse but to go to court” to question his inclusion on the watchlist/blacklist. Furthermore, he said, his “inclusion has no factual or legal basis and was contrary to law and jurisprudence.”
On April 29, Benipayo argued again that Bukhari’s application for a TRO and an injunction was invalid because “the resort to judicial action is premature.”
Benipayo suggested that Bukhari should first exhaust all other avenues to clear his name with the BI before filing a case in court, since his “rights have not yet been violated.”
Bukhari said he deplored that Benipayo resorted to legal technicalities when all he asked the court was for the BI to justify his inclusion on the list.
“They are calling me a terrorist without any justification, and here comes the solicitor general resorting to some legal technicalities,” Bukhari said. But he said he was determined to fight the case in Philippine courts to the end.
