Posted on 11/22/2005 9:33:12 PM PST by HAL9000
MARK JIMENEZ is coming home on his own sweet time, according to his friend, Surigao del Sur Representative Prospero Pichay.The ex-jailbird was expected back from the United States yesterday, but Pichay yesterday said he was probably still staying with family members in Florida.
"He's resting, sleeping, enjoying his time [out of prison]," Pichay said of the controversial former representative of Manila.
Jimenez (real name Mario Crespo) has just completed a 20-month jail sentence for making illegal campaign contributions and committing tax fraud in the United States.
Along with other lawmakers, Pichay had earlier planned to meet Jimenez at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). He returned from his province just to be able to welcome his friend home.
But on Monday evening, Jimenez's son Marcel Crespo phoned to relay the message that his father was not coming home yesterday as scheduled.
According to Pichay, Jimenez's continued stay in the United States must have the approval of the US government.
"He has already served his sentence, so he cannot be compelled to leave the country because I think he is an immigrant," Pichay said.
Pichay, a staunch supporter of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, also said he did not see Jimenez eventually becoming a thorn on the administration's side when he returns.
Deportation
Jimenez was to have been deported back to the Philippines by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
"We will make a report that the deportee didn't arrive and submit it to the [US] Embassy for its information," Angelito Magno, executive officer of the National Bureau of Investigation office at the NAIA, told reporters after it was confirmed that Jimenez was not on the Korean Airlines Flight KE 621 that landed at 10:50 a.m.
In line with procedure, Magno was to have met Jimenez to photograph him and take his fingerprints.
Magno showed reporters a copy of the notice of Jimenez's deportation, which was faxed by the US Embassy to the NBI on Nov. 2.
The notice -- signed by Kevin Peters of the DHS in the US Embassy -- said Jimenez was leaving the United States on Nov. 21 and was expected to arrive in Manila at 10:55 a.m. yesterday.
NBI Interpol Division chief Ricardo Diaz said the DHS was to bring Jimenez from his cell in a federal facility in Pennsylvania straight to DL Flight 7928 departing Nov. 21, 12:50 a.m. (New York time).
The deportation notice said Jimenez would have no US escorts. But Diaz said the DHS would ensure that Jimenez was complying with the deportation by arranging his travel and putting him on board the plane.
Surprised
To make sure Jimenez would not disappear in Seoul, Korea, where his plane had a stopover, Diaz said the DHS had coordinated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to check that he was on board for the final leg to Manila.
US Embassy spokesperson Matthew Lussenhop sounded surprised when told over the phone that Jimenez had not arrived.
"He didn't? I have to look into it. Maybe he changed his travel plans," Lussenhop said.
Asked to comment on reports that Jimenez remained behind bars and would actually be released only next month, Lussenhop said: "We are looking into this now, but [we] have no information to announce at this time."
Ferdinand Sampol, head supervisor of the Bureau of Immigration at the NAIA, told the Inquirer that there were no records of Jimenez's arrival in the country yesterday.
The NBI's Diaz said by phone: "We have no information regarding his present status and why he did not arrive in the country yesterday as scheduled."
He said even Peters had no information regarding Jimenez.
"Only officials based in the US would know what really happened," Diaz said, adding that at any rate, the NBI would play no role in Jimenez's arrival because the latter was now "a free man."
Computer business
Jimenez had a computer business in Latin America before getting into trouble with his campaign contributions to the US Democratic Party. He was indicted in 1998.
He returned to the Philippines and became close to President Joseph Estrada, who appointed him adviser on Latin American Affairs.
In 2001, he made a successful run for the sixth congressional district of Manila, but his case caught up with him.
Before he was eventually extradited, Jimenez rocked the Arroyo administration with corruption charges in 2002.
He alleged that then Justice Secretary Hernando Perez had extorted $2 million for the approval of a power project of the Argentine firm IMPSA, and that P8 million of the amount went to the Lualhati Foundation of the President and her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo.
'Free as a lark'
Another Jimenez close friend, who asked not to be named, told the Inquirer that the ex-lawmaker had asked for a postponement of his return to the country.
"He's free as a lark," the friend said, adding that his non-arrival did not mean he was in trouble with the US government again.
The friend said Jimenez probably wanted to cool his heels first and did not want to stir controversy when he returns.
But Pichay said he expected Jimenez to come home after a while.
"I don't know, maybe in a few weeks he'll be back," Pichay said.
In another interview, Pichay told the Inquirer: "He might be thinking of living peacefully in the Philippines upon his return. But one can never tell because politics is more contagious than bird flu."
Mark Jimenez’s release reset to December 13
THE release of former representative Mark Jimenez of Manila from the US Bureau of Federal Prisons has been reset to December 13, ANC reported Tuesday.
Ging Reyes, ABS-CBN North America Bureau chief, reported that Jimenez, who was originally scheduled for release on November 5, would have to wait a few more weeks before he is released from the Federal Correctional Institution in Allenwood, Pennsylvania.
Philippine Consul Lourdes Legaspi told Reyes that the Bureau of Federal Prisons had reset Jimenez’s release to December 13, because he committed an infraction. Legaspi did not say what the infraction was, which could have been a violation of prison rules.
US authorities said Jimenez will be turned over to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after his release. They said the ICE will schedule Jimenez’s return to the Philippines after he has served his sentence.
Jimenez, a former member of the Twelfth Congress, was extradited to the US on December 26, 2002, on charges of tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud the US and commit election-financing offenses.
He was found to have illegally contributed millions of dollars to the presidential campaign of then-President Bill Clinton. A US Federal Court sentenced him to 27 months’ imprisonment and was ordered to pay the US government $1.2-million restitution.
Jimenez has accused Hernani Perez of extortion for allegedly demanding $2 million from him in exchange for the approval of a contract with the Argentine firm Industrias Metalurgicas Pescarmona Sociedad Anopmina (IMPSA).
The IMPSA deal was approved by the Arroyo administration just two days after President Arroyo took office in January 2001.
Jimenez claimed he gave P8 million to the Lualhati Foundation of Mrs. Arroyo and her husband, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo. Both have denied the allegations.
Waiting in vain
At the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, reporters and photographers waited for more than an hour at the arrival area.
Jimenez was scheduled to arrive at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 10:55 a.m. on Korean Airlines flight KE-621 from Seoul, South Korea.
Executive Officer Angelito Magno of the National Bureau of Investigation-NAIA was waiting for Jimenez at the airport to document his arrival. He said it is normal procedure for the NBI to document the arrival of “deportees” such as Jimenez.
Magno showed a letter dated November 2 from Kevin Peters, acting attaché of the US Embassy in Manila, indicating Jimenez’s departure and arrival from the US.
In the letter Jimenez was to leave John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on November 21 at 12:50 a.m. on Delta Airlines flight DL-7928.
“In the notification of deportation we received from the US Embassy in Manila, he is scheduled to arrive on [the Korean Airlines] flight,” Magno said.
Opposition tool
Rep. Prospero Pichay of Surigao del Sur, a close friend of Jimenez, said Jimenez would be returning to the Philippines “in his own time.”
Pichay, head of the House Commission on Appointments, played down the opposition’s claim that Jimenez would be an “opposition tool” against the Arroyo administration.
Pichay, a staunch ally of the President, said Jimenez’s son, Marcel Crespo, called him up last night to inform him about the delay in Jimenez’s arrival.
Makes Tom DeLay's indictment seem trivial.
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