Solon hits MJ treatment

Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay asked the House of Representatives yesterday to declare United States embassy legal attache James Nixon as a persona non grata in the Philippines for subjecting Manila Rep. Mark Jimenez to "cruel and inhuman treatment."

In a privilege speech, Pichay also asked the US embassy in the Philippines to declare that Jimenez, who is in the US to face misdemeanor charges, is not an "illegal alien."

Pichay, a close ally of Jimenez, made the call after the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) issued a "detainer" directing that Jimenez be detained without bail for immigration purposes.

He said that Jimenez could not be declared as an "illegal alien" because he voluntarily went to the US upon permission of the US government, as represented by the US embassy in Manila and its officials.

The Surigao solon said the House leadership, represented by Speaker Jose de Venecia and Deputy Speaker Neptali Gonzales and US embassy officials, including Nixon, signed documents "which would show that Congressman Jimenez went to the US on his own accord as a selfless sacrifice to avert a Constitutional crisis in the Philippines."

The documents stated, among other things, that Jimenez will be accorded the dignity due him as a member of the House "in the course of such voluntary departure and would be secured and protected by American officers who were to escort him and that the appropriate travel documents and visas shall be issued to him, his wife and his son," Pichay said.

He added that Nixon personally inflicted "inhuman, cruel and unjust treatment" on Jimenez during the flight to Guam and Saipan.

"During this trip, Nixon chained and handcuffed Jimenez to a rigid last seat in the plane, causing him personal pain, hurt and suffering, while denying him medicines and preventing him from using his apnea sleep machine, which Jimenez badly needed," Pichay said. – Jose Rodel Clapano