Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) secretary-general Graham Lim, declared by the Supreme Court (SC) as an alien, was arrested by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Monday at the Makati City Hall by virtue of warrant of deportation.

A team from the NBI-Interpol Division served the warrant at around 2:30 p.m. and was turned over to the Bureau of Immigration (BI).

Lim, upon his arrest, insisted that he is a Filipino citizen, saying: “I was born here. My father is a Chinese and my mother is from Tuguegarao, Cagayan.”

He added that he was surprised since a previous warrant of arrest was already dismissed by the court.

“Meron ako warrant of arrest na na-dismiss na. Eh hindi ko alam kung bakit ako hinuhuli. The trial is still on going at the Pasay court,” he said adding that the trial stemmed from a case filed by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) for falsification of passport.

In 2008, the Third Division of the Supreme Court ruled that Lim, who is married to a Filipina and has two children, is not a Filipino citizen, denying with finality his efforts to establish Filipino citizenship.

The High Court also quashed a motion for reconsideration which Lim filed in November 2007, a decision certified by Wilfredo Lapitan, assistant clerk of court, in behalf of Lucita Abjelina-Soriano, clerk of court.

He sought to reverse a lower court ruling that found his claim to Filipino citizenship baseless after his former deputy in the BAP, Emmanuel Perez de Tagle, and international referee Liberato Valenzuela produced papers substantiating their allegations that Lim was a fake Filipino.

The DFA ruled Lim an illegal alien and eventually withdrew his Philippine passport.