A local sugar magnate is facing possible deportation following the findings of the Bureau of Immigration and the Office of the President that he is a Chinese citizen.

The Court of Appeals 12th Division said sugar magnate Jimmy T. Go, also known as Jaime T. Gaisano, will be deported after affirming the April 17, 2002 resolution issued by the BI finding Go to be a Chinese citizen.

The appellate court noted that Go’s appeal to the Office of the President was filed two years after the April 17, 2002 decision of the BI was issued, which was way beyond the period allowed by law. “Withal, pursuant to the fundamental and time-honored principle of finality to administrative determinations, the April 17, 2002 decision of the BI has long become final and executory, thus can no longer be altered or modified, making the dismissal of the petitioners’ instant petition justified,” the CA said.

Under the Revised Rules for Deportation Proceedings, the CA said Go has three days from receipt of a copy of judgment to file a verified motion for reconsideration.

Go claimed that he failed to file a motion for reconsideration questioning the April 17, 2002 decision of the BI and the corresponding warrant of deportation dated March 1, 2004 within the three-day period because he was not formally furnished copies of the said orders.

Go's family ran the cash-strapped  Noah’s Ark sugar refinery which failed to settle a P900-million loan it borrowed from the United Coconut Planters Bank more than a decade ago. Suits are currently pending between Noah’s Ark and Cocobank and a syndicate of banks to stop the foreclosure of its 3.9-hectare sugar refinery in Mandaluyong, across the prime real estate Rockwell property in Makati City.
       
Luis Ramos, Go's business associate and former executive director of Noah’s Ark, filed the deportation case against Go after finding out that the businessman was an illegal alien. He presented as evidence Go's birth certificate issued by the Office of the Civil Registrar of Iloilo City, which indicated Go's citizenship as “Chinese.”