Case Digest (G.R. No. 249387)
Facts:
Rehman Sabir v. Department of Justice—Refugees and Stateless Persons Protection Unit (DOJ‑RSPPU), G.R. No. 249387, August 02, 2022, the Supreme Court En Banc, Zalameda, J., writing for the Court.Petitioner Rehman Sabir, a Pakistani national who identifies as Christian, applied for recognition as a refugee under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees after fleeing Pakistan and arriving in the Philippines on 2 February 2017; he filed his refugee application with the DOJ‑RSPPU on 8 February 2017. Sabir alleged that following his father’s conversion to Islam and marriage to a Muslim stepmother, the stepmother’s brother (a mulana) repeatedly pressured him to convert, and in late 2016 an episode in which he dropped a Quran led to a threat with a knife and his immediate flight from home; an NGO helped him leave Pakistan.
The DOJ‑RSPPU, through a Decision dated 10 March 2017, denied recognition, concluding that (while Christians in Pakistan are a minority facing discrimination) such conditions and the risk of blasphemy allegations alone did not establish persecution under the Refugee Convention and that petitioner’s statements contained credibility problems; a motion for reconsideration was denied on 25 May 2017. Petitioner brought a Rule 43 petition for review to the Court of Appeals (CA) in CA‑G.R. SP No. 153799; the CA, in a Decision dated 31 January 2019, dismissed the petition for lack of merit and in a Resolution dated 10 September 2019 denied reconsideration, giving deference to DOJ‑RSPPU’s factual findings and expertise.
Petitioner then filed a Petition for Review on Certiorari under Rule 45 to the Supreme Court, challenging the CA’s affirmance and arguing that the DOJ‑RSPPU failed to apply ...(Subscriber-Only)
Issues:
- Did the Court of Appeals err in affirming the DOJ‑RSPPU’s denial of petitioner’s application for recognition as a refugee under the 1951 Refugee Conven...(Subscriber-Only)
Ruling:
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Ratio:
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Doctrine:
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