United States v. 2020-07-31 | 17-73311 | ALBERT FROILAN GAERLAN V. WILLIAM BARR | nonprecedential | memorandum disposition |

NOT FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

ALBERT FROILAN GASMEN
GAERLAN; ALMA FE FABICULANAN
GAERLAN; ILICH YEAGER CALICA
GAERLAN; SEJI KYRA CALICA
GAERLAN; CAYI KRIEL CALICA
GAERLAN; JURIS KARREL CALICA
GAERLAN,
Petitioners,
v.
WILLIAM P. BARR, Attorney General,
Respondent.
No. 17-73311
Agency Nos. A087-860-465
A087-860-466
A087-860-467
A087-860-468
A087-860-469
A087-860-470
MEMORANDUM
*
On Petition for Review of an Order of the
Board of Immigration Appeals
Submitted July 29, 2020
**
Before: HAWKINS, GRABER, and CLIFTON, Circuit Judges.
FILED
JUL 31 2020
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
* *
The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).

Lead petitioner, Albert Froilan Gaerlan, and his family, natives and citizens
of the Philippines, seek review of a 2017 Board of Immigration Appeals’
(“BIA”)order dismissing an appeal from an order of the Immigration Judge (“IJ”)
denying their applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection
under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). We deny the petition.
1.The adverse credibility determination was supported by substantial
evidence. Shrestha v. Holder, 590 F.3d 1034, 1039 (9th Cir. 2010). In his written
statement and testimony, Gaerlan claimed that the Director of the National Bureau
of Investigation (“NBI”), General Reynaldo Wycoco, ordered him to cease an
ongoing investigation into rice hoarding in June and September 2007. Yet the
Government submitted into evidence a newspaper article showing that General
Wycoco had died on December 19, 2005, more than eighteen months before the
events in question, and another individual became Director of the NBI in 2006.
Gaerlan declined to continue the hearing so that he could challenge the authenticity
of the Government’s evidence.
In the absence of credible testimony from Gaerlan, the IJ and BIA
permissibly denied his claims for asylum and withholding of removal. Because no
evidence apart from his testimony supported the claim for CAT protection, that
claim also fails.
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2.“[A]n asylum application is frivolous if any of its material elements is
deliberately fabricated.” 8 C.F.R. § 1208.20. An element is deliberately fabricated
if it involves a “knowing and intentional misrepresentation of the truth.” Matter of
Y-L-, 24 I. & N. Dec. 151, 156 (BIA 2007). The BIA properly affirmed the IJ’s
determination that Gaerlan filed a frivolous asylum application. As discussed
above, Gaerlan was found to have submitted false documentary and testimonial
evidence. Only after being confronted with the Government’s contradictory
evidence did he admit the inaccuracies in his original story.
PETITION DENIED.
3