LEGAL ACADEMICS from the University of the Philippines are preparing to fight the request for asylum of former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn Joc-joc Bolante before US immigration courts. Lawyer Harry Roque, director of the UP College of Laws center for international legal studies, yesterday said he and his colleagues were drafting an amicus brief, a document that would focus on the absence of political persecution and physical threat that Bolante had claimed in making his request for asylum. In the United States, you can ask for leave to file an amicus brief to tell the court why an applicant for asylum should not be [granted], Roque told the Inquirer over the phone. He said Bolantes request was a mockery of the basic human right to seek protection abroad from genuine political persecution and threat of personal harm.