Valdez

MEMORANDUM **

Reynaldo Cabacungan Valdez and his wife, Florencia Nicolas Valdez, natives and citizens of the Philippines, petition pro se for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) summary affirmance of an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of their application for asylum and withholding of removal. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We review for substantial evidence, see Meza-Manay v. INS, 139 F.3d 759, 762 (9th Cir.1998), and we deny the petition for review.

Substantial evidence supports the IJ’s conclusion that Valdez failed to establish past persecution or a well-founded fear of future persecution on account of an *551 enumerated ground. See INS v. EliasZacarias, 502 U.S. 478, 481 , 112 S.Ct. 812 , 117 L.Ed.2d 38 (1992).

Valdez’s reliance on prior verbal and written threats by members of the New People’s Army as evidence of past persecution is unavailing. We conclude that the IJ properly ruled that, because Valdez was an officer in the police force at the time of the threats, any violence or threats he suffered at the hands of the guerrillas was job-related and not a ground for asylum. See Cruz-Navarro v. INS, 232 F.3d 1024, 1029 (9th Cir.2000)…