The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has requested information from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) regarding all Filipinos who availed of the late registration scheme and were subsequently issued birth certificates.
BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said the data will be cross-checked to verify if these individuals were issued or have used Philippine passports.
“We must be proactive and thorough in our approach to prevent the misuse of Philippine documents by foreign nationals. This is an issue of national security, and needs to be addressed immediately,” he said.
The request is pursuant to the discovery by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) of nearly 200 fake birth certificates, mostly issued to Chinese nationals by the civil registry in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur.
This is in addition to the BI’s interception of another four cases of fraudulently-acquired Philippine citizenship in the past week.
Tansingco said that it has requested NBI Director Jaim Santiago for the names and other details associated with the 200 falsified birth certificates issued by the civil registry in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur.
The BI, he said, has raised the concern since last year after intercepting at least 10 cases of foreign nationals misrepresenting themselves as Filipinos with fraudulently acquired Philippine documents.
“Once they present themselves as a Filipino, they already removed from the purview of the BI which monitors foreigners. Apart from this, they are able to present layers and layers of Philippine documents, all original, pushing for their claim,” he added.
Foreigners are able to acquire numerous Philippine documents after illegally acquiring foundational documents such as birth certificates, he notes.
Such documents, Tansingco said, can be abused by foreign nationals involved in terrorism, heinous crimes, or fraud. It would also imply that illegal aliens may end up being able to vote, or assimilate themselves in the society while conducting their illegal activities.
Meanwhile, Tansingco thanked lawmakers and local law enforcement agencies for focusing on resolving the problem on fake Filipinos.
