DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 18 July) – Foreigners, including Chinese nationals, who fraudulently acquired their Filipino citizenship could pose a threat to national security, a National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) official said.
NBI-Davao director Arcelito Albao flagged such warning following their discovery of 1,200 questionable birth certificates issued to foreigners by the Local Civil Registry Office (LCRO) in Santa Cruz town, Davao del Sur from 2016 to 2021.
During the Davao Peace and Security Press Corps’s press conference on Wednesday, he said that these aliens could purchase properties in the Philippines, open bank accounts, and obtain Philippine passports using their falsified birth records.
Albao added that some of them could be using their Filipino citizenship to engage in criminal activities, such as in the illegal operations of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO), or online gambling, in the country.
“The worst-case scenario is that after having that birth certificates as Filipinos, they can now purchase properties. They can have a driver’s license, national ID, and other identifications so they can purchase properties,” he said.
Albao said the personnel of NBI-Davao are now tracking down the whereabouts of the 1,200 foreign individuals who were able to secure fraudulent birth certificates from the LCRO of Santa Cruz town.
He said that investigators are having difficulty tracing the aliens because they are using Filipino names and that their current addresses are not indicated in the birth certificates.
The official clarified that not all of the questionable birth certificates were issued to Chinese nationals because there were also certificates issued to other nationalities and to children born to alien parents with Filipino spouses.
“There are some Chinese nationals living in Davao City who are married to Filipinos, and have legally registered their birth certificates there in (Santa Cruz) Davao del Sur,” he said.
Albao believed that some officials of LCRO-Santa Cruz were involved in the scheme.
According to their witness, Albao said that some aliens pay as much as P500,000 to obtain falsified birth certificates.
He said investigators found out that there are fixers from Manila who are helping the aliens obtain birth certificates from LCRO-Santa Cruz in exchange for money.
Albao said that majority of the Chinese nationals who were able to obtain spurious birth records from LCRO-Santa Cruz are based in Manila and Pampanga, and could be involved in illegal POGO operations.
He said the aliens obtain falsified birth records because they want to become Filipino citizens.
“I’m pretty sure that they have been doing this a long time ago,” he said.
Last July 9, the NBI-Davao arrested a 21-year-old Chinese national, who used a falsified birth certificate issued by LCRO-Santa Cruz, to apply for a Philippine passport.
The Chinese national, who was using the Filipino name “Hengson Jabilles Limosnero,” used an address in Barangay Inawayan, Santa Cruz to obtain a falsified birth certificate from the LCRO of the same town.
The Chinese was born in Fujian province, China and was brought to Davao City when he was 10.
His family owns a hardware in the city, according to Albao.
Albao said the Chinese national is a first-year accountancy student at the Ateneo de Davao University and finished high school at the Philippine Academy of Sakya Davao.
He said that Santa Cruz Mayor Jose Nelson Sala is cooperating with the NBI-Davao in the investigation.
“We welcome the investigation made by the NBI and other related national government agencies as this will also help our own investigation in curbing the proliferation of spurious birth certificates in our municipality,” the local chief executive said.
He assured the public that the local government is doing its best to ensure that its personnel observe appropriate regulations and standards in the performance of their functions.
“Those who will be found involved with these illegal transactions will certainly be subjected to appropriate administrative actions,” Sala added.
Albao said the spurious birth certificates could be cancelled once they have sufficient evidence of its falsity. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
