Senators see 'syndicate' in use of fake birth certificates to get PH passports

At least three senators said they sense that a syndicate is operating to help foreign nationals obtain fictitious birth certificates to allow them to apply for Philippine passports.

The lawmakers raised this possibility during the Senate blue ribbon committee's investigation into the alleged unauthorized proliferation and use of government documents by foreign nationals, such as certificates of live births, passports, and tax identification numbers.

Speaking before the Senate panel, Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Adelio Angelito Cruz disclosed that they have caught at least 55 foreigners applying for Philippine passports which they have already referred to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

"So far, we have prevented over a hundred attempts of foreigners in applying for Philippine passports. Right now, we have over 55 active cases... We referred [these] already to our law enforcement agencies," Cruz said.

Of the said cases, Cruz said most of the "spurious documents" presented to the Department of Foreign Affairs for the application of Philippine passports are from Pasig City, Sta. Cruz in Davao del Sur, Manila, and Quezon City.

NBI confirmed that 55 names of foreign nationals were endorsed to them and there are already recommendations for filing of charges against some of them. However, these are still under the review and evaluation of the Department of Justice.

In the opening statement of Senator Pia Cayetano, the panel chairperson, she revealed that a Vietnamese national was deported by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) after "being discovered in possession of a fraudulently obtained Philippine passport."

Apart from the Vietnamese national, six other cases of Chinese nationals were also discussed during the investigation. All of them presented fraudulent identity in applying for the Philippine passports.

One of the cases was from Pasig City. According to Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Deputy National Statistician Clemente Manaog, the birth certificate that was submitted to the DFA was not found in their database and the Certificate of Live Birth is not in the records of the Local Civil Registry of the said city.

Another case was found in Meycauayan, Bulacan where the birth certificate that was submitted to the DFA was also not found in PSA's database and the Certificate of Live Birth contains "false and/or fictitious" information. Further, the PSA said the registry number in this case belongs to another person.

Both the Pasig and Mecauayan cases are delayed registration of birth.

The third case of a supposedly fictitious birth certificate was from Angadan, Isabela. Manaog said the security paper has a serial number from Cotabato City but the barcode of the document was issued in Tuguegarao. Manaog said the certificate and the barcode should come from the same PSA outlet.

"'Yung laman din nito, fictitious din 'yon. So parang it's a combination — the security paper was issued to an outlet in Cotabato City, the barcode printed for the supposed document is printed in Tuguegarao, and the data itself differs from what we have in the database," Manaog said.

The third case prompted Senator Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa to raise the possibility of a syndicate working behind the issuance of fictitious birth certificates to allow foreigners to obtain passports.

"Baka talagang totoo ang sinabi ni Senator [Sherwin Gatchalian] na may sindikato na nag-o-operate dito dahil parang involved more than one subdivision of your office. Dito galing ang isa, dito galing ang isa, paano sila nagko-coordinate? Through a syndicate," Dela Rosa said.

Cayetano was heard agreeing to what Dela Rosa was saying.

"That's clearly a syndicate activity. Syndicated form of activity yan. Kasi from other places, di ba? In order to come up with one fraudulent document, all these offices are coordinating with each other to come up with that one particular document, di ba? So it's incumbent on your part na i-establish kung sino ang mga taong ito para mahinto natin ito," Dela Rosa told the PSA.

Manaog explained that the PSA is only a repository of all birth, marriage and death certificates and it is the local civil registry that is in charge of the registration of the names.

Meanwhile, Cruz explained that DFA can only verify if the birth certificate is authentic through the security paper, but they cannot check the veracity of the contents of the documents.

It was also disclosed during the hearing that 2,000 security papers for PSA's issuance of certificates, which were deployed to its office in Trece Martires, Cavite, were lost.

The PSA said they already informed other government agencies of the incident so the documents that were printed on these security papers could no longer be accepted.

In her closing statement, Cayetano reiterated the possible existence of a syndicate to allow foreigners to obtain government documents.

"Ang mahalagang mensahe natin eh hindi dapat nabibili ang pagka Pilipino. Pero sa nakikita natin, nabibili siya. Nabibili siya sa pamamagitan ng sindikato," Cayetano said.

Cayetano then raised the possibility of foreign nationals using the Philippine passports and birth certificates to buy properties in the country.

"It was brought up na ang foreigner, hindi siya makakabili ng lupa pero kung may hawak ka ng Philippine birth certificate and passport, then makakabili ka na ng lupa. Paano kung gumising na lang tayo isang araw eh hawak na nitong mga Pilipino daw sila, hawak na nila ang lupa," she said.

"And we all know, especially those who have been in the LGUs, once na naumpisahan yung land problems, that’s another problem that cannot be solved in one generation. It cannot. So paano na tayo?" she asked.

The committee will continue the investigation to discuss the alleged theft of some Filpinos' identity.

At the early part of the hearing, Cayetano said the Senate panel had stumbled upon the case of alias "Jane," an OFW who was supposed to depart for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia last January 25 this year but was barred from leaving the country after BI flagged her "inconsistent statements."

Jane supposedly told the BI that she was traveling for the first time, but the immigration records showed that she departed twice in 2015 and 2019 and had not returned to the Philippines since then.

"According to Ms. Jane, it was her first time to depart the country as an OFW. She was not aware at all that there is another person allegedly using her identity," Cayetano said.

Jane supposedly explained that her recruiter in Maguindanao changed her birthdate and altered her birth year from 1993 to 1990. She further claimed that she paid P1,500 for a new birth certificate and the recruiter was said to have taken possession of her passport and other documents.

Cayetano said Jane's recruiter blocked her off since their interaction in 2014.

"[Jane] is Pilipino naman talaga pero may gumamit ng identity niya, identity theft...In the first case, it appears to be a foreigner who now has found a way to obtain a Filipino passport," Cayetano said.

"That is the effect of what we are seeing. Nabebenta ang Philippine Citizenship," she added.—LDF, GMA Integrated News