Two nabbed for fake birth certificates can’t ‘recall’ childhood details

Two foreign nationals nabbed by immigration authorities at NAIA Terminal 3 for allegedly fake Philippine birth certificates claimed to not recall crucial details of their childhood when questioned.

According to Bureau of Immigration (BI) spokesperson Dana Sandoval, the two foreign nationals were questioned about the documents they presented last July 10, but one of them claimed to have forgotten details.

“‘Yung isa po doon sa mga naaresto natin sa paliparan the other day, claiming that she was homeschooled kaya siya walang records or anything ng kaniyang childhood,” she said in Darlene Cay's report on GMA’s “24 Oras Weekend” on Sunday.

“‘Yung isa naman po, nakalimutan niya kung ano na nangyari sa childhood niya. Ultimo mga kapatid niya, hindi na siya sure kung ano ‘yung mga pangalan,” she added.

(One of those arrested in the airport the other day claimed that she was homeschooled which is why she had no records or anything about her childhood. The other one said she forgot what happened during her childhood. Even her siblings, she was unsure of their names.)

Responses to questioning by immigration officials recalled those made by suspended Bamban City Mayor Alice Guo, who has said that she could not remember details of her childhood when questioned at the Senate.

According to Sandoval, there have been a rising number of foreign nationals who have presented fake Philippine documents such as birth certificates and passports. Those who cannot provide details of their childhood, she said, are easier to spot than other fraudsters who are better prepared to answer such questions.

“There are a lot po na parang gusto na lang tumira dito [who seemed to want to live here] permanently but I guess they were taking shortcuts in getting their citizenship,” she said in the same report.

According to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), there were 200 doctored birth certificates found to have been issued by the local civil registry of Santa Cruz in Davao del Sur, majority of whom were Chinese.

“Dun sa mga ginagawa nating fact-finding investigation, nagpupunta pa tayo sa mga barangay na kung saan naka-declare doon sa [For our fact-finding investigation, we go to the barangays declared in the] birth certificate,” Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) legal service director III Eliezer Ambatali said in the same report.

“Kapag na-determine natin na okay [When we determine that okay], we have this sufficient evidence na makapag-file ng [to file a] case that’s the time that we will endorse it to the office of the solicitor general for the petition, filing of the petition of cancelation of birth certificate,” he added. — Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/BM, GMA Integrated News