Davao del Sur town issued 1,501 birth certificates to foreigners in 2016-2023

During Monday's resumption of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on fake documents, officials of Davao Del Sur's Sta. Cruz town said 1,501 certificates of live birth were issued to foreigners from 2016 to 2023.

Sta. Cruz government Legal Officer Ryonnel Cabardo also testified that no Filipino parents were named in 54 of these birth certificates that had been issued to foreigners.

“Sa 1,501, we noticed na 54 nito wala pong Filipino parents ang na-indicate sa birth certificates,” Cabardo said.

“We found out that these documents… kulang po ‘yung mga attachments so we concluded na irregularly issued po siya na birth certificates. As of now, we cannot conclude kung falsified po yung mga entries,” he added.

(We found out that these documents… there was a lack of attachments, so we concluded that they were irregularly issued birth certificates. As of now, we cannot conclude if the entries were falsified.)

Cabardo said that instead of Filipinos, the parents indicated were both Chinese.

The Philippines follows jus sanguinis (right of blood), which is the legal principle that at birth, an individual acquires the nationality of his/her natural parents.

According to Cabardo, the 1,501 birth certificates stood out as these were registered late and because these contained “foreign-national sounding names.”

Meanwhile, Sta. Cruz Mayor Jose Nelson Sala said that the local civil registrar who was involved in the issuance of the certificates had been suspended.

He added that he had formed an ad hoc committee to look into the matter.

For her part, Blue Ribbon chairperson Pia Cayetano said that authorities needed to expand the scope of their investigation.

“Our team is aware na merong kaso na pati ‘yung parents niya ang nakakuha ng fake birth certificate… so ngayon pag naipanganak na ‘yung baby nila, ang basehan nitong bagong birth certificate nitong si baby ay ‘yung birth certificate na mukhang totoo,” Cayetano said.

(Our team is aware that the parents obtained a fake birth certificate… so once the baby is born, the basis for the baby’s birth certificate will be the fraudulent birth certificate that appeared to be legitimate.)

“So possible na may Chinese-sounding name si baby, hindi na siya late registration (the baby may have a Chinese-sounding name, but the birth certificate is no longer registered late),” the senator added.

Meanwhile, citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, Cayetano said that the top five local civil registars with the most spurious birth certificates are Manila, Caloocan, Quezon City, Pasay City, and Pasig City.

The local civil registrars were given fake documents from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) for counterchecking.

According to Lucena Flores of the Caloocan City Civil Registry Office, they had no personal record of the spurious documents from the DFA. She said that one of the fake documents was signed by a civil registrar who has “long been dead.”

Due to this, Flores appealed to the DFA to coordinate with local registrars, saying it would be alarming if their offices were bypassed.

“Gusto po sana naming i-suggest na kapag tayo po ay nag issue ng passport, pwede po ba siguro sa DFA ay mag countercheck po sa amin?” she said.

(We want to suggest to the DFA that if you issue passports, can you countercheck with us?) — DVM, GMA Integrated News