THE Senate is looking to identify gaps and correct loopholes in the government’s late registration system through the conduct of an inquiry on the role of local civil registrars in the issuance of fraudulent birth certificates to foreigners.
In filing Senate Resolution No. 1200, Senators Loren Legarda and Raffy Tulfo seek to come up with measures to prevent the abuse of the late registration system as what was discovered in the cases of Guo Hua Ping, also known as Alice Guo, and Jianxin Yang, or Tony Yang/Antonio Maestrado Lim.
Guo and Yang are at the center of the ongoing Senate Committee on Women probe on crimes associated with the illegal operation of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) hubs in the country.
Guo has been dismissed as mayor of Bamban, Tarlac for her suspected participation in the operation of two POGO facilities in her municipality.
Yang is the brother of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s economic adviser, Michael Yang, who has also been linked to illegal POGO operations.
Legarda and Tulfo said the fraudulent acquisition of birth certificates poses a risk to national security as individuals “may exploit their status to engage in espionage, economic sabotage, and other criminal enterprises.”
“There is an urgent need to investigate the role of local government units, in particular, their local civil registries, in the facilitation of these fraudulent transactions, and to assess the adequacy of existing oversight mechanisms to prevent the issuance of falsified documents,” SRN 1200 said.
It also said that the Senate investigation will seek to identify the flaws in the late registration system and come up with measures to prevent them from happening again.
“There is also a pressing need to strengthen safeguards in the birth registration process, especially for late registrations, by ensuring proper verification of identity and citizenship and to impose stricter penalties for fraudulent activities involving government-issued documents,” it said.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) show that in 2022, 1.3 million births were registered on time, while 127,919 were registered 30 days or more after the date of birth.
The two senators said that while the issuance of birth certificates through late registration has provided Filipinos, especially those in remote areas, with access to vital services and civil rights, the system has been abused by foreigners, mostly Chinese, which undermines the purpose of the program.
The National Bureau of Investigation has said that around 1,200 foreigners believed to be Chinese have fraudulently obtained birth certificates through late registration in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur since 2016.
The National Security Council has also said that corrupt civil registrars have allegedly been receiving bribes to issue fake birth certificates, which are subsequently used to fraudulently obtain Philippine passports.
“The abuse of late birth registration system enables foreign nationals to exploit government-issued documents for various fraudulent activities, evade immigration law, and potentially engage in criminal activities,” Legarda and Tulfo said.
“Data from the PSA shows an alarming number of discrepancies in birth certificate registrations, including 308 instances of fake birth certificates submitted for passport applications between January and September 2023, with six of these belonging to foreign nationals who were issued Philippine passports,” they also said.
