THE National Security Council (NSC) said it has traced the irregular issuance of passports to foreigners to corrupt civil registrars who issued birth certificates to foreigners for a fee.
NSC assistant director general Jonathan Malaya said the NSC considers the issuance of these passports and government identification cards to foreigners, who are mostly Chinese, as a “national security threat.”
“If they are able to secure a birth certificate, they can also secure passports, they can also secure national IDs, so they are like regular Filipinos,” said Malaya in Filipino.
Malaya said the NSC, the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) are jointly looking into the issuance of passports to foreigners.
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri earlier called for an investigation on how Chinese, Koreans and Thais were able to secure Philippine passports and other government-issued IDs.
“Based on our initial investigation, it appears it’s at the level of local government units where corruption occurs. There are allegedly, based on intelligence reports, some local civil registrars assigned with the LGUs who are being paid (to issue birth certificates),” said Malaya.
On Wednesday, Senate Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros said she has received information that foreigners pay as much as P500,000 each to get a Philippine passport.
“These corrupt public officials issue fake birth certificates which are then sent to the Philippine Statistics Authority and once these are recorded by the PSA, they can apply for PSA-certified birth certificates which can then lead to a passport, which can then lead to many other documents like national ID,” Malaya said.
Malaya said their investigation has disclosed that most of the foreigners who secured passports and government IDs were Chinese nationals “who were not born in the Philippines and who have no parental or links to Filipinos and who are not entitled to Philippine documents.”
“We assure the Senate that the NSC, together with the National Bureau of Investigation, and the PSA, will not stop until this modus operandi is not stopped,” he said.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said he has directed the NBI to focus its probe on the Department of Foreign Affairs, not on the PSA.
“Sa akin lang ang pasaporte ay inisyu ng DFA at ang bawat pasaporte na genuine ay may marka kaya ito ay pinaiimbestigahan ko sa NBI (The passports were issued by the DFA and every genuine passport has a mark that’s why I asked the NBI to investigate this),” Remulla said.
“Nagtataka nga ako bakit ang PSA ang pinipuntirya kasi ang PSA documentation lang, basehan lang. Talagang sa DFA nangyari ito. Alam niyo naman ang proseso bini-vet kaya nasa DFA pa rin ang problema dyan (That’s why I am surprised why the PSA is being targeted when the PSA is for documentation only. You know the process, the vetting, and it seems the problem is with the DFA),” he added.
NBI Director Medardo de Lemos has said that the bureau’s probe is being spearheaded by the NBI’s Anti-Fraud and International Operations Division.
The issue on Philippine passports ending in the hands of foreigners was discovered after combined government agents raided recently a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) hub in Pasay City and recovered various government-issued identification cards in the possession of foreign workers.
The government IDs, according to the raiding team, were used by the foreigners to get their Philippine passports. — With Ashzel Hachero
