A foreigner who presented a Vanuatu passport to immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) last June 11 was arrested before he could board his flight to Bangkok, Thailand.
In a statement issued on Sunday, June 16, the BI said that based on the passport presented, the name of the foreigner is Alex Cooper who is 43 years old.
But the BI said that immigration officers believed that the foreigner is a Chinese because he speaks fluent Chinese language and carries a Chinese mobile phone. It also said Cooper could not communicate in English which is one of the official languages in Vanuatu, a country in the South Pacific Ocean.
“If we are able to establish that he is actually a Chinese citizen and that his Vanuatu passport was merely procured from fixers to conceal his real identity, he will be summarily deported and banned from re-entering the country,” Commissioner Norman Tansingco said.
Tansingco said that foreigners who misrepresent themselves by using spurious documents to enter and stay in the Philippines are liable for blatantly violating the country’s immigration laws and should be deported to their country of origin.
The BI said that “Investigation showed that Cooper has never gone to Vanuatu and he knows nothing about the South Pacific nation and its culture.”
It also said that Cooper “reportedly used his Vanuatu passport to enter and exit the Philippines when travelling to other foreign destinations such as Japan and Thailand.”
“The Vanuatu passport likewise showed that it was issued to Cooper on Feb. 15, 2021 and that he used the same when he first arrived in Manila on June 30, 2022,” it added.
Since his arrest, Cooper has been detained at the BI’s facility in Taguig City.