By JEFFREY DAMICOG
Citing national security issue, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) has asked the cooperation of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in the fight against the issuance of falsified birth certificates to foreigners.
“We must be proactive and thorough in our approach to prevent the misuse of Philippine documents by foreign nationals,” declared BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco in a statement issued on Monday, July 15.
"This is an issue of national security, and needs to be addressed immediately,” Tansingco pointed out.
The BI has asked the PSA for information on all persons who availed themselves of late registration and were subsequently issued birth certificates.
“This data will be cross-checked to verify if these individuals were issued or have used Philippine passports,” Tansingco explained.
Also, the BI has requested the NBI for the list of the names and other details of the birth certificates issued to Chinese nationals.
NBI recently revealed that it discovered around 200 falsified birth certificates that were issued by the civil registry to Chinese nationals from 2018 to 2019 in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur.
For the past week, the BI has intercepted four cases of fraudulently acquired Philippine citizenship.
“Once they present themselves as Filipinos, they are already removed from the purview of the BI which monitors foreigners,” Tansingco lamented as he pointed out the cases of foreigners who illegally acquired documents on their Filipino citizenship.
“Apart from this, they are able to present layers and layers of Philippine documents, all original, pushing for their claims,” he added.