(MANILA BULLETIN)

Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. Lray Villafuerte believes that unscrupulous individuals pocketed huge sums of cash in what he described as the "citizenship-for-a-price" racket. 

In a statement Tuesday, July 16, Villafuerte prodded local authorities to "get to the bottom of this atrocity", which he claimed was how foreign nationals "have been sneaking with impunity into the country—apparently in cahoots with confederates in the government—and engage in such highly lucrative criminal activities as human trafficking, kidnapping and cybercrimes". 

“Obviously, a ton of money has been changing hands, so a thorough probe is in order to pinpoint—and haul to jail—those in and out of the government who are behind this citizenship-for-a-price racket," said the majority leader of the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA). 

What's worse is that this scheme has probably been going on "for years, if not decades, now", he said.

For starters, the Bicol congressman, said authorities should find out how foreign nationals have been able to secure official documents from the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA) or the Bureau of Immigration (BI), so they can pass themselves off as legit Filipinos and then engage in businesses that are mere fronts for criminal syndicates. 

He said the case of suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo should be reason enough to launch an exhaustive probe aimed at pinning down the alleged enterprising individuals. 

“The case of the suspended mayor, who has not only been linked to POGOs (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators) believed engaged in serious crimes, but even got herself elected as the first [female mayor] of her hometown of Bamban despite her now questioned Filipino citizenship and background, should spur the full-blown investigation of how seemingly shady aliens like her have managed to obtain government documents and IDs (identification cards) attesting to their being legit Filipinos,” Villafuerte said. 

That this very alarming scam had been going on for years can be gleaned from the fact that Guo and one of her siblings had reportedly managed to register as Filipinos with the PSA more than a decade  after their supposed births in the Philippines, he said. 

“This citizenship racket must end pronto, considering that hundreds or thousands of foreign nationals, in apparent cahoots with unscrupulous  government people, have been able to enter the Philippines on the sly and then join or put up criminal gangs or POGOs that are actually engaged in cybercrimes, human trafficking, kidnapping and torture, among others, or even in espionage or hacking of government websites,” said Villafuerte.