Senator Pia Cayetano on Sunday, January 5 joined other lawmakers in commending the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) in cancelling fraudulent birth certificates saying the OSG’s move directly confirms the findings of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.
“The OSG's move directly addresses the alarming findings of our Blue Ribbon Committee hearings last March and August 2024, which revealed that Philippine citizenship is being sold, with some foreign nationals paying up to P300,000 for fraudulent government IDs," said Cayetano, head of the Senate blue ribbon panel.
“Our investigation uncovered a disturbing pattern where foreign nationals, including those involved in illegal POGO (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators) operations, have exploited vulnerabilities in our civil registration system. This is not just about documentation – but also of our country’s national security,” she stressed.
Cayetano cited the case in Sta. Cruz, Davao Del Sur where it was discovered that 54 out of 1,501 suspicious birth certificates issued between 2016 and 2023 belonged to individuals with foreign parents.
These documents showed identical penmanship and impossibly claimed that the same midwife attended births in various villages on the same days.
The Senate Committee on Women and Children also investigated the case of dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo who was also found carrying fraudulent birth documents and using state documents to run for a local elective position.
The committee hearings, Cayetano noted, exposed systematic fraud in the local civil registration system, particularly in the issuance of birth certificates through late registration.
“The cancellation of these fraudulent documents sends a clear message: Philippine citizenship is not for sale,” she stressed.
At this point, the lawmaker called for a sustained coordination between government agencies.
“While we welcome this step, we need proactive and sustained cooperation between the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Bureau of Immigration (BI), Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), and local government units (LGUs), specifically their local civil registries, to prevent similar schemes in the future,” she said.