A syndicate is believed to be behind the fabrication of Philippine citizenship of foreigners illegally working or running businesses in Mindanao,the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said on Thursday, March 27.
BI Commissioner Joel Anthony M. Viado pointed this out after operatives of the bureau arrested last week five Chinese nationals from two business establishments.
“These documents and new identities may be used by foreigners with mal-intent, and could be exploited by possible spies embedding themselves in society by pretending to be Filipinos,” said Viado.
He identified the five arrested Chinese nationals as Bangdie Pan, 50; Zhongyi Tang, 62; Tianpei Wu, 51; Dezhen Liu, 62; and Wang Lianxu, 53.
The BI said that Bangdie Pan was arrested last March 20 in Digos CIty, Davao del Sur by BI intelligence officers at a hardware store for violating Philippine immigration laws.
“Pan was found actively managing a hardware registered under an alleged Filipino citizen whose identity is now under investigation,” it said.
BI records showed that "Pan possessed a work visa which was issued under a company in Pasig City, but she was found working in an unauthorized capacity in Davao del Sur.”
“Filipino employees of the said hardware admitted that the said Filipino owner was non-existent, and the documentation for its permits were forged,” it added.
It also said that the other Chinese were arrested by BI intelligence operatives last March 24 in a chemical manufacturing plant in Mlang, North Cotabato where they were found working illegally.
Among those arrested, the bureau said it “obtained a birth certificate and document showing that Liu misrepresented himself as a Filipino.”
“Further probing uncovered that the company is registered under a Filipina, who the other employees state they have not seen since the opening of the business, and the owner is actually a Chinese man based in Manila,” it added.