Sen. Win Gatchalian—Senate PRIB
Foreigners who were able to acquire Filipino citizenship practically overnight paid as much as P300,000 to obtain fraudulent birth certificates, Sen. Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian said on Friday as he called for the suspension of the policy that allows late registration of birth.
Gatchalian cited the modus operandi after the National Bureau of Investigation uncovered a scheme allegedly used by some 200 Chinese nationals to secure certificates of live birth from the civil registry of Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur province, from 2018 to 2019.
READ: Solicitor General files petition to cancel Alice Guo’s birth certificate
He said the NBI discovery was “very concerning” as it suggested the existence of syndicates within the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and local civil registries.
“In effect, these are 200 ‘Alice Guos,’” Gatchalian said, referring to the controversial mayor of Bamban, Tarlac, whose identity and citizenship had become the central topic of an ongoing Senate inquiry on Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos).
Provide solutions
“We are urging the PSA to think about this and provide solutions. These problems started with the birth certificates being issued by the PSA,” he told reporters at a press briefing via Zoom. “One of the proposals was to give them administrative power over the (local) civil registry. That’s one of the reforms we’re looking at.”
Gatchalian said he had also heard of similar cases in the Lanao provinces in Mindanao. “We have more than 1,700 local government units. So just imagine how many (civil registry offices) you can approach to get a birth certificate,” he said.
The senator previously presented several documents purportedly proving that Guo’s real name was Guo Hua Ping or that of a Chinese national who entered the Philippines in 2003 at age 13.
‘Brittle’ system shows
Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who has been leading the Senate inquiry on Pogos, earlier described Guo as a Chinese national “masquerading as a Filipino citizen in order to give cover to Pogos and their criminal activities.”
On Friday, Hontiveros said the reported issuance of bogus birth certificates to a group of Chinese nationals in Davao del Sur was yet another sign of the country’s “brittle regulatory system.”
“The Senate will not allow them to completely destroy our system. That’s why we need to implement reforms in every department and attached agency in the government,” Hontiveros said in an interview with radio dzBB.
Going rate
During a Senate hearing on Pogos on Wednesday, Gatchalian presented Guo’s supposed school records from Grace Christian High School, which he said belied the mayor’s claim that she was homeschooled at her father’s farm in Bamban.
Like Guo, he said, the 200 Chinese citizens in Davao del Sur were able to secure birth certificates through the delayed registration of birth.
READ: Alice Guo as state witness? No way, says Gatchalian
Citing a source in the local Chinese community, the senator said the current “price” for obtaining a birth certificate and other government-issued identification cards was P300,000.
“Somebody is processing (those documents). If you pay P300,000, you will be given a birth certificate, a passport, and even a driver’s license,” he said. “Once you have a birth certificate, it’s easy to get other (government-issued) documents. Apparently, there’s a modus for those who want to get a fake birth certificate.”