MANILA — From 2016 to 2023, Sta. Cruz, Davao Del Sur issued irregular birth certificates to foreigners, according to the local government unit during the hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on Monday.

The Committee is investigating the unauthorized proliferation and use of Philippine government documents by foreign nationals.

In July, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said 200 Chinese acquired fake birth certificates from the municipal civil registry of Sta. Cruz.  

Atty. Ryonell Cabardo, Legal Officer of Sta. Cruz said, “We chose birth certificates with foreign national sounding names. And we found out these documents or COLBs kulang po yung attachments (lacked attachments) so we concluded irregularly issued po siya na birth certificates,” Atty. Ryonell Cabardo, Legal Officer of Sta. Cruz said.

“We found out that a certain job order employee po yung nag-facilitate (facilitated the transactions). As early as January 2024 di na namin ni-renew yung contract ng JO (We did not renew the JO’s contract as early as January 2024).”  

Cabardo did not name the said employee.

Of the 1,501 birth certificates, 54 had foreign parents, particularly Chinese.

These documents seemed to have been tampered with since the same midwife was the signatory, according to Sta. Cruz Mayor Jose Sala Jr.

“Kahit saang barangay doon ipinanganak, iisa ang pangalan ng hilot. Titignan mo yung penmanship, yung nagpirma lahat sa papers iisang tao lang,” Sala said. “Ang problema, si hilot ghost.”

(There was only one midwife for the births in various villages. The penmanship for all the documents was the same… Problem is, the midwife is a ghost midwife.)

Sala has already suspended the head of the local civil registry.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said it has investigated 102 of the 1,501 cases and found that these individuals do not live in the indicated addresses.

“We are looking into angle these Chinese nationals are in conspiracy with other public officials or other private individuals,” Jonathan Balite, NBI Regional Director said. “Maybe in two weeks time we will file a case.

According to Senator Pia Cayetano, Chair of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, it seems like Filipino citizenship can be bought.

“Yes, nabibili po (Yes, it can be bought). It was revealed there are offers P300,000 to buy government IDs,” Cayetano said. “This is not just a question of legality, it is a question of our integrity, our sovereignty, our national security and our national identity.”

This was also the going rate that Sta. Cruz, Davao Del Sur Mayor Jose Sala Jr. heard of.

According to Sala, foreigners pay P100,000 for each Certificate of Live Birth, license and passport thereby making the package P300,000.

CITY CIVIL REGISTRIES

Also present in the hearing were officials from various City Civil Registries in Metro Manila where spurious cases were supposedly traced.

According to Lucena Flores from the Caloocan Office, she compared documents from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to their records and found that they were different but, she swore that they did not process these. Some documents with the Department of Affairs (DFA) also did not match with the ones Flores had.

PSA Assistant National Statistician Engr. Marizza Grande said they are already looking into social media accounts that offer fraudulent services in providing birth certificates, passports, and other documents.

Asked by Senator Alan Peter Cayetano if there could be a syndicate behind the issuance of fake birth certificates, PSA OIC-Deputy National Statistician Clemente Manaog said yes.

“It’s not widespread because we have the procedures in place,” Manaog said.

Cayetano offered two reasons as to why foreigners get fake documents.

“One is your personal convenience or personal benefit. Let’s say hindi ka Pilipino, you are running from your country, you want to live here, wala kang balak i-scam, wala kang balak i-perwisyo, or halimbawa hindi ka nag-a-apply ng passport or birth certificate pero gusto mong mag-drive dito or gusto mong bumili ng lupa, pepekein mo para nga you can stay here. The second is kaya mo pinepeke is really it’s to prepare for scamming people.”

(Let’s say you are not a Filipino, you are running from your country, you want to live here, you don’t have any plans of scamming or inflicting harm, or for example you applied for a passport or birth certificate but you want to drive or buy land. You will fake the document so you can stay here. The second is you want to take in order to scam people.)

The hearing was suspended and will continue on a future date.