Philippine authorities have uncovered hundreds of cases of Chinese nationals who secured local birth certificates. — PSA
THE recent discovery of close to 200 falsified Philippine birth certificates issued to Chinese nationals from 2018 to 2019, all by the civil registry of one town in Davao, is solid, incontrovertible proof of what lawmakers have been warning about since the probe on illegal drugs and crimes perpetrated by unlicensed offshore gaming operators in the country started a few years back. Individuals, or more likely syndicates, are using the country’s late registration of birth to enable unwanted foreigners, most of them Chinese, to obtain valid Philippine passports, driver’s licenses, and other government-issued identification documents.
While the congressional investigations focused on big-time drug personalities and high-profile personalities such as suspended Mayor Alice Guo of Bamban town in Tarlac, it now proves that undesirable foreigners have been getting Philippine identities for various illegal activities on a bigger scale, and for many years now.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, citing information from within the Chinese community, claimed that a Chinese national had to shell out 300,000 Philippine pesos (RM24,080) to illegally obtain a valid Philippine birth certificate, passport, and driver’s licence. The senator said “valid”, which means these documents were officially issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the Foreign Affairs Department, and the Land Transportation Office.
Finding culpability in this entire mess will be a tedious job that will require the joint involvement of many agencies in the Philippines. Gatchalian has raised the possibility that the erring individuals are within the PSA itself or the local government of Santa Cruz town in Davao del Sur, where authorities discovered the falsified birth certificates.
However, in its search for the persons or syndicates taking advantage of the late birth registration system, the government should look at the root of the problem. While the senator puts the crux of the problem squarely on the PSA and the local government unit, the authorities should start instead with the late birth certificate registration scheme.
The late registration process is a tedious one, if the rules are strictly followed. It begins at the Local Civil Registry (LCR) office of the municipality or town where a person was supposedly born. Under the law, a child’s birth must be registered at the LCR office no later than 30 days from the day the child was born; otherwise, the registration is deemed late or delayed. Unless a person’s birth is properly registered, he or she will not be able to obtain a birth certificate, the primary requirement in a number of personal transactions such as applying for a passport for the first time, securing a driver’s licence, enrolling in schools, and even for some financial transactions.
The requirements, as listed by the PSA, should include four copies of the certificate of live birth duly completed and signed by the parties (the physician or midwife in attendance at the birth or, in their absence, either parent of the child involved), and a duly accomplished affidavit of delayed registration done by the father, mother, or guardian. The late registration must be filed at the Office of the Civil Registrar of the place where the person was born.
The most important part of the process, it must be highlighted, is that the application for delayed registration of birth “shall be examined by the civil registrar”, including the certificate of live birth and other submitted documentary requirements. The pending application must then be posted for 10 days on the bulletin boards of the city or municipality where the birth occurred, as a notice to the public. If no opposition or disagreement is received, the LCR can then proceed with the evaluation of the documents submitted and if all goes well, the LCR can register the birth.
Lawmakers may suspect scalawags within the different government agencies issuing important documents and IDs such as passports and driver’s licences. However, if they zero in on the LCR, particularly of remote and faraway towns, perhaps they can find the answers to this frightening societal menace of undesirable aliens obtaining legitimate – but forged – documents and IDs. This may be a long process considering that data from the Interior and Local Government Department as of March 31, 2023, showed that there were 148 cities and 1,486 municipalities across the country, each with its own local civil registry office.
The PSA relies solely on the authenticity of LCR documents, or the official registration of birth. In turn, the other agencies issuing IDs and official documents rely solely on the authenticity of PSA documents. Therefore, ensuring the authenticity of the first document needed in all this, which is the birth registration certificate issued by the LCR, should be the starting point in addressing the whole problem. – Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network
