By Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio
A CONGRESSMAN has raised alarm over Chinese nationals obtaining official documents exclusively for Filipinos like passports and even birth certificates, seeing this suspicious development as a threat to national security.
Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace S. Barbers urged President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. to suspend officials of government agencies responsible for providing Philippine documents in order to stop the unscrupulous practice.
“How can foreigners, not individually, but in groups illegally obtain documents otherwise exclusively reserved for Filipinos, without the connivance of Filipinos?” Mr. Barbers said, citing how some Chinese have reportedly acquired Filipino birth certificates, driver’s licenses, UMID (Unified Multi-Purpose ID) cards, and Philippine passports.
Mr. Barbers said bribery and corruption within government agencies could be the reason why certain Chinese nationals have been furnished with documentation meant only for Filipinos.
“How can they in large numbers not arouse suspicion to any agency unless the people responsible have been blinded by money or are grossly incompetent and ignorant?” Mr. Barbers said.
Government employees issuing Philippine documentation to foreign nationals have committed treason against the state, he added.
“They have become part of this big security threat,” Mr. Barbers said. “All these officials and employees of these various agencies are complicit in this treacherous crime.”
A fellow congressman last month filed a House resolution seeking the investigation of foreign individuals having Philippine documentation, allowing them to assume Filipino identities.
CHINESE IN CAGAYANCongressmen also raised concerns over the influx of Chinese students in schools in Cagayan province.
“What are large numbers of Chinese students doing in areas close to EDCA (Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement) sites?” Mr. Barbers questioned.
Cagayan province hosts two EDCA sites — Lal-lo Airport and Naval Base Camilo Osias.
Cagayan Rep. Joseph L. Jojo filed a resolution last month urging the House to investigate the surge of Chinese students enrolling in colleges and universities in Cagayan province.
“If they really want to be schooled in Philippine culture, they will enroll in Manila, not Cagayan,” Mr. Barbers said.
He said officials of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) who sanctioned the student exchange program of Chinese nationals in Cagayan province should be let go. “There are officials who engage in politicking using state universities and colleges to advance their political plans,” he said.
