Hontiveros urges NSC, NICA to probe foreigners’ acquisition of Phl legal docs

Senator Risa Hontiveros on Monday urged the National Security Council and National Intelligence Coordinating Agency to look into the reports that foreign nationals were provided with easy access to acquiring Philippine documents that must be legally granted only to Filipinos.

Hontiveros was about particular reports that Chinese nationals, working with Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators, were able to acquire legitimate government-issued identification cards and birth certificates, that they would eventually use to get a Philippine passport.

She criticized how these foreign nationals have managed to obtain legitimate documents in the country while Filipinos transacting for legal documents have to go through long queues and undergo due process.

The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission earlier said that a certain group provides authentic government-issued IDs to foreign POGO workers.

Hontiveros said such a report is posing a threat to national security.

"Maybe the end game of POGO is not just the POGOs themselves but to penetrate our important institutions and undermine our national security, and it seems that POGO operations are not only limited to the national capital region, they have an expansion policy plan in Cebu, Iloilo, and other parts of the country," she noted.