Senate Blue Ribbon asks: ‘How much is it to become Filipino?’

The Senate Committee on Accountability of Public Officers and Investigations (Blue Ribbon) on Wednesday criticized the alleged issuance of legitimate Philippine passports and birth certificates to foreign nationals. 

The alarming instances where foreign nationals can easily acquire legitimate government-issued documents have prompted Senator Pia Cayetano, who chairs the panel, to ask: “Nabebenta na ba ang Philippine citizenship, at magkano para maging Filipino citizen? (Is Philippine citizenship for sale, and how much is it to become a Filipino citizen?).”

During the panel’s public hearing on the matter, Cayetano revealed the irregularities in the issuance of legitimate Philippine documents as she cited the Vietnamese official known as a certain “Nguyen”—holder of a Philippine passport—as an example. 

“So this Vietnamese national was recently deported by the Bureau of Immigration after being discovered in possession of a fraudulently obtained Philippine passport,” she lamented. 

“The Philippine passport bore a name alongside her photo, which was different when compared to her Vietnamese Passport,” she added.

Cayetano, however, noted that Nguyen’s Philippine passport, which was questioned by authorities, was found to be genuine and duly issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs. 

Several senators earlier flagged the alleged issuance of valid Philippine passports to Chinese nationals.

Last year, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said reports of foreign nationals illegally acquiring Philippine passports and other government documents in the country were considered “a national security issue.”

It was Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa who have first raised the concern during the deliberations on the DFA’s budget request in November last year. 

The DFA, previously, said the foreigners had submitted genuine birth certificates issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority, which is one of the primary requirements in applying for Philippine passports.

Meanwhile, Cayetano said the exposé surrounding the Vietnamese national carrying an original Philippine passport was only “the tip of the iceberg.” 

She said the Blue Ribbon Committee conducted its own investigation and discovered another case of falsifying documents wherein an overseas Filipino worker called “Jane” was intercepted by the BI due to “inconsistent statements.”

“This person called Jane; she said she was traveling for the first time, but the records of the Bureau of Immigration revealed that she had already had previous travels. In fact, it appeared that Jane had already departed twice as a land-based Overseas Filipino Worker in 2015 and 2019 and had not returned to the Philippines since then. But here was this person in front of the officer, and yet documents showed that she allegedly went out of the country and had yet to come back. It appears that she has three identities,” Cayetano said.

According to the senator, Jane revealed that it was her first time departing the country as an OFW and that “she was not aware at all that there is another person allegedly using her identity.”

“So those are two separate cases but clearly involving these people having documents, or in the case of the second person, somebody else obtaining documents that are supposed to be genuine and reflective of one person only, and it’s now already in the hands of two other people. And in the other case, hindi nga Pilipino (not a Filipino)…So those are our very troublesome issues,” she said.