Identity documents

“Made in Recto” often comes to mind in the continuing infamous saga of Alice L. Guo. Popular lore, after all, equates “Made in Recto” as the haven of forged official documents.

Recto’s infamous distinction, however, doesn’t go far in describing exactly Ms. Guo’s run-in with senators, government bureaucrats, and the public at large.

Instead, Guo’s troubles are accurately less about forgeries and more about the authenticity of entries in an official document. In Guo’s case, the authenticity of her claims is in her late birth registration certificate.

Focusing on Guo’s integrity, therefore, now raises the uncomfortable question: How are we to ensure that what Guo is accused of doing won’t happen again?

As the revelations in the Senate hearings now stand, it is not farfetched to believe Ms. Guo likely gamed the messy system documenting the identity of Filipinos.

If it were otherwise, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) last week wouldn’t have announced stricter guidelines in the processing of late birth registrations. The PSA is the agency solely in charge of documenting Filipino births.

PSAs also came after the Senate demanded the agency reform or fortify the country’s birth certificate processes and systems.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, for instance, says the country’s birth certificate process is “getting abused too much and the process is too easy.”

Surprisingly, the PSA openly admitted its late birth registration processes are indeed being abused.

“Some are abusing the policy because they sometimes present insufficient or fake supporting documents,” admitted Marizza Grande, PSA assistant national statistician.

Among the documents required for late registration of live births include the marriage certificate of the parents, certification of using the father’s surname, baptism certificate, school record, voter’s certification, medical records, and barangay certification.

As revealed in the Senate, Guo’s late registration certificate, issued when she was 17, ominously lacked school and medical records as well as instances of questionable entries regarding her alleged parent’s marriage certificate.

While the senators are still closely scrutinizing Guo’s identity documents, senators at the same time are also promising refinements to the late birth registration process.

What those refinements will eventually be is yet to be seen. Gatchalian, however, says the general tenor of the refinements is to “balance” the registration procedures to the point that it doesn’t get too hard to obtain a birth certificate, but also not too easy that it often gets abused.

But whatever the Senate does, it comes at a time, as one prominent government critic puts it, when there’s a “breezy unwillingness by Filipino officialdom to take into account the messy state of the documentation of many Filipinos.”

Hopefully, Congress finally takes the bull by the horns. It’s high time, too.

Guo’s case, should it be proven she is a foreigner, is not the only case involving foreigners holding questionable or even fake birth certificates.

At the Lower House, for instance, members of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs found that Chinese businessman Willie Ong was able to secure a certification of birth from the PSA.

Ong allegedly owns the warehouse of Empire 999 Realty Corp. where some P3.6 billion worth of illegal drugs were seized in Pampanga last year.

Congressman Robert Ace Barbers said Ong’s case could only be the tip of the iceberg wherein many other foreigners could have easily secured Filipino identities through PSA’s policy for late birth registration.

Still, the messy state of properly documenting Filipino identity isn’t only about the PSA.

A large network of government agencies is involved in the issuance of identity permits and documents for foreigners.

The operations of POGOs, for example, which pried open the Guo case involve properly vetted documents from local government units, immigration, consular services, the Department of Foreign Affairs, Philippine National Police, the Department of Justice, and PAGCOR.

An entire bureaucracy and its processes which too need closer scrutiny and possible reform if we’re to be serious henceforth about keeping the integrity of Philippine identity documents.