Occupation without a shot

Occupation without a shot | Daily Tribune

Making money work to raise a sense of bounty and then subjugate a nation is the picture that is being painted in the buying spree of properties at exceptional rates by what seems to be a foreign syndicate.

In Chinese strategist Sun Tzu’s Art of War, the sweetest military triumph is achieved if the objectives are met without firing a shot.

Bishop Broderick Pabillo, Apostolic Vicar of Taytay, Palawan, blew the lid off the sudden surge in land purchases in the province by suspected dummies of foreign groups or individuals.

The government led by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) is investigating and, in the process, has found that the property purchase binge is happening in strategic areas of the country that may have future military value.

A government source said a local syndicate manufactures documents and government IDs for foreigners to fake their identities as Filipinos and thus they don’t need to recruit dummies. Pabillo had an inkling of the modus operandi of the syndicate.

“They may even be Chinese (who have been buying up land in Palawan) or they are agents. They buy huge tracts, particularly those facing the West Philippine Sea,” the bishop said.

It was revealed by a government insider that a syndicate has been engaged in illegally acquiring Philippine passports that are then manipulated for foreigners to acquire a fake Filipino identity.

The racket allows aliens to directly purchase properties and even take out loans as Filipinos. Some of the fake borrowers then take off to their homeland leaving huge bank debts.

The syndicate can produce a nearly genuine Philippine passport, a unified multipurpose ID or UMID card, a driver’s license from the Land Transportation Office, and even a birth certificate.

The process is the same suspected in the case of Bamban Mayor Alice Guo, who was able to secure a Filipino birth record via a “late registration” with the collusion of local government units.

With a forged Filipino birth certificate, a foreigner can then secure an authentic passport and other government-issued IDs. Some of the bogus Filipinos even formed companies and listed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to clear the way for their massive land acquisitions.

Using the forged Filipino IDs, several foreign groups were believed to have snapped up properties in Bulacan, Palawan, Zambales, Isabela, and other parts of the country.

A recent House probe indicated that several of the wholesale lot purchases were near military camps included in the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) that host American personnel and equipment.

Based on the House probe, “fake Filipino nationals,” who don’t know any Filipino language were identified as the large-scale buyers of properties of sites near the military installations.

Some of the acquired properties now have huge warehouses and business establishments on them, the inquiry revealed.

Warehouses have been sprouting like mushrooms in Central Luzon, particularly in Pampanga and Bulacan, Bataan, Zambales, Nueva Ecija, and Tarlac. Now they are slowly but surely creeping toward Cagayan where two EDCA sites are located, according to a legislator.

The EDCA sites that were pointed out in the House hearing were Basa Air Base in Pampanga; Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija; Mactan-Benito Ebuen Air Base in Cebu; Lumbia Air Base in Cagayan de Oro; Camp Melchor Aquino in Gamu, Isabela; Naval Base Camilo Osias in Sta. Ana and Lal-Lo Airport, both in Cagayan; and Antonio Bautista Air Base and Balabac Islands, both in Palawan.

For sure, the string of land acquisitions is not about enjoying the white sand beaches of the Philippines but preparing for an action that may be inevitable in the future and some Filipinos are conspiring to make it happen.