Senators Sherwin Gatchalian and Loren Legarda scrutinized the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) regarding foreigners who have birth certificates with Filipino citizenship, emanating "syndicates" in the country.
In the second hearing held in the Senate on the investigation concerning the illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) hacking and surveillance in Tarlac on Wednesday, the PSA was invited to check the identity of Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo as well as some alleged people connected to her.
PSA disclosed that details from Guo's birth certificate have irregularities, including two birth certificates of Shikla Leal Guo and Seimen Leal Guo, who appeared to be her siblings.
Later at the hearing, it was discovered that Guo's alleged father and mother have no record of birth certificates or even marriage records that will prove that the "married" status of Guo's parents on her birth certificate is legitimate.
Gatchalian asked the PSA if a person who is lying could obtain a birth certificate, citing Guo's alleged father, who allegedly prepared her birth certificate.
Engr. Marizza Grande of the PSA said the PSA birth certificates were based on the submitted documents from the local civil registrar offices that conducted the interview and filled out the details for the birth certificate.
"Yun pong validation of the late registration in a current situation, post validation—kasi yung pagtanggap ng application for delayed registration mandato po 'yan ng ating local civil registrars," Grande said.
Of the situation of alleged Guo's father, Gatchalian said the father probably lied to the registrar, noting that having Filipino citizenship could give them the ability to buy land, build businesses, acquire a passport, and, at worst, run in the election.
"Ito establish na mayroon talagang mga abuso in delayed registration," said Gatchalian.
"Yung apat na Chinese na nahuli sa Thailand, lahat 'yon may passport na ang basis, inamin naman ng DFA na ang basis ay always birth certificate. So kung ang birth certificate ay galing sa sinungaling, makakauha sila ng passport at pwede nilang sabihin na Filipino sila," he added.
Meanwhile, Legarda expressed her sentiments and stressed that the issue of PSA is a serious matter.
Legarda confirmed what actions the PSA and other concerned agencies are undertaking to fix the issue, citing the PSA's record that there were 308 aliens who had PSA birth certificates; most of them were Chinese.
"There were 308 fake birth certificates issued for Philippine passports in 2023, so I would assume that the DFA has canceled the passports, and I would assume that you would file cases and invalidate the fake birth certificates," said the senator.
"There's really a syndicate; it's very clear that napasukan tayo ng mga sindikato ng bansang yan at nakapasok hanggang sa mga lokal na pamahalaan," she noted.
On its part, the PSA said it has penalties for people who provide untrue details of birth certificates, such as 1 month to 6 years imprisonment.
"We can block the issuance of the birth certificate so it cannot be used anymore in some other transactions," said Atty. Eliezer Ambatali of PSA.
