As a reporter who has covered the airports and immigration bureau for a long time, I have lost count of the number of times I have written about foreigners who, during apprehension for various reasons, are found to be in possession of genuine Philippine passports.
These aliens are called ‘fake Filipinos’ in immigration parlance.
In some instances, these passports are reported to be illegally acquired and on some occasions, the passports are really, truly genuine in which case, apprehending immigration authorities say they suspect that the alien concerned may have presented fake documents to fulfill the requirements of obtaining a true Philippine passport.
During a recent public Hearing of the Senate Committee on Finance, Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Norman Tansingco, no less, said the proliferation of illegally acquired Philippine passports is a national security issue.
Tansingco bared that there were at least 10 recent cases, wherein authentic Philippine passports were being used by illegal aliens.
All said aliens were charged with violation of the Philippine immigration act and were included in the BI’s derogatory list.
The hearing discussed the proposed 2024 National Expenditure Program of the Department of Justice and its attached agencies, which includes the BI.
Tansingco detailed how these foreign nationals were able to illegally acquire Philippine documents such as passports, birth certificates, driver’s licenses and postal IDs.
Before this, the BI reported the arrest of one Faizan Muhammad, a total foreigner who even presented a Philippine National ID.
The use of authentic documents by an alien makes it doubly difficult for immigration authorities to detect and arrest them.
Faced with this difficulty, Tansingco told the committee that the immigration bureau merely relies on their officers’ advanced skills to ascertain the identities of foreigners who commit various kinds of infractions in our country.
Whichever way you look at it, the government must be seriously concerned—whether an alien was able to get a fake Philippine passport by paying off or using fake documents, or if he was able to get a genuine one using either fake or real documents showing he is actually a Filipino.
Who is behind the operations where genuine passports fall into the hands of foreigners? How long had this been going on and how well-entrenched is the syndicate, if any?
Years ago, I remember the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) making an announcement that it had reconstituted the Inter-Agency Committee Against Passport Irregularities, supposedly to ensure and maintain the integrity and credibility of the Philippine passport.
I wonder what ever happened to that? Most of all, I wonder whether or not an end to this passport anomaly is even in sight. Ho-hum…
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