EDITORIAL — Fake Filipinos

Over a dozen foreigners holding fake Philippine passports were intercepted recently by the Bureau of Immigration and National Bureau of Investigation. In a related development, several Chinese nationals were reportedly found with Philippine birth certificates issued by a civil registrar’s office in a town in the Caraga Administrative Region in northern Mindanao.

A Philippine birth certificate or passport will allow the holder to obtain a driver’s license and even a permit to own and carry a gun outside one’s residence. The holder might even obtain a voter’s ID. Senators, seeing the risks posed by such fake identification documents, are set to investigate the racket, which could have only been perpetrated with the connivance of crooks in government.

At the height of the bloody crackdown on drugs during the previous administration, anti-narcotics agents had asked arrested Chinese suspects why they continued to operate in Manila. Among the reasons, the Chinese reportedly replied, was the ease of getting away with illegal activities in this country with the help of corrupt Philippine government employees.

Drug traffickers weren’t the only ones found to be bribing their way into the country. Crooked immigration personnel were also indicted for allowing the illegal entry of dozens of Chinese nationals who ended up working in Philippine offshore gaming operation firms. After this racket was busted, there have been continuing reports of other foreign POGO workers, mostly Chinese, being arrested or charged for various criminal activities in the Philippines, including murder, kidnapping, torture, sex trafficking and, more recently, cyber scams.

Foreigners cannot engage in illegal activities in another country without the involvement of locals, especially government employees. The NBI and the Bureau of Immigration must intensify efforts to ferret out those involved in these illegal activities, even as the Senate Blue Ribbon committee prepares to launch its own inquiry. Authorities must ensure that offenders face the stiffest penalties, with the heaviest punishment reserved for Filipinos working in government.

At the same time, institutional measures must be implemented to prevent the issuance of government-issued identification papers to those who are not qualified for the documents. Fake IDs open the doors to a wide range of scams and other criminal activities.