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Ni Estong Reyes
IBINULGAR ng Philippine Statistic Authority (PSA) sa pamamagitan ni Senador Sonny Angara na anim sa pitong dayuhan ang may pekeng birth certificates na nabigyan ng Philippine passports, are fake.
Natuklasan din umano ng PSA, ayon kay Angarr na mayroong 308 fake birth certificates na ginamit sa pagkuha ng Philippine passport noong 2023.
Sinabi ng PSA na bumalik sila sa Senado upang dumalo sa deliberasyon ng badyet na binawi ng ilang senador kamakailan hinggil sa isyu ng pagbibigay ng Philippine passports sa foreign nationals.
“I’m informed that between January and September this year, there were over 26,000 requests from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) for validation of civil registry documents, and as a result of that validation, 308 birth certificates were found to be fake. That’s not limited to Filipinos, but both Filipinos and foreign nationals,” ayon kay Angara, na nagsasalita para sa PSA.
“Fake ho talaga ‘yung datos na galing sa local civil registrar ho, ‘yung datos. There was a fake registration at the local level,” ayon kay Angara.
Ayon kay Angara, tanging isa sa pitong birth certificates ng dayuhan ang napatunayang tuna at ginamit ang pangalan ng Filipino na ipinanganak sa Sta. Cruz, Zambales.
“The registration was done in Zambales of a Filipino citizen. If the citizen [holding the Philippine passport] was a foreigner, it was a case of identity theft,” ayon kay Angara.
Ayon kay Angara, dapat makipag-koordinasyon ang PSA sa ilang ahensiya ng pamahalaan upang matiyak na hindi magagamit ang pekeng dokumento sa pagkuha ng pasaporte.
“Because the DFA on its own would not be able to detect the fraud without the assistance of the PSA. So PSA really has to strengthen its anti-fraud mechanism,” aniya.
“So double safety mechanism is…if there is an application with the agency (DFA), they (PSA) will be the one to send the birth certificate. So that is a double or a second guard against fraud,” dagdag niya.
Nitong Lunes, hiniling nina Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri at Senator Risa Hontiveros sa National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) at National Security Council (NSC) na iimbestigahan kung paano nakakakuha ng Philippine passports, official government IDs at documents na ibinibigay sa dayuhan na malaking banta sa pambansang seguridad.
Iniimbestigahan din ni Hontiveros ang bayad na P500,000 kada pasaporte sa dayuhan.
