FAKE PINOYS
ARE foreign nationals exploiting the Philippine Statistics Authority’s late registration system?
This was the concern aired by Senators Risa Hontiveros and Grace Poe during the Senate plenary debates on the 2025 national budget, as they expressed grave concerns over foreign nationals allegedly exploiting the PSA’s late registration system to obtain fraudulent Filipino citizenship.
Hontiveros and Poe led calls for accountability and systemic reforms, emphasizing the need to secure the integrity of the PSA’s processes while protecting access for legitimate citizens.
During plenary session, Senator Hontiveros highlighted the alarming misuse of the late registration process, stating the fact that some foreigners are abusing the late registration system for their own gain.
“Lumabas ang abusong ginagawa sa late registration para makakuha ng pekeng Filipino citizenship ang mga dayuhang may masamang balak dito.” Hontiveros said.
She wanted to know how PSA could prevent this kind of exploitation moving forward and asked about the accountability measures for officials who may have facilitated such cases.
In response, Poe confirmed that PSA had blocked 1,627 spurious birth certificates following a thorough investigation, with information shared across key agencies, including the Bureau of Immigration (BI), Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
Poe noted that out of these cases, 18—among them that of Chinese national Guo Hua Ping—have been forwarded to the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) for cancellation.
“Imagine, 1,600 na yung nakapag-rehistro na over 18 years old. Wala man lang kaduda-duda,” Poe said, questioning the judgment of civil servants who allowed such registrations.
Hontiveros and Poe outlined a dual objective: to secure the PSA’s registration system against fraud while ensuring that genuine Filipino citizens, especially those in disadvantaged areas, can access birth registration without undue hardship. Poe explained that PSA is actively auditing its late registration records, with data analytics revealing 50,532 potentially irregular cases from a pool of over 14.89 million registrations since 2010.
“This is a step toward more accurate records management,” Poe said, adding that PSA’s approach aims to target high-risk cases effectively given resource constraints. “50,532 birth certificates or 0.34% are being audited by PSA personnel. So yun yung medyo siguro kailangan bigyan ng mas masusing attention,” she emphasized.
The two senators called for broader inter-agency coordination to address these challenges, underscoring that information-sharing among PSA, BI, DFA, NBI, and other relevant agencies is essential to countering citizenship fraud.
“Para ma-facilitate yung pagtutulong ng iba’t iba nating law enforcement and intelligence agencies,” Hontiveros noted, stressing that collaboration would prevent compartmentalized handling of intelligence data.
In terms of operational improvements, Poe highlighted PSA’s proactive work to ensure registration access for remote and disadvantaged communities. PSA has undertaken efforts to verify and register individuals in underserved areas, particularly in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), where many residents lack official records. “Hinahanap nila talaga physically, pinuntahan sila dun sa mga probinsya… para matulungan silang mag-register,” Poe explained.
Hontiveros further highlighted the need to balance security measures with accessibility, mentioning cases where citizens face difficulties in correcting minor birth certificate errors due to bureaucratic constraints. “Yung isang milyong nahanap na ng PSA, yung 400,000 dun sa BARMM, eh napakahalagang dokumento talaga,” she remarked, advocating for inclusivity in PSA’s procedures.
In addition to calling for expanded access, Poe and Hontiveros proposed the establishment of a consolidated, digitized government database to facilitate cross-checking and streamline verification processes. “This effort, along with data digitization, could serve as a model for strengthening records integrity across government agencies,” Hontiveros suggested.
The proposed reforms aim to uphold the integrity of the birth registration system, protecting Filipino citizenship while ensuring that genuine citizens can access essential documents.
