Officers of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 on Friday intercepted a Chinese man who was repatriated to the Philippines after being trafficked to Myanmar.
Immigration officers were baffled after alias ‘King’ presented himself as a Filipino during arrival inspection, despite being a foreign national.
Names have been redacted in compliance with current anti-trafficking laws.
Alias ‘King’, 40, left the country last July 2023 to Thailand using a Chinese passport, holding a permanent residence visa under RA 7919. He admitted that he used his Chinese passport as advised by his recruiters to prevent questioning about his purpose of travel.
Upon his arrival in Thailand, he crossed the river to Myanmar together with 3 others. He recounted how he was compensated for only one month, but was punished later on.
He was released after paying his recruiters 20,000 baht or more than 32,000 PhP, but was arrested by Thai immigration and detained for 3 months.
‘King’ said that he feared that he will be deported to China if he uses his Chinese passport, and declared that he has never traveled back to China since his mother brought him to the Philippines when he was six months old. His mother is a permanent residence holder in the Philippines, while his father is allegedly a naturalized Filipino.
He was issued a Philippine travel document by the Philippine embassy in Bangkok and was deported to the Philippines.
BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said that incidents like this is the effect of Chinese migrants taking shortcuts to get Philippine citizenship.
“You cannot buy citizenship. You can be born with it, or be naturalized. There are no other modes or shortcuts in acquiring Philippine citizenship,” he stated.
Tansingco said that he is glad that issues on citizenship for sale is being put to light, stating that they have already been raising this concern in the past few years, fearing that it is a matter of national security.
“We are glad that many government agencies and lawmakers are already looking into this issue,” said Tansingco. “This is a national security concern that needs to be addressed, lest it be abused by foreign nationals with malicious intent in the Philippines,” he added.
Alias ‘King’ was arrested and will remain in the BI’s holding facility in Bicutan, Taguig while he faces immigration deportation charges.
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