MANILA – The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) is seeking possible legislation from Congress for a faster and cost-efficient process to cancel bogus birth certificates obtained by foreigners in the country.
In a message to reporters on Tuesday, Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra confirmed that the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has endorsed to the OSG “the cancellation of a list of registered birth certificates fraudulently obtained by aliens, mostly Chinese (nationals).”
“Considering the huge number of these cases, exceeding 1, 500 in one civil registry office alone, we have recommended to Congress the enactment of a law that would authorize administrative cancellation of such birth certificates in lieu of a tedious and expensive judicial process,” Guevarra said.
In a legislative inquiry in September, the PSA said that in one local civil registrar (LCR) in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur, they were able to find falsified documents being used to obtain birth certificates numbering more than a thousand.
The officials noted that the Chinese nationals who applied for late birth registration in Sta. Cruz are all 18 years old and above, and most of them did not appear before the LCR. (PNA)