A Philippine senator has raised fears of foreign influence over key institutions after the arrest of businessman Joseph Sy, who is accused of obtaining citizenship in the Philippines fraudulently and compromising national security due to his honorary role in the country’s coastguard.
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Sy, also known by his Chinese name Chen Zhong Zhen and chairman of mining firm Global Ferronickel Holdings, was detained by immigration authorities at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Thursday after arriving from Hong Kong.
In a statement, the immigration bureau’s commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said Sy was the subject of a probe following intelligence suggesting he had illegally acquired citizenship documents. Investigators confirmed that Sy’s fingerprints matched those of a Chinese citizen who previously held a long-term visa, Viado said.
“Without naturalisation, a foreign national is not eligible to get Philippine citizenship documents,” Viado said. “Government intelligence sources have reason to believe that this is another case of assumed Philippine identity, similar to that of Alice Guo.”
Guo, a former town mayor, became the focus of a high-profile scandal last year over her alleged fake nationality and ties to scam and trafficking operations with purported links to Chinese entities.
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Senator Risa Hontiveros on Monday raised national security concerns by referring to a 2018 Philippine coastguard document showing Sy was appointed by then-admiral Elson Hermogino to a unit of the Philippine coastguard with the honorary rank of auxiliary commodore.