In the Philippines, a spate of arrests of Chinese nationals using fake local identities has reignited espionage fears, following President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s directive to defend the nation’s sovereignty from foreign criminal activity.
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On May 14, Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado announced the arrest of Wang Chaoxin, a 32-year-old Chinese national caught posing as a Filipino while managing a trading company.
Authorities also detained four of Wang’s Chinese associates. Of the group, three held working visas but were employed by companies other than those listed in their documents, while the fourth lacked a permit altogether. Viado revealed that Wang had used a Philippine driving licence and birth certificate under a fictitious Filipino name to register his business, according to local media.
This is not an isolated case. Last July, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) uncovered roughly 1,200 instances of Chinese nationals obtaining fraudulent birth certificates from Santa Cruz, a small town in Davao del Sur, Mindanao.
By November, the number had grown to 1,600, with most of the fake documents issued between 2018 and 2021.
The NBI has filed 66 counts of corruption, perjury, falsification of public documents and Civil Registry Act violations against four municipal employees, including the civil registrar. Last month, the bureau confirmed that similar cases were under investigation in other parts of the Davao region.