A LAWMAKER from Mindanao today urged various local chief executives (LCEs), the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the Bureau of Immigration and other concerned government agencies to be vigilant and hunt down a Chinese mafia engaged in acquiring legit Philippine passports for Chinamen who now pose as legit Filipino traders using spurious documents.
Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said the Chinese mafia’s illegal scheme surfaced in the on-going House committee on Public Order investigations on the importation of some 530 kilos of shabu allegedly involving one Willy Ong, a Chinese national, who possesses a legit but illegally-acquired Philippine passport, a HUMID ID card and an LTO-issued driver’s license.
“We have it on record during our investigations on the 530-kilo shabu haul in Mexico, Pampanga that Willy Ong managed to secure a birth certificate indicating that he is a Filipino.
Ong’s cohorts or the Chinese mafia who works for him presumably was able to secure a Filipino birth certificate via ‘late registration’ with certain LGUs. With his forged Filipino birth certificate, Ong was able to secure a Philippine passport and other government-issued IDs,” he said.
Willy Ong, based on House records, also managed to register his firm, Empire 999, a real estate company, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, to engage in several huge lands acquisition in Mexico, Pampanga where he and his Chinese partners built a gasoline station, four large warehouses, among others, in the province.
It was in one of four of Ong’s warehouses in Purok 5, San Jose Malino, Mexico town where the 530 kilos of shabu worth P3.6 billion, shipped through Subic Port, were delivered on September 28, 2024 via a “controlled delivery” involving National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents.
Agents from NBI, BI and the Philippine National Police have since conducted a nationwide manhunt against Ong and his registered business partners on all their known addresses but they could not be located. Ong is using his Filipino passport and other IDs in transacting business in the Philippines while using his Chinese passport when travelling outside of the country like a “dual Filipino-Chinese citizen.”
“Ong, including his other Chinese business cohorts have made a huge mockery of the country’s Immigration, business and other laws by acquiring government-issued documents, illegally establishing local businesses by posing as Filipinos,” Barbers, chairman of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs, said.
According to Barbers, he also has received reports that Chinese nationals with forged Filipino identification cards are engaged in huge lands acquisition spree in Bulacan, Palawan, Zambales, Isabela and other parts of the country, establishing warehouses and other “business fronts”.
“Aside from perpetually bullying us on the issue of West Philippine Sea, the continuous dumping of counterfeit drugs and other products in the Philippines, these unscrupulous Chinese nationals are now faking documents to acquire legit government-issued documents. Kung ano-ano nang klaseng panloloko ang ginagawa ng mga Chinese nationals na ito sa ating bansa,” he added.
Barbers statement came following President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s strong statement that the Philippines will push back against China if the country’s “sovereign rights are questioned or ignored.”
“Tama lang ang ating Pangulo sa kanyang posisyon at sa sinabi nya laban sa China dahil lagi na lamang tayong binu-bully nang mga ito sa isyu ng West Philippine Sea sa nakalipas na administrasyon at magpa-hanggang ngayon,” he said.
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