MANILA, PHILIPPINES — A Chinese mafia is providing Chinese nationals with seemingly legitimate Philippine passports using “spurious documents,” according to Rep. Robert Ace Barbers.
Barbers stated yesterday that in light of reports of Chinese nationals possessing passports obtained unlawfully, Local Government Units (LGUs) and state agencies should exercise caution.
He said that the Chinese mafia should be “hunted down” by the Bureau of Immigration, the Philippine Statistics Authority, and local government units.
Barbers brought up the instance of Willy Ong, a Chinese national who obtained a driver’s license from the Land Transportation Office, a unified multipurpose ID, and a birth certificate proving he is Filipino.
This information was brought to attention during the House Committee on Public Order and Safety’s ongoing investigation into the importation of approximately 530 kilograms of methamphetamine hydrochloride, commonly referred to as shabu.
The contraband, valued at P3.6 billion, allegedly resides in one of Ong’s four warehouses in San Jose Malino, Mexico, Pampanga.
Barbers claims that the shabu shipment was brought into the nation illegally in 2023 via the Subic Freeport.
The Chinese mafia or Ong’s allies, according to Barbers, the chair of the House committee on dangerous drugs, “who work for him, presumably, was able to secure a Filipino birth certificate via late registration with certain LGUs.”
He continued, “Ong was able to obtain a Philippine passport and other government-issued IDs with his forged Filipino birth certificate.”
It was discovered during the hearing that Ong also succeeded in registering his real estate firm, Empire 999, with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Ong has been buying up enormous tracts of property in Pampanga, Mexico, where he and his Chinese associates constructed four massive warehouses and a gas station, among other buildings, in the region.
Barbers claimed that additional Chinese people using fake IDs from the Philippines were allegedly on a massive land grab in Bulacan, Palawan, Zambales, Isabela, and other regions of the nation, setting up warehouses and other “business fronts.”
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