Only 400 Chinese students in Cagayan – BI

MANILA, Philippines — There are only 400 Chinese students in Cagayan province, contrary to reports that 4,600 had enrolled in a local private school, possibly to serve as spies for the Chinese military.

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) made the clarification in response to calls from some lawmakers for an investigation on the “influx” into Cagayan of thousands of Chinese to study in St. Paul University in Tuguegarao City.

Cagayan Gov. Manuel Mamba, who is against the presence of US military personnel and equipment in some parts of the province under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement or EDCA, maintained that the Chinese students were not a security threat.

In a statement yesterday, the BI reported issuing student visas to 1,516 Chinese nationals endorsed for admission by a private university. Reports said the school was St. Paul University of the Philippines.

But BI commissioner Norman Tansingco said only 400 of the 1,516 remain in the province, as the others had opted to avail themselves of the school’s distance learning program.

In an interview over dwPM Radyo 630, BI spokesperson Dana Sandoval said that according to the school, the Chinese students covered by its distance learning program chose to secure visas so they could return to Philippine schools to fulfill certain requirements like thesis defense and graduation.

Tansingco attributed the surge of arrival of foreign students to “post-pandemic rebound, as well as the aggressive marketing of schools and government agencies to boost the country’s educational tourism.”

To assuage concerns that the Chinese students might actually be soldiers or intelligence officers in disguise, the BI along with other relevant government agencies would check if they were involved in activities “which appear to be inimical to the security of the state,” Tansingco said.

He said Executive Order 285 signed in 2000 created a committee tasked to monitor the activities of foreign students.

The Commission on Higher Education heads the committee, which comprises the BI, the National Bureau of Investigation, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Education.

“The actions of foreign students are worth looking at by government intelligence agencies, given that it is well within their mandate and is necessary in ensuring national security,” he added.

He also assured foreign students that government monitoring “will not prevent legitimate foreign students from continuing their studies in the Philippines.”

Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, meanwhile, said authorities should not “sleep on the job” by investigating UP professor and International Development and Security Cooperation founding president Chester Cabalza’s allegation that the Chinese paid P2 million to obtain a diploma even if they skip classes.

“There is a big possibility (that they are spies),” Dela Rosa said in a phone interview with Senate reporters.

In a separate statement, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate basic education committee, urged the CHED to investigate the alleged “diploma mills” in Cagayan.

Four universities in Cagayan denied being diploma mills for the Chinese, according to a joint statement by university presidents posted by the Cagayan news outlet The Northern Forum on its Facebook page. — Marc Jayson Cayabyab, Emmanuel Tupas