Quad comm turns over land-grabbing evidence to OSG

MANILA, Philippines — Pieces of documentary evidence have been turned over by the House of Representatives quad committee to the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) to be used for building up cases against Chinese nationals who were able to acquire large swaths of land in the country.

Presiding quad comm chairman Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, along with Representatives Dan Fernandez, Joseph Stephen Paduano and Benny Abante, led the turnover of documents to the OSG, represented by Assistant Solicitors General Hermes Ocampo and Gilbert Medrano and Senior State Solicitor Neil Lorenzo.

“We trust your office will prioritize this matter and act swiftly to protect the integrity of our nation’s legal and economic systems,” the lawmakers said in a statement.

They said they hope that “forfeiture cases” will be filed against the foreigners involved in illegal Philippine offshore gaming operators or POGOs.

Even prior to the creation of the quad committee, the House dangerous drugs committee chaired by Barbers had discovered some 500 titled prime lots acquired by these Chinese nationals in Central Luzon and even Metro Manila.

One of these Chinese nationals, Barbers said, was identified as Willie Ong, believed to be the brains behind the importation of 530 kilos of shabu worth P3.6 billion stashed in his warehouse in Mexico, Pampanga in September 2023.

Ong, who possesses a forged Philippine passport and other documents, together with his Chinese cohorts, established the Empire 999 real estate firm and had been able to buy 320 titled lots in various parts of Central Luzon and Metro Manila.

The quad comm is currently investigating the influx of Chinese working in illegal POGOs as well as their involvement in drug smuggling, faking of Filipino citizenship, money laundering, fraud, kidnap-for-ransom and other criminal activities.

The quad comm has called on the OSG to coordinate with other key agencies for a case build-up.

Senior administration lawmakers have advised the OSG to work with the Land Registration Authority, Securities and Exchange Commission, Philippine Statistics Authority, Department of Agrarian Reform, Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Department of Justice to ensure a thorough investigation and legal enforcement.

The House officials warned that failure of the OSG to address these violations “could have dire consequences for national security and the economy.”

The legislators, including Representatives Romeo Acop of Antipolo City, Rodge Gutierrez of 1Rider party-list and Paolo Ortega V of La Union, cited the case of Aedy Tai Yang, a Chinese national suspected of falsifying documents to obtain Filipino citizenship.

According to them, Yang allegedly used this to skirt foreign ownership laws, enabling him to acquire land and set up businesses illegally.

Among the submitted documents were Yang’s Philippine Statistics Authority-issued birth certificate from 2004, despite his claim of being born in 1983.

The DA earlier confirmed that some of the lands bought by Yang did not undergo the required conversion process.

In its letter to Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra, the quad committee emphasized the national security risks posed by these activities. “These actions are blatant violations of our laws and call for immediate executive intervention,” the committee stated.

It was also learned based on initial investigation that Yang – per records from the Municipal Civil Registry of San Antonio, Nueva Ecija – indicated that his birth documents were destroyed in a fire, casting doubt on the legitimacy of his citizenship claim.

Failure to downgrade visas

Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said over 5,000 foreign POGO workers have failed to voluntarily downgrade their worker’s visas when the deadline lapsed this month.

He said those who failed to downgrade their 9G visas to tourist visas may either be deported or charged for violation of laws, “depending on what is best for our country.”

“This presents a dilemma to us because it shows that many of them really don’t want to leave the country,” Remulla told reporters.

Foreign workers were given until Oct. 17 to downgrade their 9G visas to allow to them to stay in the country until yearend for the “winding down” of POGO operations in the country and to allow them to finish their pending businesses in the Philippines.

“Winding down is very important since the business entails taking money from people into a wallet, an e-wallet that contains their betting capital,” Remulla said.

“We don’t want to be the ones blamed if the people lose their money, having had no opportunity for the money to be returned because the outfits were closed,” he added.

According to the Bureau of Immigration (BI), over 12,000 foreign POGO workers have applied for a downgrade of their working visas.

A report of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. said labor department records showed there are 38,773 foreign POGO workers in the Philippines as of Oct. 1.

The BI earlier said foreigners who fail to downgrade their visas automatically would have an Order to Leave recorded in their passports, which means they need to immediately leave the country.

The agency clarified that even if it is not a derogatory record, it is permanently on the foreigner’s passport and may become a hindrance to their return to the Philippines.

Those who remain in the country by January will be arrested, deported and included in the blacklist.

Remulla said the government is not considering the matter as a national security issue. “Many of them have nowhere to go in terms of their economic life. That’s, I think, just a realistic assessment of the people who are there,” he said.

Meanwhile, Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez has filed two bills seeking amendments to laws on espionage to penalize spying in times of peace.

Rodriguez proposed House Bill 10983 and HB 10988 which shall amend Commonwealth Act No. 616 or “An Act to Punish Espionage and other Offenses against the National Security” and the Revised Penal Code which were enactd in 1941 and 1932, respectively.

HB 10983 stated that the Philippines “faces numerous threats from foreign intelligence services, terrorist organizations and cybercriminals” and “recent events have shown that there are alleged spies in the Philippines.”

“There is a need to make it clear that the provisions of the Revised Penal Code on espionage can be used whether in times of peace or in times of war,” the bill’s explanatory note read. — Daphne Galvez, Sheila Crisostomo