BI: Foreigners with Philippine passports a national security issue

MANILA, Philippines — The proliferation of illegally acquired Philippine passports should be considered a national security issue, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said yesterday.

In a statement, Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said the problem was raised during a recent hearing of the Senate finance committee, during which it was mentioned that there were at least 10 recent cases of authentic passports used by illegal aliens.

Tansingco said that foreigners were able to illegally acquire Philippine passports, birth certificates, driver’s license and postal identification cards.

“Their use of authentic documents make it doubly difficult to detect and arrest,” he said.

In April, Korean Kim Ho Cheol was caught with Philippine documents reportedly acquired for him by a compatriot.

Earlier this month, the BI reported the arrest of Faizan Muhammad for presenting a Philippine national identification card.