EDITORIAL — Tainted registries

The former municipal civil registrar of Sta. Cruz town in Davao del Sur along with three other employees in the office have been slapped with 66 counts of falsification of public documents, graft and corruption, perjury and violations of the Registry of Civil Status.

The charges were filed last week before the Office of the Ombudsman by the National Bureau of Investigation in connection with the issuance of fake Philippine birth certificates to Chinese nationals under the late registration scheme. The NBI has indicted former Sta. Cruz civil registrar Mario Tizon for the alleged issuance of at least 1,576 fake birth certificates to Chinese nationals from 2016 to 2023.

Tizon was suspended last year amid the NBI probe. In July 2024, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said he had received reports that fake birth certificates could be obtained from Sta. Cruz town for an average fee of P300,000. The fee for the birth certificate included a Philippine passport and driver’s license, Gatchalian said, citing sources from the Chinese community.

The scheme came to light following the arrest of a Chinese resident of Sta. Cruz town who was born in China’s Fujian province but had applied for a Philippine passport to travel to the United States last year.

NBI probers said Qui Halin presented a Philippine birth certificate under the name of Hengson Jabilles Limonsero, a driver’s license and even a national identification card issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority or PSA. Many Filipino citizens still don’t have their national ID card.

The NBI said other local government units were under investigation in connection with the fraudulent birth registration scheme. LGU officials, however, pointed out following Tizon’s suspension that civil registrars are outside the control of local governments and instead report directly to the PSA. It is common for civil registrars like Tizon to occupy the position for many years, the LGU officials said.

With the indictment of four of its employees, the PSA should review its systems, conduct a thorough housecleaning and implement reforms to plug opportunities for corruption. The PSA is relied upon for accurate demographic statistics and other information. It cannot afford to have a corruption scandal tarnishing the integrity of its data.