EDITORIAL — Painting an ugly picture

Some recent developments here revealed that a number of foreigners were able to secure fraudulent documents like Philippine birth certificates. And where it all starts might just have been uncovered by the Senate.

During the Senate’s resumption of their hearing into fake documents the other day it was revealed that 1,501 of certificates of live birth were issued as late registrations to foreigners from 2016 to 2023 in Sta. Cruz town in Davao del Sur.

And while Davao del Sur officials said they found the development irregular, they cannot immediately say if the entries were fake.

“We found out that these documents… kulang po ‘yung mga attachments so we concluded na irregularly issued po siya na birth certificates. As of now, we cannot conclude kung falsified po yung mga entries,” Sta. Cruz government legal officer Ryonnel Cabardo is quoted as saying in a GMA report.

What’s more irregular is that it seems only one civil registrar was involved in the issuance of those 1,501 late registrations. That registrar is currently under suspension.

We don’t yet have the full picture here, so we will reserve judgment on that registrar until everything has been explained. However, the partial picture it does paint isn’t pretty; that some people in the government are negligent or gullible enough to be fooled many times, or that they are willing to turn a blind eye to something so irregular.

During that hearing Senator Risa Hontiveros also brought attention to the fact that the late registrations happened in the turf of former president Rodrigo Duterte and also during his administration. This might just be a coincidence, but then again it might also not be.

But now, as with any mass irregularity that happened in a local government unit, we have to ask if this has happened in other places in the Philippines, and how many more irregular late registrations were made by individuals who might be suspect.