Former Part- Time Independent Consultant 15h
China nationals have spuriously acquired fake Philippines birth certificates thru decades in connivance with filipino corrupt officials. This enabled them to purchase lands in the Philippines that pose security threat amid fears of criminal operations with possible links to such sales.
Some important excerpts from report below:
- a Senate committee investigating links between offshore gaming operators (Pogos) and killings tied to former president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war revealed suspicious land purchases by several Chinese individuals who have bought thousands of hectares of land in the Central Luzon region (northwest of Manila) involving 300 property titles
- Acquiring properties enables the quick setup of enterprises linked to criminal activities in the Philippines — a common money-laundering tactic for actors involved in gambling or scam operations. These people convert or buy citizenships and then convert funds from online gambling or scam compounds into actual economic assets in the country
- With land already owned by Chinese nationals, foreign companies come in – e.g. a Chinese Macau and Hong Kong company in cyber scams could easily find a partner.
- Some of these are already Filipino- Chinese, & a lot easier for them to bring investments and money from abroad that can be used for criminal activities
- “Sherwin Ona, a visiting fellow at the Institute for National Defence and Security Research in Taiwan, said many such property acquisitions could be ‘part of a broader influence agenda and even possibly espionage activities’”.
- Dismissed Bamban town mayor Alice Guo, who faced accusations of being a Chinese state agent was found to have fingerprints that matched with those of a Chinese national named Guo Hua Ping, who entered the Philippines in 2003.(The Department of Foreign Affairs had cancelled her passport, citing fraud, and the Office of the Solicitor General filed a petition to cancel her birth certificate)
- Chinese nationals were found to have bought properties adjacent to military bases and sites under the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (which allowed American forces to operate in these locations in line with Manila’s 73-year-old treaty alliance with the United States)
- The use of illegal assets facilitate the operations — with Pogo (Philipoine Online Gambling Operations) facilities located near Philippine military sites used as targets for Chinese intelligence operations
- In Central Luzon in particular, Chinese-linked illegal activities have been able to flourish far away from Manila where security was tighter
- Prior to the recent Pogo raids, Chinese criminal organisations had already been involved in illegal business activities in the Philippines, such as smuggling and unauthorised mining.
- They also buy certain ports & resorts that give these criminal organisations opportunities & cover to smuggle goods & espionage activities.
- Endemic corruption in the Philippines & inefficient bureaucracy have allowed Chinese nationals’ activities to go on and compromise security
- The problem had previously surfaced in other parts of the country with the National Bureau of Investigation uncovering nearly 1,200 falsified birth certificates – mostly belonging to Chinese nationals – registered in the local civil registry of Sta Cruz town in Davao del Sur since 2016.
“These malign activities are happening not only in the Philippines but also others like the US and Taiwan, to name a few,” Ona, who is also an associate professor at the De La Salle University’s political science department, told This Week in Asia.
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