Two divisions of the National Bureau of Investigation are now probing the illegal issuance of Philippine passports to foreign nationals, which senators warned may compromise national security.
“The investigation of our Anti-Fraud Division and the International Operations Division is ongoing,” NBI Director Medardo de Lemos said.
Senators on Monday asked the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency and the National Security Council to conduct a parallel probe on how official government IDs and documents, including passports, were obtained by foreigners.
“Real passports, real national IDs, real Philippine licenses and issued licenses have been issued to foreign nationals,” Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said during plenary deliberations on the proposed budgets for the NSA and NICA for 2024.
“We would like to look into this together with the NBI. The NBI is investigating this but there are national security implications to this. We were shown how easy it is for foreigners to be able to get birth certificates, official PSA documents and therefore, being able to get real passports as well as real driver’s licenses and national IDs. I think there’s security concerns on that,” Zubiri said.
Last week, the Senate recalled the plenary approval of the proposed budget of the Philippine Statistics Authority amid reports that authentic birth certificates were issued to foreign nationals, which enabled them to get Philippine passports.
The IDs included those from the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.
The recall happened after Senator Ronald dela Rosa presented information on 10 foreigners who were intercepted by authorities after presenting legitimate Philippine passports.
Senator Marcos said it was reprehensible to hear that the Philippines has become a playground for criminals around the world.
“This is scary and should be investigated thoroughly,” she said in Filipino.
Dela Rosa said the P24 billion budget of the DFA could also be jeopardized over the issuance of passports to foreigners.