A Chinese man was arrested by immigration officers after introducing himself as a Vanuatuan citizen, who tried to leave the country with fake travel documents.
The fake Vanuatuan citizen, using the name Alex Cooper, was intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) 3 terminal before he could board a Thai Airways flight to Bangkok.
Cooper’s Chinese name has yet to be ascertained. He is detained now at the BI’s detention facility in Taguig City, and being investigated for having a questionable identity for which reason he could be deported as an undesirable alien.
“If we are able to establish that he is actually a Chinese citizen and that his Vanuatu passport was merely procured from fixers to conceal his real identity, he will be summarily deported and banned from re-entering the country,” BI Chief Norman Tansingco.
Tansingco stressed that aliens who misrepresent themselves by using spurious documents to enter and stay in the Philippines are liable for blatantly violating the country’s immigration laws and should be expelled to their country of origin.
Investigation conducted by the BI’s border control and intelligence unit (BCIU) initially revealed that Cooper speaks very fluent Chinese and could hardly converse in English.
He has never gone to Vanuatu and he knows nothing about the South Pacific nation and its culture. He also uses a Chinese mobile phone.
It was learned that Cooper was put on the BI’s alert list after informants tipped the bureau about his fake Vanuatu citizenship.
He has reportedly used his Vanuatu passport to enter and exit the country when travelling to other foreign destinations such as Japan and Thailand.
The Vanuatu passport likewise showed that it was issued to Cooper on Feb. 15, 2021 and that he used the same when he first arrived in Manila on June 30, 2022.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline “BI detains Chinese who tries to pass himself off as Vanuatuan”.