Something tangible should be done

What if I tell you that China could invade the Philippines without firing a single shot? That it doesn’t even need to escalate the smoldering trouble in the West Philippine Sea? And the much talked about Mutual Defense Treaty would be rendered inutile because it precisely requires armed aggression to trigger intervention from the United States?

By this time, it is no longer a secret how the People’s Republic of China salivates over global dominance and that, unfortunately, the Chinese government finds the Philippines a strategic puzzle piece to achieve its ambition.

An article published recently by Italian quarterly Eurasia Magazine observes that China now practically owns a country, the People’s Democratic Republic of Laos, by putting it in debt to the tune of $5.25 billion, a debt that the latter can only hope to repay by signing away to the former its most important national assets: railways, airports and seaports, even roads and bridges.

A fate worse than that was awaiting the Philippines, but for the fact that then-president Rodrigo Duterte had run out of time. His six-year, non-renewable term had expired in 2022. He tried to revise the Constitution with the express purpose of removing the prohibition against re-election, but failed due to strong opposition from the Filipino people.

If he had succeeded, Mr. Duterte would have delivered on his promise to turn the Philippines into a province of China.

Other developing countries owe China much more, among which are Pakistan, Angola, Sri Lanka,, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zambia, Bangladesh, in hock for $26.60 billion, $20.98 billion, $8.84 billion, $6.82 billion, $6.69 billion, $6.08 billion, and $6.05 billion, respectively.

The Philippines, however, should take special interest in the trouble confronting Laos because that country is China’s close ally, which means that China does not spare even friendly countries from depredation. In fact it seems to prefer friendly countries as prey.

It is becoming increasingly clear that friendship with China is a liability.

Indebted to China for only $1.1 billion, the Philippines has avoided falling into the debt trap. But China has another ace up its sleeve. With Mr. Duterte’s acquiescence, it has flooded the Philippines with Chinese migrants from the mainland, both legal and illegal.

According to the Bureau of Immigration (BI), at least 100,000 Chinese have penetrated and now live in the county illegally, most of whom gained entry during Mr. Duterte’s presidency. The number of illegals is a conservative estimate, or it may have been deliberately under-reported by that government agency

A thousand more Alice Guos

The nation’s interest has been transfixed to the tale of “farm girl” Alice Guo who surreptitiously slipped into local politics and whose presence would have escaped notice save for the discovery of foreign nationals who absconded from their detention at her vast property in Bamban, Tarlac. Authorities later found out that her enclave was being used as a shelter for human trafficking. Ms. Guo is a vital sample of how Chinese nationals could gain entry and later settle here by taking advantage of the country’s corrupt bureaucracy. But Ms. Guo is just one in a multitude. 

As early as February 2020, Senator Risa Hontiveros exposed a practice of BI officials and staff assigned at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to escort illegals out of the airport for P10,000 each so that they would not have to go through the normal immigration processing.

The scheme was called “pastillas” because the bribe money was wrapped and rolled in a piece of paper, the way old folks did it when preparing that carabao milk-and-sugar concoction so popular in the old days.

Once the illegals have settled in, the next step is for them to acquire Philippine citizenship.

In the US, Russian spies become American citizens by assuming the birth certificates of persons who died in infancy or as children, preferably in Canada. With a stolen identity, the “spy” is able to obtain a Canadian passport, which enables him or her to enter the US, land a job, and, eventually, become an American citizen.

Illegal Chinese migrants to the Philippines have no patience or interest to go through such a costly and lengthy process. They just enter the country as tourists.

Once they are here, they file a late or delayed registration of birth with the civil registry, which then sends the document to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), which issues upon request of the party concerned an authenticated birth certificate.

The birth certificate enables the Chinese nationals to apply for Philippine passports, which also allow them to buy land, skirting the prohibition against foreigners owning real estate in the country.

In April of this year, it’s been reported that Congressman Ace Barbers has called on the government to investigate how “fake Filipino nationals [all Chinese],who can’t even utter a single Filipino word, are [able to buy] huge tracts of lands near EDCA (Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement) sites, near major air and sea ports, and establish large numbers of warehouses and other business establishments.”

There are nine EDCA sites all over the country allowed under the Visiting Forces Agreement between the Philippines and the United States. Their apparent purpose is to counter China’s quest for dominance in South China Sea.

Now, to circle back to the late-birth registration issue.

The process is simple and straightforward enough for child applicants. It is a little more complicated for an adult. The applicants have to provide their school record – a requirement Ms. Guo, the embattled mayor of Bamban, Tarlac, skirted by claiming she was home-schooled.

Apparently, the civil registrar accepted the explanation, and let it go at that. For whatever reason or persuasion, it never occurred to the civil registrar that Ms. Guo could get a copy of the document from the Department of Education. 

It turned out that Ms. Guo went to Grace Christian School in Quezon City for her elementary education, which explains her fluency in Tagalog.

A week ago, nearly 200 Chinese nationals were issued birth certificates by the civil registrar in Davao del Sur. The fact that the persons concerned could not speak a word of Tagalog or any of the Filipino languages or dialects was a red flag, but the civil registrar just did not care. The applicants may not even have bothered to appear personally to file their request.

Senator Win Gatchalian, citing a National Bureau of Investigation report, said the Chinese nationals paid P300,000 a pop for the fake documents.

The crime was uncovered when one of the Chinese nationals applied for a Philippine passport. An alert DFA employee discovered that the documents the man submitted were spurious.

According to the senator, hundreds of thousands of other Chinese nationals may have successfully manipulated the system, and that is only possible, he surmised, with the collusion of the PSA itself.

But what do these Chinese come to the Philippines for? Well, most of them are posing as migrants in search of a better life. Many Filipinos suspect, however, that these migrants constitute the communist nation’s advance invading force.  

While they’re here, they take jobs away from Filipinos, thus exacerbating the country’s unemployment problem. They are absorbed in mining, telecommunications, and the construction industries, run by their compatriots, who are in the country legally, thanks to the relaxation of the rules on immigration made by the Duterte regime.

The more savvy (some say criminally minded) of these migrants find their way to Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) companies.

Authorities say there are 34 POGOs, since renamed Internet Gaming Licensees (IGL) because of the unsavory reputation they have brought upon themselves, and some of them have thousands of employees each. That number does not include illegal operators. It is hard to believe that the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, which is supposed to monitor POGO operations, is not aware of their existence.

POGOS must go

Vantage Point has been clear since it first dwelled on the issue that the government should ban POGO operations across the country. I find it odd that Duterte allowed it here despite strong objections from China where it is strictly prohibited. 

Perhaps it is the specter of rising criminality which drove some our lawmakers to tighten the screws on POGO operations. Operatives of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) raided, one after the other, two such illegal POGO operation – one in Bamban, Tarlac, and the other in Porac, Pampanga.

The bigger of the two is Lucky South 99, which occupies 34 buildings on a ten-hectare Porac compound. However, the public fascination is centered on the Bamban facility, which is allegedly owned by Ms. Guo, against whom the Senate has recently issued an arrest warrant.

It is apparent that the change of name did nothing to improve the image of POGO or IGL operations in the country.

The PAOCC found them harboring criminals and undocumented aliens, running prostitution rings, and engaging in online scamming activities. Most disturbing of all, the police discovered instruments of torture, believed to have been used to punish employees who fell short of the work expected of them.

Rappler’s Kaycee Valmonte reported that residents of posh Ayala Alabang Village (AAV) are legally going after neighbors whom they suspect to be concealing individuals who are connected to POGOs. Residents bemoan incidents such as kidnapping and seeing armed bodyguards becoming the norm in the usually tranquil upscale village. Again, AAV is just one the of the thousands of subdivisions having similar problems, with smaller ones having no wherewithal to go after these illicit operations. 

POGO or IGL has supporters in all branches of government, from local government officials to members of Congress, and, until Mr. Duterte left office, all the way up to the presidency itself. 

There are also unverified reports of politicians’ “pilgrimage” to China whenever election season draws near. They trek there along with their families purportedly to unwind but in reality to allegedly solicit campaign funds. It’s about time that we should call out the immigration bureau and put it to task by monitoring the number of politicians going out to China whenever election fever nears.  

But the pro-China elements in Philippine society are in the minority. A recent study made by the PEW Research Center shows only 16% of Filipinos have a favorable view of China.

In contrast, fully 78% expresses preference for the United States. It used to be 92%, according to the study, which means that the unrelenting propaganda mounted by then President Duterte against the Americans has made some headway.

Something tangible should be done.

The unwanted presence of hundreds of thousands of Chinese nationals in the country, the high social costs of POGO operations, and the encroachment of China in the country’s territorial waters are substantial causes for alarm. We don’t want to wake up one day to see the communist nation’s flag, instead of the Philippine national flag, being hoisted in Malacañang, do we? – Rappler.com