LAWMAKERS have questioned the citizenship of a Filipino-Chinese businessman whose personal circumstances were found to be similar to suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo, a suspected Chinese infiltrator whose alleged ties to criminal syndicates is also under investigation.
Lawmakers stumbled upon the curious case of Henry Bigay, who, like Guo, is a suspected Chinese citizen, at the resumption of the hearing of the House committee on dangerous drugs into the P3.6 billion drug bust in Mexico, Pampanga in September last year, which authorities were able to track down in the area from the Port of Subic in Zambales.
It was through the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) port that the illegal drugs entered the country before being transported to Barangay San Jose Malino in Mexico.
Bigay is listed as an incorporator of Yatai International Corporation, a company linked to Empire 999 Realty Corporation, which owns the Pampanga warehouse where the illegal drugs were discovered by the NBI and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
Yatai controls local electrical and light company Omni, of which Bigay is the president.
Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, panel chair, could not believe that the businessman has Philippine and Chinese passports despite China’s prohibition of dual citizenship and that like Guo, his birth was also belatedly registered.
Bigay admitted that he holds two passports and that he certified under oath that he does not hold other passports from another country when he applied for and renewed his Philippine passport.
Barbers asserted that Bigay, also known as Henry Cai Yang, is a Chinese citizen, citing his ability to renew his Chinese passport last year, which requires a birth certificate for application.
Bigay, who admitted that he also goes by the name Henry Yang, initially told the panel that his biological mother, Maria Luisa Bigay, a Filipina, was separated from his Chinese father, Yang Hua Hong, although it was his father who raised him.
“Who raised you during those times?” Bukidnon Rep. Jonathan Keith Flores asked Bigay who said, “Sa pagka-alaala ko po, tatay ko po (From what I remember, it was my father).”
Like Guo, Bigay said also claimed before lawmakers that he has not met his mother, which further piqued the lawmakers’ interest.
“I hope you understand why we’re asking these questions, especially now that the issue of Alice Guo popped out, because when it comes to acquiring citizenship especially with late registration, it has become an issue and I hope you understand why we’re asking these questions,” Flores told Bigay.
“It might be personal, but that line of questioning is nothing personal, I just want to find out because most of the people I know, just to circumvent the prohibition on the ownership of properties, or in the controlling stake in a corporation, usually pretend that they are Filipinos and that’s why we’re very interested in this,” the lawmaker added.
Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez, who chairs the House committee on public order and safety, said: “We love our Filipino-born Chinese (citizens), having a Chinese father or mother who chose to be a Filipino. We love them.
“What we hate in this committee is those who are pretending to be Filipinos, but are foreigners who want to own our different properties and own different corporations,” he said. “If you are a foreigner pretending to be a Filipino, and owning corporations, and different properties, then we are enemies.”
Foreign Affairs Deputy Assistant Secretary Arman Talbo told the panel that under Philippine laws, dual citizenship can only be granted if the other country would allow it.
“As far as we are aware Mr. Chair, that is not possible unless the Filipino is a dual citizen by birth, which happens in certain cases Mr. Chair, like for example for Filipinos with a Filipino parent and an American parent, and when they were born, they both had a Filipino and an American citizen, then they are considered dual by birth,” he said.
“But if subsequently, for example, a Filipino born of both Filipino parents, and subsequently reacquires another citizenship, then that Filipino loses the Filipino citizenship and won’t be entitled to a passport until that Filipino reacquires through R.A. 9225 or the Citizen Retention or Reacquisition Act,” he added.
Vicente Uncad of the Bureau of Immigration said records still list Bigay as “native-born.”
“If you are native-born, you still have to undergo naturalization or another process before you can apply for a Philippine passport,” he said.
Barbers urged his colleagues to amend and upgrade the antiquated Special Investor’s Resident Visa (SIRV) program, which he said is now being used as a “ticket” by some foreign drug syndicates, money launderers and other criminal elements to set up their base of operations in the Philippines.
Yesterday, Barbers said the country’s SIRV program being implemented by the Board of Investments (BOI) is being taken advantage of by unscrupulous foreign individuals making the country a “haven” for the illegal activities.
He said that pursuant to Book V of the Omnibus Investment Code (Executive Order No. 226, as amended), the SIRV program requires investors to remit at least US$75,000 into the country and invest in viable economic activities.
“Sa halagang P4.8 million (P58.51 to US$1), ang isang member ng isang criminal syndicate ay maaari nang pumasok, manatili at gawin ang kanilang illegal na gawain sa ating bansa gamit ang SIRV program as cover (For just P4.8 million, a member of a criminal syndicate can enter, stay and pull off their illegal activities in our country using the SIRV program as cover),” he said in a statement.
Barber said the SIRV program is currently conveniently being used by many Chinese now manning retail stores in Metro Manila and other parts of the country, selling smuggled cheap goods from China.
He also cited reports that the SIRV program was also the “ticket” allegedly used by Guo and her parents to enter the country in January 2003 when she was only 13 years old.
Based on BOI’s and Bureau of Immigration documents, the real name of Alice Guo was Guo Hua Ping and was born on August 31, 1990. Her mother was identified as Lin Wenyi based on the SIRV application her family submitted to the BOI.
The Lower House is currently investigating the influx of Chinese working in illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) firms; involvement in drugs smuggling; acquiring Filipino citizenship using spurious documents; money laundering, fraud, kidnap-for-ransom, and other criminal activities.
One of these Chinese nationals, Barbers said, was identified as Willie Ong who is believed as the brains behind the importation of the 530 kilos of shabu stashed in his warehouse in Mexico, Pampanga.
Barbers said Ong, who possesses forged Filipino passports and other documents, together with his Chinese cohorts, established the Empire 999 real estate firm, and has anomalously been able to buy 320 titled lots in various parts of Central Luzon and Metro Manila.
The government, through the Office of the Solicitor General and the Land Registration Authority, is set to conduct forfeiture proceedings against Ong’s acquired real estate properties worth several billion pesos.
