SENATE deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros yesterday said the upper chamber should investigate how a “Filipino-Chinese” managed to acquire fraudulent documents that showed he is a Filipino citizen.
Hontiveros was referring to businessman Joseph Sy, chairman of the mining firm Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc., who was held by the Bureau of Immigration at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport upon arrival from Hong Kong last August 21.
The BI said the 60-year-old Sy, whose real name is Chen Zhong Zhen, had been using a Philippine passport issued in 2021 and was also carrying several identification cards showing that he is a Filipino, but the bureau’s Alien Registration Division confirmed through fingerprint matching that Sy is a Chinese citizen who previously held a long-term visa and an Alien Certificate of Registration ID card.
Hontiveros said Sy’s case raises a national security alarm since he even managed to be appointed to the Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary “executive squadron” with the honorary rank of “Auxiliary Commodore” effective July 26, 2018.
She said Sy was reminiscent of Alice Guo, also known as Guo Hua Ping, the former mayor of Bamban, Tarlac, who managed to acquire fraudulent documents to fake her Filipino citizenship.
“Even though the PCGA is non-government and joining it is voluntary, Sy has had access to people and events where national security could have been discussed,” Hontiveros said.
Hontiveros said she also has information that during former President Rodrigo Duterte’s state visit to China in 2016, Sy’s company entered into a partnership with Chinese state-owned enterprises Baiyin Nonferrous Group Co. Ltd.
The agreement, she added, involved mining operations in Palawan, a sensitive and strategic location in the ongoing territorial dispute between the Philippines and China.
“What could Sy’s real agenda be? Is he simply conducting business in Palawan or is there more to his operations than meets the eye?” she said.
“If this businessman is indeed a Chinese masquerading as a Filipino, the Senate must immediately probe his affiliations, background, and the circumstances under which he obtained his Philippine documents. We should look into who enabled him and how deep his network goes,” she added.
