PHILSTAR FILE PHOTO

AUTHORITIES have uncovered a scheme that involves the use of fake Filipino identities to operate businesses employing illegal foreign workers in Mindanao, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) reported on Thursday.

The BI crackdown led to the arrest of a 50-year-old Chinese national on March 20 in Digos City.

She was managing a hardware store registered under a Filipino identity now under investigation.

Investigators found she held a work visa issued by a company in Pasig City but was engaged in unauthorized employment in Davao del Sur.

Filipino employees at the hardware store admitted that the registered owner was nonexistent, and the business permits were based on falsified documents.

In a related operation on March 24, BI operatives apprehended four other Chinese nationals working illegally at a chemical manufacturing plant in M’lang, North Cotabato.

Further investigation revealed that one of them had obtained Philippine birth certificates and other documents under a false identity.

Employees at the plant claimed that the registered Filipina owner had been absent since the business opened and that the real owner was a Chinese national based in Manila.

BI Commissioner Joel Anthony M. Viado expressed deep concern about the increasing trend of foreign nationals acquiring Philippine identities to set up businesses, warning that these fraudulent identities could be exploited for nefarious purposes.

“These documents and new identities may be used by foreigners with mal-intent and could be exploited by possible spies embedding themselves in society by pretending to be Filipinos,” he said in a statement.

He called for stricter regulations governing the issuance of Filipino documents and identification cards to prevent further abuse.

All five Chinese nationals now face deportation proceedings. The arrests were conducted in cooperation with intelligence agencies in Region 12, the National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Mlang Municipal Police Station. — Chloe Mari A. Hufana