PAPERWORK Representatives Robert Ace Barbers (middle) and Dan Fernandez of the Home quad committee flip over paperwork gathered by their panel to Assistant Solicitor Common Hermes Ocampo on the Home of Representatives. These concern properties believed to be acquired by Chinese language nationals utilizing fraudulently obtained citizenship papers or by dummies. —Lyn Rillon
MANILA, Philippines — The Home quad committee on Monday referred to as on the Workplace of the Solicitor Common (OSG) to right away file civil forfeiture circumstances in opposition to Chinese language nationals accused of fraudulently acquiring Philippine citizenship to illegally purchase land and function companies right here.
The quad committee turned over to the OSG paperwork pertaining to the land acquisitions and properties believed to be “owned, procured, acquired” by Chinese language nationals in violation of the Structure.
“In the middle of the investigation of the committee on public accounts and the committee on harmful medicine, we now have found that there are a number of Chinese language personalities who acquired properties within the province of Pampanga,” mentioned Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, the lead chair of the quad committee.
READ: PAOCC probes report Chinese language nationals shopping for lands in Central Luzon
He estimated the dimensions of the concerned lands to be within the “1000’s of hectares.”
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“Let me emphasize additionally that they pretended to be Filipinos. They used pretend and spurious paperwork to show they’re Filipino, till we found that they had been Chinese language nationals,” the lawmaker identified.
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“In addition they used Filipinos as dummies, apparently Filipino-Chinese language. These are on our checklist. So we will see that we had been deceived,” he added.
Swift motion
The committee famous that the doc handover is a part of its broader investigation into unlawful Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos), drug commerce, land grabbing by Chinese language nationals and extrajudicial killings linked to the Duterte administration’s bloody warfare on medicine.
In its letter to Solicitor Common Menardo Guevarra, the quad committee emphasised the nationwide safety dangers posed by these actions, urging swift motion.
“These actions are blatant violations of our legal guidelines and name for quick govt intervention,” the committee mentioned.
It urged the OSG to expedite the evaluation of the paperwork and provoke all obligatory authorized actions in coordination with the related companies.
These embody the Land Registration Authority (LRA), Registry of Deeds, Bureau of Immigration, Nationwide Bureau of Immigration, Bureau of Inside Income, Securities and Change Fee, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), and the Division of Justice, Division of Finance, Division of International Affairs and Division of Agrarian Reform (DAR) “to make sure a radical investigation and authorized enforcement.”
The committee warned that failing to handle these violations might have dire penalties on nationwide safety and the financial system.
The OSG dedicated to evaluation the paperwork and decide whether or not the possession of the recognized lands nonetheless remained with Chinese language nationals or had been transferred to certified Filipino people or entities.
“If the true property remains to be within the identify of those Chinese language, we’ll file the required actions,” the OSG mentioned.
Pretend paperwork
In a press briefing, the committee talked about two key personalities—Chinese language nationals Aedy Tai Yang and Willie Ong—implicated in questionable land gross sales with the native authorities of Mexico, Pampanga.
The committee mentioned Yang “has emerged as a central determine in these inquiries, representing what the committee views as a bigger concern of overseas nationals exploiting authorized loopholes to regulate land and companies within the Philippines.”
In keeping with the quad committee, Yang, a Chinese language nationwide suspected of falsifying paperwork to acquire Philippine citizenship that he allegedly used to skirt overseas possession legal guidelines, acquired land and arrange companies illegally.
Among the many submitted paperwork had been Yang’s PSA-issued beginning certificates from 2004, regardless of his declare of being born in 1983.
“Information from the Municipal Civil Registry of San Antonio, Nueva Ecija, point out that his beginning paperwork had been destroyed in a fireplace, casting doubt on the legitimacy of his citizenship declare,” the quad committee mentioned.
Additionally submitted to the OSG had been certifications from the PSA on Yang’s marriage, tax declarations for properties in his identify and company information linked to him, reminiscent of these from Empire 999 Realty Corp. and Sunflare Industrial Provide Corp.
These corporations, the quad committee added, are linked to suspicious land acquisitions, with LRA information displaying properties owned by the incorporators of Empire 999, the identical proprietor of a warehouse in Mexico, Pampanga, the place a “shabu” cargo price P3.6 billion was seized in 2023.
Questionable offers
The committee additionally introduced paperwork displaying questionable land offers between Yang and the native authorities of Mexico, supported by memorandums of settlement, deeds of sale and municipal resolutions that “bypassed” authorized processes.
“The [DAR] has confirmed that a few of the lands offered by Aedy Tai Yang didn’t bear the required conversion course of, additional highlighting the unlawful nature of those transactions,” it mentioned.
Barbers famous that Ong headed Empire 999 and has as many as 300 land titles below his identify.
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“Take into account this: There are quite a lot of different companies that we might not have found but. There are quite a lot of Chinese language companies pretending to be owned by Filipinos. There are various pure Chinese language pretending to be Filipinos, and proudly owning and shopping for properties,” he lamented.
