Metro Manila, Philippines — Four House committees probing illegal offshore gaming activities have asked the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) to recover lands that they said were found to have fraudulently acquired by Chinese nationals in the course of hearings.
The Constitution restricts foreign nationals from acquiring full land ownership.
Quad committee co-chairperson and Surigao del Norte 2nd District Rep. Ace Barbers said a number of Chinese nationals have acquired thousands of hectares of land in Pampanga province.
The panel turned over documents involving cases against Chinese nationals to the OSG on Monday, Oct. 21 for possible forfeiture property proceedings.
“Ito sila ay nagpanggap na mga Pilipino. Gumamit sila ng mga peke at spurious na mga dokumento na magpapatunay na sila ay Pilipino until we have discovered na sila ay Chinese nationals,” Barbers said in a press briefing.
[Translation: They pretended to be Filipinos. They used fake and spurious documents to prove they are Filipinos until we discovered that they are Chinese nationals.]
Abang Lingkod party-list Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano named a certain Aedy Tai Yang who set up a business. He has been linked to the Empire 999 Realty Corp., which has alleged suspicious land acquisitions.
Santa Rosa, Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez said the Chinese nationals used the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) birth certificate as one of their documents.
“Ang PSA nag-relax sila du’n sa requirements nila para du’n sa birth certificate also du’n sa mga local civil registrar. Kaya sana itong ating Solicitor General have to look deeper du’n sa problem ng PSA saka local civil registrar,” he said.
[Translation: The PSA relaxed its requirements for birth certificates as well as local civil registrars. So, we hope the solicitor general will look deeper into the issue.]
Fernandez said he also asked the OSG to coordinate with Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin for the issuance of an asset preservation order for the lands pending the processing of documents.
The OSG said it will review the documents.
If the property is under the name of a Chinese national, the OSG said it will file appropriate actions. But if it has been transferred to a Filipino, those involved in the transfer will be subject to possible administrative or criminal actions.
