PAPERWORK Representatives Robert Ace Barbers (center) and Dan Fernandez of the House quad committee turn over documents gathered by their panel to Assistant Solicitor General Hermes Ocampo at the House of Representatives. These concern properties believed to be acquired by Chinese nationals using fraudulently obtained citizenship papers or through dummies. —Lyn Rillon
MANILA, Philippines — The House quad committee on Monday called on the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) to immediately file civil forfeiture cases against Chinese nationals accused of fraudulently obtaining Philippine citizenship to illegally acquire land and operate businesses here.
The quad committee turned over to the OSG documents pertaining to the land acquisitions and properties believed to be “owned, procured, acquired” by Chinese nationals in violation of the Constitution.
Article continues after this advertisement“In the course of the investigation of the committee on public accounts and the committee on dangerous drugs, we have discovered that there are several Chinese personalities who acquired properties in the province of Pampanga,” said Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, the lead chair of the quad committee.
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He estimated the size of the involved lands to be in the “thousands of hectares.”
Article continues after this advertisement“Let me emphasize also that they pretended to be Filipinos. They used fake and spurious documents to prove they are Filipino, until we discovered that they were Chinese nationals,” the lawmaker pointed out.
Article continues after this advertisement“They also used Filipinos as dummies, apparently Filipino-Chinese. Those are on our list. So we can see that we were deceived,” he added.
Article continues after this advertisement Swift actionThe committee noted that the document handover is part of its broader investigation into illegal Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos), drug trade, land grabbing by Chinese nationals and extrajudicial killings linked to the Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs.
In its letter to Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra, the quad committee emphasized the national security risks posed by these activities, urging swift action.
Article continues after this advertisement“These actions are blatant violations of our laws and call for immediate executive intervention,” the committee said.
It urged the OSG to expedite the review of the documents and initiate all necessary legal actions in coordination with the relevant agencies.
These include the Land Registration Authority (LRA), Registry of Deeds, Bureau of Immigration, National Bureau of Immigration, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Securities and Exchange Commission, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), and the Department of Justice, Department of Finance, Department of Foreign Affairs and Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) “to ensure a thorough investigation and legal enforcement.”
The committee warned that failing to address these violations could have dire consequences on national security and the economy.
The OSG committed to review the documents and determine whether the ownership of the identified lands still remained with Chinese nationals or had been transferred to qualified Filipino individuals or entities.
“If the real estate is still in the name of these Chinese, we will file the necessary actions,” the OSG said.
Fake documentsIn a press briefing, the committee mentioned two key personalities—Chinese nationals Aedy Tai Yang and Willie Ong—implicated in questionable land sales with the local government of Mexico, Pampanga.
The committee said Yang “has emerged as a central figure in these inquiries, representing what the committee views as a larger issue of foreign nationals exploiting legal loopholes to control land and businesses in the Philippines.”
According to the quad committee, Yang, a Chinese national suspected of falsifying documents to obtain Philippine citizenship that he allegedly used to skirt foreign ownership laws, acquired land and set up businesses illegally.
Among the submitted documents were Yang’s PSA-issued birth certificate from 2004, despite his claim of being born in 1983.
“Records from the Municipal Civil Registry of San Antonio, Nueva Ecija, indicate that his birth documents were destroyed in a fire, casting doubt on the legitimacy of his citizenship claim,” the quad committee said.
Also submitted to the OSG were certifications from the PSA on Yang’s marriage, tax declarations for properties in his name and corporate records linked to him, such as those from Empire 999 Realty Corp. and Sunflare Industrial Supply Corp.
These companies, the quad committee added, are linked to suspicious land acquisitions, with LRA records showing properties owned by the incorporators of Empire 999, the same owner of a warehouse in Mexico, Pampanga, where a “shabu” shipment worth P3.6 billion was seized in 2023.
Questionable dealsThe committee also presented documents showing questionable land deals between Yang and the local government of Mexico, supported by memorandums of agreement, deeds of sale and municipal resolutions that “bypassed” legal processes.
“The [DAR] has confirmed that some of the lands sold by Aedy Tai Yang did not undergo the required conversion process, further highlighting the illegal nature of these transactions,” it said.
Barbers noted that Ong headed Empire 999 and has as many as 300 land titles under his name.
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“Consider this: There are a lot of other corporations that we may not have discovered yet. There are a lot of Chinese corporations pretending to be owned by Filipinos. There are many pure Chinese pretending to be Filipinos, and owning and buying propertiesiwildcasino,” he lamented.
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