The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is investigating 50,000 suspected fraudulent delayed birth registrations in light of the revelation that the system has been abused for years.

According to PSA Assistant National Statistician Marizza Grande during the last hearing of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), the suspected cases were arrived at after their field offices conducted audits.

“We've been conducting investigations to this reported fraudulent birth certificates of foreign nationals based on the reports that we received from the DFA. We have the regular backchanneling, the NBI, and the Bureau of Immigration,” Grande said.

“We've come up with some obvious factors that undergone delayed registration. For example, a hilot, yeah? So, using that parameter and delayed registration and the use of one of the parent is a foreigner. So, these are the parameters used and we used the 2010 to 2024 birth statistics data to come up with these statistics, the suspected 50,000 fraudulent birth delayed registrations,” Grande explained.

She said they hope to finish the verification by the end of 2024.

The issue came to light after dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo was discovered to have used delayed registration to register her birth.

Senate request to allow Alice Guo, et al to attend inquiry denied

Lawmakers believe foreigners used the delayed registration to circumvent the law and get a fake Filipino citizenship.

The PSA has also blocked 100,720 birth certificates and civil registry documents as of October — 1,627 of which are birth certificates of foreigners.

The agency endorsed 1,464 of these to the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) for the filing of a petition for cancellation, including the case of Guo.

Is Alice Guo a spy? NSC validating allegation; Defense chief wants stronger espionage law

Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra confirmed the statement of the PSA.

“The PSA has endorsed to us for cancellation a list of registered birth certificates fraudulently obtained by aliens, mostly Chinese. Considering the huge number of these cases, exceeding 1,500 in one civil registry office alone, we have recommended to Congress the enactment of a law that would authorize administrative cancellation of such birth certificates in lieu of a tedious and expensive judicial process,” Guevarra said in a message.

Grande pointed out that from 2010 to 2024, 14.89 million have been registered using the delayed registration schemes.

PSA is also pushing for the amendment of Republic Act 3753 or the Civil Registry Law of the Philippines because several changes already happened since the law’s enactment in 1930.