Bizarre news has emerged from the Philippines with a Chinese national arrested by immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport for carrying a fake Philippine passport that belonged to a seven-year-old child.
According to Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente, the Chinese man initially presented himself as 33-year-old Mark Anthony Cobeng. He was intercepted on Tuesday, March 29, before boarding his flight to the Maldives via a private jet.
Morente said immigration officer Lourdes Mercado was the one who initially noticed discrepancies in the bio page of the Chinese man's Philippine passport, which looked to be counterfeit. The Philippine Star reported that Mercado started interviewing the Chinese individual.
Chinese national uses Philippine passport that belonged to 7-year-old boy
Morente said that was when immigration officers noticed that the Chinese passenger did not even know how to speak basic Filipino words. Immigration sources revealed that the identity on the Chinese national's Philippine passport belonged to a 7-year-old boy who was born last 2014, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority database.
The passport picture was also replaced with the photo of the intercepted Chinese national, according to the anti-fraud unit of the Bureau of Immigration. The arrested Chinese man's passport had a tampered date of birth. It also had an extended passport validity of 10 years instead of only 3-5 years that the Department of Foreign Affairs gives to minors.
This is not the first time someone has been arrested for carrying a fake Philippine passport. The Philippine News Agency reported that a Saudi-bound passenger was arrested last year for using a passport with a different name.
The Chinese passenger in question was identified as Xu Kaidi. He was in the company of another Chinese national, whose passport authorities confirmed was in order. Morente did not identify the said companion, who voluntarily deferred his trip to the Maldives.
It was confirmed by the Manila Control Tower of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines that the Airbus Elite ACJ private jet with tail registration 9H-UE and flight number MLM 318 departed without the two Chinese passengers around 12:17 p.m. on March 29.
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Chinese national causes commotion at the airport
Port operations chief Carlos Capulong told reporters that Xu caused a commotion at the Philippine airport after immigration officers wanted to check his travel documents. Sensing that authorities were on to his illegal paperwork, Xu made a scene and refused to have his passport checked by immigration officials.
Xu, who has been detained since Tuesday at the immigration detention center in Bicutan, faces charges of falsifying public documents. Morente said the Chinese national was turned over to the Legal Division of the Bureau of Immigration for deportation proceedings.
Xu's lawyer, Atty. Jan Paulo Dino, told ABS-CBN that they could not make any further comments on this issue considering that legal proceedings are already underway. Immigration investigators from the Philippines are now coordinating with the Chinese Embassy to assist in identifying the Chinese national in custody. The Department of Foreign Affairs is also investigating how Xu got a Philippine passport.
