MANILA, 15 August 2003 — So there your are — they are, indeed, Fil-shams.
The Senate has recommended summary deportation proceedings against five players in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) whom they found out to be fake Filipinos, notoriously known as Fil-shams.
Talk ‘N Text star Asi Taulava and four other Fil-Ams playing in the PBA are ordered to be thrown out of the country after they failed to convince the Senate of their Filipino roots.
After conducting seven public hearings and months of field work, the Senate panel concluded that Taulava, Andy Seigle of Purefoods, Devonn Harp of Red Bull, Rudy Hatfield of Coca-Cola and Jon Ordonio of Alaska used spurious documents to pass themselves off as half-Filipinos so they can play in the pro league.
Barbers said Taulava and the four other Fil-Ams failed to prove their Filipino lineage because their supporting documents were attended by irregularities, except for Seigle who, despite being born to a Filipino mother, never elected Filipino citizenship when he reached the age of 18.
Saying it had gathered enough evidence to pin them down, the Senate asked the Bureau of Immigation to start legal proceedings against these Fil-shams.
The Senate Committee on Games, Amusements and Sports chaired by Sen. Robert Barbers and the Committee on Constitutional Amendments, Revision of Codes and Laws under Sen. Edgardo Angara, also directed the Bureau of Immigration to further investigate the citizenship of Red Bull’s Mick Pennisi, San Miguel Beer’s Dorian Pe?a and Ginebra’s Alex Crisano for their failure to establish Filipino citizenships as well as dubious attempts to do so by way of submitting allegedly falsified documents.
“Our findings are very convincing. As far as the Senate committee level is concerned, the issue is finished,” said Sen. Barbers whose committee conducted hearings on the issue based on a resolution filed by a group of home-grown players.
Barbers and Angara disclosed that the five players’ roots could not also be supported by the annals of the civil registry, the Catholic Church or town and barangay records.
“The Senate voted unanimously on the findings, and recommendations, of our committee. Now all I have to do is to sponsor these during the plenary. From there, I expect the immigration bureau to act accordingly,” said Barbers.
The recommendations were the outcome of the Senate inquiry, in aid of legislation, into the influx of Fil-shams in the PBA and other basketball leagues in the country. During the course of the inquiry, a total of 25 Fil-foreign players in the PBA were investigated. The 13-page report by the Senate stressed that independent checks made by the Senate showed that local residents of the areas where their relatives supposedly live do not know the alleged ancestors of Taulava, Ordonio, Harp and Hatfield.
Barbers also stressed the committees could not find any baptismal records of the parents of the players from the places where the parents were supposedly born and baptized.
At the same time, the two panels admonished the Bureau of Immigration for being too lax in granting the application for recognition of Philippine citizenship of the players. They also called on the agency to exercise due prudence in finally determining whether the Fil-foreign players are really qualified by thoroughly examining the authenticity of the documents required for the granting of Philippine citizenship.
Contained in committee report No. 256 jointly submitted by Barbers’ committee and the committee on constitutional amendments, revision of codes and laws, drafted after the public hearings, are these ‘glaring facts,’ according to Barbers:
A. Taulava, his alleged Filipino mother Pauline Hernandez Mateaki and grandparents Ana and Felipe are not known, and their records non-existent, in Bobon, Samar ? their alleged hometown.
B. The certificate of live birth of Harp’s alleged Filipino father Manuel Arce Gonzales submitted before the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation ‘’appeared simulated, if not, highly dubious.”
C. The local civil registry of Luna, La Union has no existing record of one Don N. Valdez whom Hatfield claimed as his grandfather. D. Seigle, although born of a Filipino mother in Blesylda Yadao, failed to elect Philippine citizenship in due time when he reached the age of maturity under the 1935 Constitution. The date when Seigle chose Filipino citizenship — Nov. 23, 1998.
Barbers added the testimonies of the players did not tally with documents collated by his committee. As for immigration, it was found to “be too lax” in granting application for recognition of Philippine citizenship.
The joint committees asked the agency, along with the Justice Department and the National Bureau of Investigation, to probe erring immigration officials who could be held liable for the anomalous granting of Philippine citizenship to Fil-foreign players.
The probe should also include the “agents and or managers and lawyers” of the Fil-foreign players for possible collusion in forging or falsifying the documents.
In his committee report, Barbers also ordered government officials led by Quezon City assistant city registrar Asuncion Mendoza; San Jose, Northern Samar civil registrar Yuri del Valle Sr.; and San Antonio, Nueva Ecija Municipal civil registrar Luz Austria to be investigated for their participation in the case of the five Fil-shams.
But the Bureau of Immigration said it could not immediately enforce the Senate’s order for the deportation of the Fil-shams until the Depratment of Justice had revoked its recognition of the five players as Filipino citizens.
In a statement, Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo said the bureau could not “institute summary deportation proceedings against the five (players) until their citizenship is revoked.”
