Chinese posing as Vanuatu citizen nabbed at NAIA

IMMIGRATION officers recently arrested a suspected Chinese masquerading as a citizen of Vanuatu, a country in the South Pacific, at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said a certain Alex Cooper, 43, who holds a Vanuatu passport, was intercepted at the NAIA 3 terminal last June 11 before he could board a Thai Airways flight to Bangkok.

Tansingco said Cooper, who is detained at the BI’s detention facility in Taguig City, is being investigated for having a questionable identity.

“If we are able to establish that he is actually a Chinese citizen and that his Vanuatu passport was merely procured from fixers to conceal his real identity, he will be summarily deported and banned from re-entering the country,” Tansingco said, adding that foreigners who misrepresent themselves by using spurious documents to enter and stay in the Philippines are liable for violating the country’s immigration laws and should be expelled.

An investigation conducted by the BI’s border control and intelligence unit initially revealed that Cooper speaks fluent Chinese and could hardly converse in English. He also had in his possession a Chinese mobile phone.

Tansingco said Cooper told immigration officers he had never gone to Vanuatu and knew nothing about the nation and its culture.

He was intercepted by immigration officers when his name was put on the BI’s alert list after informants tipped the bureau about his fake Vanuatu citizenship.