Only 400 Chinese students in Cagayan – BI

MANILA, Philippines — There are only 400 Chinese students in Cagayan province, contrary to reports that 4,600 had enrolled in a local private school, possibly to serve as spies for the Chinese military.

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) made the clarification in response to calls from some lawmakers for an investigation on the “influx” into Cagayan of thousands of Chinese to study in St. Paul University in Tuguegarao City.

Cagayan Gov. Manuel Mamba, who is against the presence of US military personnel and equipment in some parts of the province under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement or EDCA, maintained that the Chinese students were not a security threat.

In a statement yesterday, the BI reported issuing student visas to 1,516 Chinese nationals endorsed for admission by a private university. Reports said the school was St. Paul University of the Philippines.

But BI commissioner Norman Tansingco said only 400 of the 1,516 remain in the province, as the others had opted to avail themselves of the school’s distance learning program.

In an interview over dwPM Radyo 630, BI spokesperson Dana Sandoval said that according to the school, the Chinese students covered by its distance learning program chose to secure visas so they could return to Philippine schools to fulfill certain requirements like thesis defense and graduation.

Tansingco attributed the surge of arrival of foreign students to “post-pandemic rebound, as well as the aggressive marketing of schools and government agencies to boost the country’s educational tourism.”

To assuage concerns that the Chinese students might actually be soldiers or intelligence officers in disguise, the BI along with other relevant government agencies would check if they were involved in activities “which appear to be inimical to the security of the state,” Tansingco said.

He said Executive Order 285 signed in 2000 created a committee tasked to monitor the activities of foreign students.

The Commission on Higher Education heads the committee, which comprises the BI, the National Bureau of Investigation, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Education.

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