Senator Ana Theresia N. Hontiveros-Baraquel said Thursday that questions surrounding the Philippine citizenship of Joseph C. Sy, former Chairman of Global Ferronickel Holdings, Inc. (FNI) — a Philippine Stock Exchange-listed nickel mining company — underscore the need to strengthen how citizenship is issued in the country.

"This is not just about Joseph Sy," Ms. Hontiveros said during a hearing on Mr. Sy's citizenship status. "The PSA (Philippine Statistics Authority) itself has acknowledged hundreds, even more than a thousand, questionable or fraudulent birth registrations involving foreign nationals."

She told reporters in a post-hearing interview that the sessions have since evolved into a technical working group after a number of findings and recommendations surfaced.

The Office of the Solicitor General proposed legislation allowing the administrative cancellation of late birth registrations filed by foreign nationals. The National Bureau of Investigation, meanwhile, suggested a mechanism that would forfeit an individual's assets and properties to the government upon the cancellation of a fraudulent birth certificate. A late birth registration is a birth certificate filed after the standard civil-registry period that follows a birth — the record type at the center of Mr. Sy's case.

According to the senator, the Senate investigations into dismissed Bamban Mayor Alice L. Guo — legally recognized as a Chinese national named Guo Hua Ping — had already revealed the same systemic problems.

"So we cannot allow this hearing to end with the simple answer of: This is what happened to Joseph Sy," she said.

Bureau of Immigration (BI) Deputy Commissioner Joel Alejandro S. Nacnac informed Ms. Hontiveros that the businessman's fingerprints matched those of Chinese national Chen Zhong Zhen, adding that they are the same person.

The Philippine Statistics Authority likewise found evidence indicating that fake documents may have been used to secure Mr. Sy's late birth registration. Such records carry weight beyond a single case: under the Philippine Constitution, only Filipino citizens may own land, and a number of regulated industries carry foreign-ownership limits, placing verified citizenship documents at the base of property, corporate, and immigration compliance alike.

Ms. Hontiveros told reporters that authorities are already acting on the evidence against Mr. Sy, with agencies coordinating two at a time.

Mr. Sy was arrested on Aug. 21, 2025 upon his arrival from Hong Kong over the alleged misrepresentation of his citizenship.

FNI had denounced the arrest, saying his citizenship has been confirmed by at least six rulings from the BI, the Department of Justice, the Office of the President, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Supreme Court. That defense now stands in direct tension with the BI's fingerprint finding and the PSA's evidence on Mr. Sy's birth registration — a dispute that reaches from a Senate hearing room into the leadership of a PSE-listed mining company.

Whether the OSG's proposed legislation and the NBI's asset forfeiture mechanism advance from recommendations into law, and how further proceedings treat Mr. Sy's citizenship, are the next developments to watch in an inquiry the senator has framed as a test of the system itself.

— Francessca S. Abalos