The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said on Thursday that it has launched a nationwide investigation into the procurement and use of fraudulent Philippine citizenship documents.

Under a Memorandum Order, NBI Director Melvin A. Matibag directed the bureau's Regional Offices to identify and investigate organized schemes involving fraudulently obtained birth certificates and passports, falsified supporting documents, simulated or fictitious parentage, identity substitution, material misrepresentation, and corruption, among other methods.

The order targets the documents at the base of the country's identity chain. Philippine citizenship is acquired principally by descent rather than birthplace, which makes the birth certificate the foundational record of a person's claim to nationality — and the reason simulated parentage and falsified civil records sit at the center of the directive rather than on its margins.

In a statement, the NBI said the probe underscores that fraudulent documentation is not merely an immigration issue, as it enables the exploitation of institutions and activities reserved for Filipinos.

That framing reflects the legal stakes: Philippine law reserves land ownership and a range of nationalized business activities for citizens and eligibility for public office likewise turns on citizenship, so a forged paper can function as a gateway to rights and assets that foreign nationals cannot lawfully hold.

“The objective is not simply to discover a fake document,” the NBI said. “We want to determine who produced it, who facilitated it, who benefited from it, what institutions were compromised, what assets were acquired through it, and whether an organized criminal or naational-security network exists behind it.”

The investigation will prioritize validated cases with links to Philippine offshore gaming operators or internet gaming licensees' operations, transnational organized crime, illegal drugs, trafficking, money laundering, graft and corruption, national-security concerns, land ownership, nationalized activities, and persons holding or seeking public office.

The POGO reference is notable for readers tracking the sector: Philippine offshore gaming operators, online gambling businesses that served customers abroad, were ordered to cease operations nationwide by the end of 2024, and the directive now places POGO-linked and internet gaming licensee cases at the front of the probe's priority list.

It will also cover property, corporate interests, vehicles, and other assets connected with validated subjects, and will examine the use of dummies, nominees, and corporate vehicles to determine beneficial ownership.

Mr. Matibag gave regional directors ninety days to submit an initial inventory of validated subjects, suspected networks, facilitators, investigative status, and identified assets — a deadline that sets the probe's first concrete checkpoint, when the nationwide reach of the schemes and the assets acquired through them can begin to be measured. — CAT