Taiwanese on immigration alert list arrested for fake passport

Immigration authorities have arrested and will deport a Taiwanese man who allegedly tried to leave Manila for Taipei on a fake Philippine passport.

Su Ping Yen, 27, was arrested early Sunday morning after immigration officers saw he was on the Bureau of Immigration's alert list for holding a "questionable" Philippine passport, the bureau said Monday.

The bureau learned the man had been offloaded from his Taipei-bound flight by airline personnel who doubted the authenticity of his passport hours before he was arrested. He allegedly booked another flight and tried to leave using his Taiwanese passport but was intercepted by authorities.

The Taiwanese man allegedly got his Philippine passport through the help of a friend he had paid P3,000. The BI's forensic document laboratory confirmed the passport is "fraudulent."

Su also presented a birth certificate that says he is one Alex Masangkay Su who was born in Pasig City to a Filipina mother and a Chinese father, the bureau said.

But they said immigration records do not show his supposed mother ever traveled out of the Philippines and that he could not answer when asked about "basic details" on his identity.

The bureau later found Su arrived in the Philippines last May 12 and was admitted as a tourist for 59 days. He is currently detained in a BI facility in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City. — Nicole-Anne C. Lagrimas/RSJ, GMA News