Immigration to resume stamping Chinese passports bearing 9-dash line

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) will resume stamping Chinese passports containing Beijing's basis for its massive claims in the South China Sea, a boundary that an international court invalidated in 2016.

Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said in a Wednesday statement that immigration officers may now affix their stamps adjacent to the Philippine visa of a regular e-passport presented by a Chinese national.

This change, he said, complies with a recent circular by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) ordering Philippine consular offices to affix the visa on the pages of Chinese passports where the so-called "nine-dash line" map is drawn.

Last August, President Rodrigo Duterte approved a DFA proposal to this effect, reversing a policy set by the Aquino administration in 2012. His spokesman said the new Philippine visa design shows a map including areas being coveted by China.

The Philippines stopped stamping Chinese passports in 2012 "to avoid being "misconstrued as legitimizing the nine-dash line every time a Philippine visa is stamped on such Chinese e-passport."

The DFA was then under Albert del Rosario, a critic of China's claims in the West Philippine Sea.

Morente said the BI supports the DFA's policy change, explaining that the previous practice of stamping on a separate sheet of paper was "problematic" and posed a security concern because extra sheets "are easily lost and misplaced by holders."

Handing a victory to Manila, the United Nations-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration in July 2016 found no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within the maritime areas  falling within its "nine-dash line."

China refuses to recognize the ruling, which Duterte said he was temporarily setting aside as his government pursues warmer relations with Beijing.  —KBK, GMA News