Risa Hontiveros questions 'delay' in endorsing cancellation of Joseph Sy's birth certificate

Senator Risa Hontiveros on Monday questioned the time it took for the Philippine Statistics Office to endorse the cancellation of the birth certificate it issued to businessman Joseph Sy.

At the hearing of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights on Monday, Hontiveros said the PSA already found irregularities in the late registration of Sy’s birth certificate in December 2025, and committed to submit its findings on his citizenship to the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG).

She, however, raised concerns about why the issue was endorsed to the OSG in March.

“We understand that there's a delay. But when we endorse to the Office of the Solicitor General, we want to make sure that all the documents to be submitted attached to the letter of endorsement are already there,” PSA Legal Service director Atty. Eliezer Ambatali answered. 

The PSA official said that its findings remained the same.

Hontiveros insisted that the PSA should not allow such delays to happen and prevent the OSG from doing its duty. 

“There won't be other cases if the PSA will drag its foot in doing not what the committee demanded it to do, what it said it would do with another government agency or constitutional body, the OSG,” said Hontiveros, the chairman of the committee.

“Kasi matuturuan ninyo ng leksyon, ‘yung mga nagtatago sa likod ng mga batas natin. ’Ah, ganyan pala paano tumakas.’ That should not be what PSA will do,” she added. 

(You are teaching those who want to evade the law how to do so. That should not be what PSA will do.) 

Joseph Sy, the chairman of Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc., is facing a Senate inquiry over his citizenship after he was alleged to be a Chinese citizen.

He was arrested in 2025 after his biometrics matched those of a Chinese citizen, Zhong Zhen Chen. Following this, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said it was preparing his deportation.

However, in September 2025, a Taguig City court ruled that the detention and deportation proceedings against Sy are illegal as there is substantial evidence of his Philippine citizenship.

The Court of Appeals (CA) affirmed last month a ruling that declared the detention of Sy as illegal.

‘Mr. Yin’

During the hearing, Hontiveros also questioned the refugee status of a certain “Mr. Yin,” an alleged Chinese transnational fugitive who has sought asylum in the Philippines. 

Hontiveros said Mr. Yin was blacklisted and arrested in August 2024 as an undesirable alien, but he was eventually released the following month after obtaining refugee status.

 

After being imprisoned and released, Hontiveros said that Mr. Yin joined an online gambling platform in the Philippines.

She also claimed that Mr. Yin appears to be the same person as a certain “Elvis Chan.” 

In response, the Department of Justice-Refugees and Stateless Persons Protection Unit (DOJ-RSPPU) said they are still gathering information on the matter.

“We will verify as to what stage already is being undertaken by our office regarding such matter that was raised to us,” DOJ-RSPPU state counsel Paulito De Jesus said. –NB, GMA Integrated News