MANILA – The reported influx of the Chinese students in Tuguegarao City is being investigated, National Security Council (NSC) assistant director general Jonathan Malaya said.
During the Saturday News Forum in Quezon City, Malaya said they were already taking a look at the alleged sudden increase in the number of Chinese students in schools and universities in the city.
“Our intelligence units have been assigned to look at the situation there to determine if this is actually a national security threat, or is it just a case of students who want to go to the Philippines to study,” Malaya said.
The controversy came to light after Cagayan 3rd District’s Cong. Joseph Lara filed a resolution seeking a House of Representatives inquiry into an apparent increase in Chinese students in the province.
Lara stated in his resolution that the presence of Chinese students could put the country’s security at risk amid China’s aggression in the West Philippine Sea.
The Bureau of Immigration (BI), however, disclosed recently that only 1,516 Chinese nationals, all endorsed by a major Philippine university, were issued student visas in Cagayan in 2023.
“However, reports received only show more than 400 Chinese nationals are on-site, as the school is said to be implementing distance learning,” the BI added in a statement released over the weekend.
The Medical Colleges of the Northern Philippines, the University of Cagayan Valley, the University of Saint Louis Tuguegarao, and Saint Paul University Philippines, for its part, called the allegations “baseless” and considered them “deeply offensive.”
“The insinuation that the presence of Chinese students in the city’s universities poses a threat to national security is not only baseless but also deeply offensive,” they said in a joint statement.
“It is a blatant display of racism and Sinophobia that has no place in our society, especially within the realm of education,” they added./PN
