By Benjamin Pulta
MANILA – The Court of Appeals (CA) has affirmed the Taguig City Regional Trial Court’s (RTC) decision questioning the deportation proceeding against mining executive Joseph Cue Sy.
In a 15-page decision penned by Associate Justice Carlito Calpatura on Feb. 20 and released on Wednesday, the appellate court said the deportation proceeding against the Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc. chairman cannot continue unless the birth certificate, stating that he is a Filipino citizen “is cancelled or corrected.”
Sy was arrested in August last year after immigration officers said his fingerprints matched those of a Chinese citizen, Chen Zhong Zhen, and that he had illegally acquired his Filipino citizenship.
“It is not for Sy to prove its alleged falsity, but for the respondents-appellants who are assailing the certificate to prove it. As a duly registered public document, the birth certificate is presumed to have undergone the process prescribed by law for the late registration of birth,” the CA said.
Lawmakers earlier sounded the alarm over Sy’s growing influence even as his Filipino citizenship remained doubtful.
Last year, the Philippine Coast Guard stripped Sy of his honorary rank as an auxiliary rear admiral. (PNA)
