Sabah RCI: Aliens admitted late birth certs obtained via Projek IC

KOTA KINABALU: Foreigners applying for late birth certificates for their children have, on many occasions, admitted in court that they obtained their documents through Projek IC.

In fact, High Court Deputy Registrar, Melissa Chia Pui Fung, disclosed, that during her tenure as a magistrate at Tawau courts, she had “heard this quite often during hearings”.

“I did ask what Projek IC meant and some who worked at the timber camps told me that there would be a group of people with forms who would approach them and asked them to apply, and thereafter he got a blue IC,” said Chia.

The 85th witness, at the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the illegal immigrants in Sabah yesterday, further disclosed that most of these parents also admitted that they were born in Indonesia or the Philippines.

“(So) If I am doubtful of the parent’s nationality and also if the identity card (IC) was not obtained through the proper process, I will grant the Order Number 1 (which refers to as ‘Was Not Accepted/Rejected),” she said, in reference to the applications for the late birth certificates.

Chia also said that there have been cases where she ordered the parents to run a DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) test to determine the child’s identity and whether the adults are the child’s biological parents, and when the results came out positive, she would grant her approval.

She told the Commission that a total of 34,085 applications were recorded as of January 31 this year from the year 2009 throughout Sabah, and of the figure, 1,312 applications were rejected.

A total of 12,073 applications were granted Order Number 2 (Was Accepted); 192 applications granted Order Number 3 (Was Accepted In The Evidence Only As To The Date Of Birth); 138 applications granted Order Number 4 (Was Accepted In The Evidence Only As To Facts Of); 1,409 applications are under Keep In View (KIV); and the remaining 17, 596 are still pending.

Chia said, among the common reasons given by the fathers for late registrations are that they are busy working in the timber camps, while the mothers would usually give the excuse of being poor or they cannot travel to the National Registration Department.

“Or sometimes they would just say that they are not aware that the birth is supposed to be registered, while some would given an excuse that in the olden days, there was no need for a birth certificate,” she said.

Chia also said that there have been cases where the Magistrate’s signatures were forged, giving an example of an ex-staff member of the Kota Kinabalu Court House who was sentenced to seven years’ jail and fined RM30,000, in default 18 months imprisonment, for three charges of receiving bribes pertaining to birth certificates-related cases.

“To overcome forgery, we have introduced an online system called Case Management System, or CMS in short, where Magistrates may use digital signatures and to access this, they will each be given a password. The system is also linked to the National Registration Department where they can check a copy of the stamp and digital signatures for verification purposes,” she said.

To date, a total of 87 witnesses have been called up before the five-man panel RCI, chaired by former Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Steve Shim Lip Kiong.

Hearing resumes on Monday.

by Sandra Sokial