The announcement of possible intelligence investigations by Philippine authorities into foreign nationals holding student visas is reigniting tensions between the two countries.
In a statement on Friday, Philippine Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said that under Executive Order (EO) 285, Article 2000, foreign nationals holding student visas in the Philippines may now be subject to checks by the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency and the National Bureau of Investigation if they are suspected of activities “that appear to be contrary to state security.”
This announcement follows numerous reports of a surge in student arrivals in the Philippines, primarily from China, amid heightened tensions between the two nations regarding territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
Last year, several senators asked the Commission on Higher Education to investigate a “diploma for sale” scheme in Cagayan, in the northern Philippines.
Under this program, Chinese students could pay up to 2 million pesos (35,000 dollars) in exchange for a diploma. Chester Cabalza, Founding President of International Development and Security Cooperation (IDSC) and former Vice President of the Center for Strategic Research and Studies of the Philippine Development Academy, was the first to denounce the scheme, claiming that Chinese students do not attend classes but still graduate.
Contested student numbers
Commissioner Tansingco reported that a total of 1,516 Chinese nationals were granted student visas at Cagayan in 2023, all approved by a major university. However, since the school was implementing a distance learning system, only 400 of them attended classes.
In his view, the increase in the number of foreign students can be attributed to the “post-pandemic rebound” and “aggressive marketing by schools and government agencies to boost educational tourism in the country.”
“The government has been actively promoting the country as an education hub in Asia. We hope that these concerns will not scare away legitimate students whose stay in the country could greatly contribute to boosting our economy,” he said.
In response, the Chinese embassy rebuked what it deemed to be “malicious” allegations concerning the surge of Chinese students in Cagayan. This came shortly after Philippine provincial representative Joseph Lara called for a parliamentary inquiry into the matter through a resolution presented in the Philippine Congress on March 20.
Mr. Lara claimed that the presence of a significant number of Chinese students — he put it at 4,000 — could endanger the country’s security in the context of Beijing’s aggression in the surrounding sea.
“The unfounded accusation concerning our educational exchanges is yet another malicious trick aimed at arousing suspicion and hatred towards China, the embassy said in a statement. This merits great vigilance and must be resolutely combated.”
A context already fraught with tension
The embassy also said that educational exchanges between the Philippines and China “promote deeper mutual understanding between our two peoples,” adding that maritime issues between the Philippines and China are only being used for the self-interest of some Filipino politicians to undermine cooperation between the two nations.
In a message posted on social media on April 18, a coalition of Cagayan universities stressed that reports claiming 4,000 students were unfounded. “The current number of foreign students enrolled in Cagayan is 486 graduate students as of April 17, 2024, of various nationalities (Americans, Chinese, Indonesians, Japanese and Vietnamese),” they said.
“The insinuation that the presence of Chinese students in the city’s universities poses a threat to national security is not only baseless, but deeply offensive. It is a blatant manifestation of racism and sinophobia that has no place in our society, particularly in the field of education,” the statement read.
The institutions also stressed that visas for foreign students are the responsibility of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Immigration Bureau, not the provincial or municipal government.
This series of diplomatic incidents comes in an already tense context between the two countries. Earlier this month, China conducted combat patrols in the disputed South China Sea, the scene of recent incidents with the Philippines, just as the country was holding joint military exercises there with the USA, Japan, and Australia.
China expresses concern over the strengthening of military ties between these countries, which it perceives as a way of thwarting its claims to territorial expansion in the region.
