House to probe the fake documents at ‘Recto University’

Recto Avenue, Manila’s “Main Street.” View from the Abad Santos overpass. (Rio Hondo / Wikimedia Commons)

MANILA — A lawmaker has called for an inquiry into the unabated forgery of documents such as diplomas and school transcripts by unscrupulous persons at Claro M. Recto Ave. in Manila.

Rep. Leah S. Paquiz (Party-list, ANG NARS), author of House Resolution 2230, described Claro M. Recto Ave. or “Recto University” as a one-stop shop for those who resort to “manufactured” documents for employment and other purposes.

“It is public knowledge that documents such as identification cards, receipts, school transcripts, diplomas and documents supposedly authenticated with red ribbon by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) or any other forged documents can be sourced at Recto University for a fee and in a few hours,” Paquiz said.

Paquiz urged the Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs to conduct an inquiry on the adverse and damaging activities at the so-called Recto University and for government in cooperation with the private sector and other instrumentalities to find a successful mechanism and systematic means to put a stop to these illegal activities.

Paquiz said the illegal practice has placed Filipino professionals and skilled workers, here and abroad, in a disadvantageous position by having the workers’ images tainted with deceit.

“The Recto University is in itself passively allowing discrimination to proliferate against our workers as we are being branded as fraudulent workers,” Paquiz said.

Paquiz cited a report by the Philippine Council of Engineers and Architects in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia stating that the Saudi Council of Engineers (SCE) has gathered data showing that a number of Filipinos working as engineers and architects in Saudi Arabia used fraudulent documents.

“The reported data shows that a total of 120 in 2011, 143 in 2012, 281 in 2013, 460 in 2014 and 497 in 2015 Filipino engineers and architects were found to have been using forged credentials,” Paquiz said.

Paquiz said the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has reported that they are presently handling a number of criminal cases alleging the involvement of Filipinos who have employed the use of fake credentials in entering the Kingdom.

“One such case is that of a Filipino nurse in Jeddah who not only faces criminal prosecution for the felony of forgery of documents but stiffer penalties and prison terms for the crime of malpractice,” Paquiz said.