(Eagle News) — The Bureau of Immigration on Thursday, March 4, urged the kin of deceased foreign nationals in the country to report such deaths to the government.
In a statement, Bureau commissioner Jaime Morente said under the 1950 alien registration act, the parents or relatives or persons in charge of the burial of a deceased foreign national based in the Philippines are required to surrender the latter’s alien certificate of registration identity card (ACR I-Card) to the bureau.
He said the ACR I-Cards are for cancellation and deactivation.
Atty. Jose Carlitos Licas, bureau alien registration chief, said the term “person in charge” also refers to owners and/or operators of funeral parlors, cemeteries, crypts and crematoria, among others.
“Our Bureau is mandated by law to monitor the arrival, presence, activities, departure, re-entry and even death of aliens, whether they are staying in the country legally or illegally,” Licas said.
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic last year, the bureau has not received any report of deaths of foreign nationals.
Records showed that as of January 2021, only 1,222 ACR I-Cards were cancelled by reason of deaths of the foreign nationals residing in the Philippines.
