MANILA — The Supreme Court has ordered the temporary release of former Global Ferronickel Holdings, Inc. chairman Joseph Cue Sy upon posting a ₱900,000 bond following an ongoing legal battle over his citizenship and detention.
In a resolution dated October 7, the high court’s first division instructed Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado or his detaining officers to ensure Sy’s release and submit a written compliance report within 24 hours. The ruling stems from a petition filed by incumbent Global Ferronickel chairman Dante Bravo on Sy’s behalf.
Sy was detained on August 21, 2025, after immigration officials intercepted him at the airport upon his return from Hong Kong.
The BI alleged that Sy and a Chinese national named Cheng Zhong Zhen were the same person, claiming matching biometrics, photographs, and fingerprints linking Sy’s passport to an Alien Certificate of Registration Identity Card. Consequently, the immigration bureau sought to deport him for violating immigration laws.
However, lower and appellate courts previously ruled in Sy’s favor. While a regional trial court granted his petition for a writ of habeas corpus, the Court of Appeals (CA) subsequently declared his detention illegal, noting that he holds a valid Philippine birth certificate indicating he is a Filipino citizen born in Quezon City in 1966.
In a decision penned by Associate Justice Carlito Calpatura, the CA emphasized that the immigration bureau lacks jurisdiction to deport a Filipino citizen.
The CA ruled: “Owing to his birth certificate, Sy should be considered a Filipino and not a proper subject of BI’s jurisdiction. At best, the deportation proceeding against Sy is prematurely instituted because Sy has an existing birth certificate issued by the Office of Civil Registrar that has not yet been cancelled.”
The appellate court further stressed that a birth certificate enjoys primacy over an alien registration card as a public document, adding that the burden of disproving its validity lies with the state rather than the citizen.
“It is not for Sy to prove its alleged falsity, but for the respondent-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, highlighting that the birth certificate “enjoys primacy in evidentiary value, primarily because a birth certificate is a public document while an ACR is not.”