They Fooled the System with Fake Certs? Wah, Clap Clap – Welcome to Jobland Singapore!
It seems like all you need these days to land a job in Singapore is a printer, some creativity, and maybe a template from Microsoft Word. Two Filipinos managed to outsmart the system by submitting fake university degrees and securing legitimate jobs in our very own Singapore. And guess what? They weren’t caught until 15 months later. Bravo, MOM, ICA, and HR departments – really top-notch work.
These two foreign talents—yes, the kind we’re always told are “better, faster, cheaper”—somehow got hired, collected pay, and likely enjoyed Singapore’s clean streets, safe environment, and maybe even a few bowls of laksa. Meanwhile, Singaporeans with real degrees, actual NS obligations, and student loans are still out here grinding, sending out résumés and wondering if they should just start a bubble tea franchise instead.
This whole fiasco sparked an online uproar, and who can blame our netizens? It’s almost poetic how we keep chanting “Singaporeans first” at election rallies and job fairs, yet the reality is more like “Foreigners first, especially if they bring their own certs.” Authentic or not – we’ll only check later, lah.
Seriously, how did they slip through the cracks? Did no one even Google the universities? Or is it because some employers are too busy saving on headcount costs to bother verifying credentials?
Let’s be honest—if these two hadn’t been caught, they’d still be drawing a salary and living the Singapore dream. And we, the locals, would still be queuing up to apply for positions that are “already filled,” probably by someone with an honours degree in Microsoft Paint.
Foreign Talent or Foreign Trouble?
This incident isn’t just an isolated oopsie. It points to a bigger, uglier issue—how loopholes and lax vetting continue to let questionable hires slip into our workforce. Yet when Singaporeans ask for fair opportunities, we’re told to “upgrade ourselves” or take on roles beneath our pay grade “to stay competitive.”
Well, congratulations to the two who managed to game the system—for a while. They’ve since been sentenced to jail, but their story reminds us just how vulnerable our system is when it comes to protecting real jobs for real Singaporeans.
Maybe next time, before telling locals to work harder or stop being picky, someone should first check if their colleague’s diploma wasn’t just printed out at a Manila internet café.