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| Replacement passports will only be issued by DFA in Manila |
By Daisy CL Mandap
Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong whose passports were
seized by police in raids on loan sharks over the past few months may now be
able to get replacements, but only if they apply personally at the Department
of Foreign Affairs office in Manila
This was disclosed on Jan. 20 by Consul Paul Saret, head of
the Consulate’s assistance to nationals section, when asked about complaints that
the Hong Kong applicants had all been turned away at the DFA.
“Ok na, the DFA has started issuing them new passports last
week,” said Consul Saret.
But he added applicants can only secure them by queuing up
at the OFW lane of the Office of Consular Affairs (OCA) in the Mall of Asia on Roxas Boulevard
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| Consul Paul Saret |
Saret said the rule applies even if the OFWs live in
far-flung areas in the Philippines
“We’ll just advise them to fly to Manila
first to apply for the passport, then pass by again on their way back to Hong Kong on the date of release.”
Based on a report made to them in one case, Saret said the
processing of the replacement passport will take a week. He said the applicant
who does not have time to pick it up can ask for courier delivery service, or
issue a special power of attorney in favor of the designated representative.
He explained that the confusion arose after the Consulate
asked the DFA to decide on whether OFWs who had pawned their passports to
secure loans should be issued new ones. But it turned out the DFA didn’t want
to act on the applications without a prior go-signal from the Consulate.
The two sides eventually reached agreement that new
passports can be issued to the applicants, once they sign an undertaking that
they will not pawn their personal documents again.
As a result of this policy, at least five OFWs who had to go
back to the Philippines
According to Labor Attache Jalilo dela Torre, the OFWs
feared losing their jobs because they didn’t have passports and could not fly
back on time to their jobs in Hong Kong .
The workers were issued one-way travel documents by the
Consulate so they could process their new work contracts and go home. But going
back became a problem.
The Consulate’s tough stance was adopted because of the
recurring problem of OFWs losing their passports to loan sharks.
In the most recent case, 300 Philippine passports were
seized by the police from a local man in North Point who was found to have lent
money to migrant workers at 125% interest, and secured the loans with passports
and employment contracts.
Many of the borrowers in these cases would often declare
that they simply lost their passports, so the Consulate resorted to requiring
them to make an affidavit of loss with the police, before applying for a new
one. The idea was to make it more difficult for them to acquire new passports
so they would stop using their documents as collaterals for loans.
But when even this failed the Consulate decided to turn away
those who lost their document in the police raids, and told them to apply for
new passports directly with the DFA in Manila
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