Bulatlat.com

Migrant Section:
A Sham Like No Other

Organized Filipino migrant workers decry reports of a passport shortage as ‘hoarding’ – a trick contrived by Philippine authorities which will earn them millions more in passport fees at the expense of overseas job applicants.

BY BULATLAT.COM

Filipinos applying for passport are warned not to be tricked by a recent move of the Macapagal-Arroyo government about a yet-to be-announced US$10 cut on passport fee abroad only to recover collection “losses” through a passport price increase in the Philippines.

“Did President Arroyo announce a US$10 cut on passport fee overseas only to recover collection losses through a passport price increase locally?” Connie Bragas-Regalado, chairperson of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (Unifil-FHK), a member of Migrante-International, this weekend said in connection with the controversial “shortage” of Philippine passports.

Migrante-International this week said the reported shortage, which is actually “hoarding,” has forced thousands of Filipinos to avail of passports offered by fixers who charge them P1,600, more than double the P650 charged by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

The global alliance of overseas Filipino organizations castigated the DFA and President Arroyo for their great “disservice” and called the shortage as a “passport hoarding scheme” which is “a prelude of her government’s evil effort to extract more profits from OFWs by way of higher passport fees.”

Reacting to the latest announcement of the DFA that it will reduce the cost of Philippine passport overseas by $10 from $60 to $50, Regalado said that on the other hand, government authorities will increase passport fees locally from P650 (about $13) to a still undetermined amount once the Machine Readable Passports and Visa system goes into operation this year.

Since 1998

“We have been calling for the reduction of passport fees as early as 1998 and this is how the government responds,” Regalado said. “They decrease the fee overseas only to get them back by increasing it locally. President Arroyo is a disgrace to the Filipino people. She should be ashamed of herself for playing tricks with her own people.”

The president had been declared “persona non grata” by organized Filipino domestics in Hong Kong for reportedly supporting Chinese authorities’ wage cut plan. Protest actions held by the Filipinos together with other nationals forced Hong Kong officials to drop their plan late January this year, proving Arroyo’s position wrong.

Regalado said the Philippine government is likely to earn more revenues through a passport price increase locally. With the current quota of 6,000 passports issued nationwide everyday, she said, the government only needs to increase the passport fee to P900 from P650. The increase alone amounts to P40 million, or P10 million more than the P30 million pesos they expect to lose overseas collection due to the $10 dollar deduction. And with the price of a passport reaching as high as P1,600 through fixers and travel agents, the Arroyo government is expected to take advantage of the “passport shortage” issue to justify an increase.

The Unifil-HK leader said that the best Arroyo could do is to peg the passport fee to its production cost (about P200) in order to bring financial relief to overseas Filipino workers. “Otherwise, it’s merely a popularity stint for her 2004 presidential election bid and nothing but downright hypocrisy.”

According to Migrante-International, the Central Bank of the Philippines which manufactures the passports, earns P135 from every passport priced at P650. “Where does the rest of the P515 go? And why are the prices overseas priced differently, at US$50-60? The DFA should explain this obvious rip-off to OFWs.,” Regalado said.

Members of Migrante held a picket in front of the DFA this week to denounce the impending passport fee increase in the Philippines and the privatization of processing.

An alliance of Filipino organizations in the former crown colony, Unifil-HK is one of the leading groups in the recent victorious anti-wage cut campaign. Bulatlat.com

We want to know what you think of this article.