Published : Tuesday, September 04, 2012 00:00 Article Views : 57
FILIPINO migrant workers in Italy are protesting the alleged excessive fees charged by the consular office at the Philippine Embassy in Rome for the electronic passport implemented by the Department of Foreign Affairs in 2010.
Felix Mendoza Landicho, president of Task Force OFW, a federation of Filipino migrant groups in Italy, disclosed that while overseas Filipino workers all over the world are paying $60 for their new electronic passports, migrant workers in Italy applying for their passports while in Rome they are paying 60 Euro or 600 pesos more.
Landicho complained to migration and recruitment expert Emmanuel Geslani that the exorbitant fees is in violation of a DFA memo instructing all embassies or consular offices all over the world to peg the passport fee at $60.
“The Philippine Embassy refuses to compute the payment for new passports based on the $60 instructed by the DFA Consular Office to Philippine embassies or consular offices world-wide,” he said.
The federation has already requested the Philippine embassy headed by Ambassador to Italy Virgilio Reyes for a dialogue on the current problems of OFWs in Italy like the over-priced passport, the middle name issue, and PhilHealth contributions but the ambassador rejected and completely ignored the many problems caused by the previous Ambassador Romeo Manalo who acceded to Circolare 29.
Rey Maas, another OFW based in Italy, echoed the same complaint. He said the passport fee being paid by overseas Filipinos based in Italy is overpriced by 10-12 Euros which is equivalent to at least 600 pesos and there is no monetary symbol placed on the receipt.
“The old lira is almost twice a euro. 60 Euro is roughly 120,000 liras. The current exchange rate is 1 Euro to $1.372, while Euro to Philippine peso is P53.09 to 1 euro. Instead of converting the $60 to Euro, we are charged for 60 Euros. In effect we are paying more or less 12 Euros more,” Maas said in a message sent through Facebook.
“In Riyadh, e-passport cost $50, in Germany 45 Euros. We don’t clearly understand why our embassy is charging 60 Euros instead of the equivalent of $60 in Euro. When I asked the office of the consul-general last August 2010, he said nahihirapan daw mag-compute ang finance officer kaya ginawa na 60 Euros ang $60. The worst part is the machine validated receipt bears no symbol of the currency. When asked; understood na raw yon na Euro dahil ang currency sa Italy ay Euro being a member of the European Union. I doubt if the reason is justifiable,” he added.
Landicho is urging the Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs headed by Rep. Walden Bello of Akbayan to investigate the irregularity victimizing workers in Italy.
He added that he will also ask DFA officials to explain the passport anomaly. - Lee Ann P. Ducusin
CREDIT: http://journal.com.ph/
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