By Daisy CL Mandap
The Consulate has issued a new warning against anyone using
the Philippine passport as collateral for securing a loan.
The warning, posted late tonight, Jun 20, came in the wake
of reports that a record haul of more than 1,400 Philippine passports had been
seized by police from a lending company in Sheung Wan called OFC, during a raid
on Jun 5.
The passports were collected and kept by the company as collateral
from Filipino borrowers.
The Consulate advisory states: “We remind all Filipinos in
Hong Kong that all Philippine passports are property of the Government of the
Republic of the Philippines
It added that in accordance with the Foreign Service
Circular No 214-99 issued on Aug 19, 1999, all passports used as guarantee for
loans or debts are “automatically cancelled” upon notice by the passport holder
that the document had been lost.
This means that once cancelled, the passport holder will
have to apply for a new one, which under current practice, will require him or
her to go to the main passport office of the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila
The Consulate will not issue a replacement once it proves
that the passport was lost to a money lender.
 |
| Consul Saret says no replacement for the hocked passports will be made in Hong Kong |
Consul Paul Saret, head of the Consulate’s assistance to
nationals section, has told The SUN they will stick to this policy, even if it
will mean long hours of processing requests to replace all the passports that
had been seized from OFC.
Once a lost passport is found to have been among those
seized from the money lender, the Consulate will issue a one-way travel
document to the holder so she can go home and get the replacement in Manila
In no way will the new passport be replaced in Hong Kong , said Saret, to deter Filipinos from engaging
in the practice they have been warned against for years.
“We will just have to find a way to speed up the process,”
he said.
More than 200 of the seized passports were initially turned
over to the Consulate by officers from the District Crime Squad of the Wan Chai
Police Station on Jun 14, and more are expected to be returned after
documentation.
The record haul means the ATN section will be kept busy for
a long time. Up until now, some of the more than 400 Filipinos whose passports
were seized from an unlicensed money lender in North Point late last year are
still seeking the Consulate’s help in getting replacements.
 |
| Filipino borrowers besieged CFC on Jun 9 on learning about the police raid |
During the raid on the office of OFC Holding Limited in Ngan
House on 206-210 Des Voeux Road
According to the police statement, an initial investigation
revealed that the arrested man had offered loans totaling more than $4 million
to more than 1,400 victims, who were asked to surrender their passports and
employment contracts as collateral.
Initially, the police had started returning some of the
passports to OFC’s borrowers but stopped after the Consulate complained, saying
this deviated from the agreed protocol.
Consul Saret said the police had apologized and promised to
turn over the remaining passports.
“We already talked to the police that if they don’t want to
keep the passports as evidence, they should not be returning the passports
directly to the debtors but to the Consulate. They apologized and agreed to
stop what they are doing and turn over all the passports to the Consulate tomorrow,”
Saret told The SUN.
 |
| OFC appears to have convince the police to return the passports despite the raid |
By then, at least 30 of the documents had been returned by
Wanchai police officers, at the intercession of OFC’s owners.
The suspect, who insiders say is a man surnamed Wong, is listed as part
owner of OFC Holding Limited and Cheers Holding Company Limited, which is the one with a money lender's licence. He was
reportedly released on police bail and required to report back in mid-July.
The arrest was apparently over the failure of Wong to
register the Sheung Wan address in the money lending license issued to Cheers
Holding, but not to OFC . Its license shows addresses in Shamshuipo and
Wanchai.
Cheer Holding also operates Cheers Employment Limited, with
which it shares the Wanchai address. A check with the Philippine
Overseas Labor Office showed its accreditation to hire Filipino domestic
workers was suspended earlier this year.
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