A record haul of more than 1,400 passports, which could belong mostly to Filipina domestic workers, have been seized from lending
company, OFC, during a raid on their Sheung Wan office on Jun 5 (not Jun 6 as
earlier reported).
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| OFC has its offices in this building |
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.
The police, however, did not respond to a query on why at
least 30 of the passports were returned to the holders over the weekend,
despite the long-standing practice of turning over the seized documents to the
Philippine Consulate.
Told about this, the Consulate’s assistance to nationals
section headed by Consul Paulo Saret immediately contacted the police, who
reportedly apologized and promised to turn over the passports to them by
tomorrow.
“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,” said Saret in a text message.
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| Police in Wanchai returned some of the seized passports |
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.
According to
insiders, Wong and his wife spent several hours at the Consulate earlier today
to explain their side.
A day before, a
local Chinese woman who had assisted some of OFC’s customers in getting their
passports back from the police in the Wanchai station, assured The SUN that she
was there to help.
She said around
200 Filipinas swarmed their office on Sunday to inquire about their passports
after hearing about the police raid.
“We are scared. I can tell you we try our best. Yesterday,
we were working from 9am to 2am (today) in the office,” the woman said in an interview,
referring to the deluge of customers.
“But I can tell you if there’s anything we can do to help
the Filipinos, we will do it,” she added.
She did not say why the company was asking for passports and
employment contracts as collateral for the loans, despite well-publicized
reports of police cracking down on money lenders who engage in such a practice.
The Consulate has also taken a firm stance against the
practice, refusing to allow nationals who pawn their passports in exchange for
a loan to secure a replacement in Hong Kong .
They are issued a one-way travel document so they can return
to the Philippines and apply
for a new one at the Department of Foreign Affairs’ passport office in Manila
This record haul could mean the Consulate being swamped with
appeals for help from Filipinos who lost their passports in the raid.
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.
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