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Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Cebuano WYD delegates seek PB’s help over visa denial
Cebuanos who applied as delegates to the World Youth Day but were denied their visas sought the Provincial Board’s (PB) assistance on their plight yesterday.
Board Member Gabriel Luis Quisumbing considered the issue as “disturbing” and called “suspicious” the circumstances behind the delegates’ plight.
The visas of at least 30 Cebuanos of the more than 600 delegates whose applications were processed by the Alab ng Kabataaang Pilipino (Akap) are demanding a return of the more than $1,600 each that they gave the agency as fees, including airline reservations.
Quisumbing suggested that the Board make an inquiry on the matter, “as in many instances, the youth are often victims of potential scams.”
But Member Victor Maambong said the Board could not prosecute so they might as well refer the matter to the National Bureau of Investigation, since the PB committee will just end up referring it to another agency.
However, PB Member Jose Ma. Gastardo had reservations, saying they have yet to establish if the youth were really victims as they claim. He cited that one of the PB members, Victoria Corominas, managed to get a visa for the World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany.
“What are we endorsing here? I find it very irregular to vote for something I don’t even know about,” he said.
Gastardo also further said the Board is a legislative body that will help “if it can,” but the complainants themselves should also “take the cudgels for themselves” and complain to the NBI.
But Gastardo was overruled when his colleagues voted him down.
In their letter to the Board, the applicants said they attended several orientations, interviews and other parts of the screening process for the World Youth Day, and even paid all the necessary fees.
The German embassy, however, denied their visas.
“We still have not received our full refund... We worry that we may have been milked of our savings. We have been placed in a humiliating and embarrassing position,” they said.
“We implore the assistance of the PB in investigating the matter, if any injustice was done to us deliberately or not, so that we could seek redress from proper authority,” they said.
Earlier reports said World Youth Day organizers were wary of delegates from the Philippines and other parts of Asia, as they might not return to their countries. (JPM)
(August 23, 2005 issue)
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