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Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Passport applicant nabbed by NBI used assumed name: DFA
One of the four passport applicants arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) once filed an application using an assumed name.
Director Angel Espiritu of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) 7 said the applicant, whom he did not identify in the meantime, filed an application for passport sometime last month.
The applicant suddenly disappeared when told that her application was held in abeyance because they were examining the documents she submitted.
Last week, the applicant returned to DFA 7 together with three others and filed another application, this time with a different name. She and the other three brought with them an endorsement letter of Cebu City Councilor Gerardo Carillo.
Espiritu said one of his staff recognized her as the one who disappeared. They retrieved the old application and compared it with the new one.
It was found that both applications bore two different names but carried the same picture of the woman.
The DFA 7 later checked the applications of the other three and also found that they, too, assumed other names, in violation of the Passport Act of 1996.
However, the birth certificates issued by the National Statistics Office were genuine.
Espiritu said that as of now, they don’t know the motive of the applicants to assume other names. But they learned that those who committed such violation were former overseas contract workers who are barred from going back to the country where they had worked, those who are facing cases in court and cannot be issued clearance, and those whose visa applications were previously denied.
He cited Taiwan where a worker who has finished a contract cannot go back as a matter of policy.
Espiritu advised political leaders to be cautious in issuing endorsement to people they don’t know like what Carillo did for the four applicants.
He said they accommodate applicants with endorsements from local leaders but the endorsers should also be circumspect.
The DFA has asked the help of the National Bureau of Investigation on the case for applicants who were arrested last Friday. (EOB)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (September 5, 2006 issue)
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