Officials: No govt aid for stranded Pinoys in UAE

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine officials advised Filipino expatriates at the border of the United Arab Emirates and Oman to coordinate with them before leaving UAE, as Manila has no funds for their hotel bills should they be stranded.

The advice came from labor attaché Jeffrey Cortazar and welfare officer Mario Antonio of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and Philippine Overseas Labor Office.

Online news site Khaleej Times reported that the POLO and OWWA learned most of the stranded Filipinos expect the Philippine government to bail them out.

Cortazar and Antonio said they could only make representations with the hotel managements regarding the pending hotel bills.

"A hotel has agreed to write off the hotel bills of a Filipino, who has been stranded for five months and whose bills have reached Dh15,000 (P194,422). But this is an isolated case as not all hotels will give this much assistance," Cortazar said.

The team advised Filipinos facing the problem to contact the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Philippine Consulate before they leave Dubai.

It said Filipinos should at least know the contact official and the telephone numbers of the diplomatic missions.

"Majority of the Filipinos, who are left by their travel agencies and sponsors to fend for themselves, do not know what to do because they do not know the officials and the telephone numbers of the Philippine missions," the team said.

On the other hand, the team also found the Omani government will grant visas for a month, after which the expats will have to renew it for another month.

"If they cannot renew, they have to pay OMR10 (Dh100 or P1,296) daily until the 24th day. On the 25th, the penalty is a flat rate, which is OMR250 (Dh2,500 or P32,403).

Cortazar and Antonio said their fact-finding showed a Filipino in such a problem would spend an average of Dh3,000 (Php30,000) for visa exit purposes on the UAE-Oman border.

"We advise strongly for the Filipinos to go home to the Philippines and wait for their new visa, whether for employment or for new tourist visas, instead of undergoing stress, spending a lot and sacrificing themselves in a foreign land," they said.

They also stressed that Filipinos should refrain from having multiple applications with different travel agencies or sponsors because this will just delay the release of their visas. - GMANews.TV

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PCG: China’s bullying in West Philippine Sea undermines international law --- Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — Letting China sustain its aggression in the West Philippine Sea would make other countries doubt the strength of international law currently being asserted by the Philippines, Commodore Jay Tarriela of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said. “Allowing China to blatantly disregard the established rules-based order threatens the very foundation that we all depend on,” he wrote in a post on X last Tuesday. He added, “If we permit this, countries worldwide may forget why this order was created in the first place. Nations could begin to doubt the significance of adhering to international law if powerful bullies can easily violate it.” Tarriela also said defiance of other countries to a rules-based order would result in the prevalence of cruelty. He wrote, “This could lead us back to a time when might makes right, undermining the global structures that keep human greed, savagery and barbarism in check. Such a scenario would not only invite challenges from aggressive ...
Read more

China ships maintain presence in key West Philippine Sea areas --- Michael Punongbayan - The Philippine Star

STAR / Michael Varcas MANILA, Philippines — While Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) have decreased in number, they have maintained a presence in three key land features where naval and coast guard ships have intensified operations in the past seven days, according to the Philippine Navy. Latest monitoring by the Philippine Navy showed armed ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) maintaining a menacing presence around the grounded BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, Panatag Shoal and Escoda Shoal. According to the Philippine Navy, there are 17 Chinese military vessels and 28 China Coast Guard (CCG) boats spotted inside the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) between Sept. 23 and 30, or one vessel more than in the previous week Sept.17-23. Five of the warships were seen roaming around the vicinity of Escoda Shoal, along with 10 CCG vessels and 12 maritime militia vessels (MMVs). There are also two PLAN ships in Ayungin Shoal as well as 10 CCG boats and 12...
Read more

Social media seen as cause of rising intermarriages --- Helen Flores - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) sees social media as the main reason for the rising number of Filipinos marrying or becoming partners of foreign nationals. In 2022, the CFO recorded 6,854 marriages or partnerships with foreign nationals, a 40.1 percent increase from the 4,891 “intermarriages” recorded in 2021. “First of all, what we see in the increase in the marriage rate of Filipinos or Filipinos with foreign partners is because of social media, (that) is number one; matchings; letters, introduction of their friends,” CFO chairperson Romulo Arugay said at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing yesterday. Arugay said the agency has been registering a high number of intermarriages since 2007, but the figures went down during the COVID-19 pandemic. From over 6,500 Filipinos who married foreign nationals, only 600 are men, he said. Most of them are married to Americans, Japanese, Germans, Canadians and Australians, Arugay said. Arugay warned Fi...
Read more