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Affidavit of support ‘if reinstated needs a clear-cut system’

DUBAI — The Philippine Embassy in the UAE is currently working at a system whereby the affidavit of support, if reinstated, will not be misused by unscrupulous people.

“It is in the works. If we intend to resurrect the affidavit of support, we should come up with a clear-cut system,” Philippine Ambassador to the UAE Libran Cabactulan told Khaleej Times yesterday.

He added: “The Bureau of Immigration in Manila is not requiring the affidavit of support anymore. My rationale is that it can be used by unscrupulous people.”

The embassy had posted a public information bulletin in end-October last year that it was suspending the notarisation and processing of the affidavit of support and the “Declaration of Support and Undertaking of Support”.

Meanwhile, Edgardo Castro, Presidential Anti-Illegal Recruitment Task Force (PAIRTF) supervisor at Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), told Khaleej Times that since January this year, the PAIRTF had started requiring UAE-bound passengers on visit visas to produce an authenticated affidavit of support.

“We had been receiving the authenticated affidavit of support from UAE-bound travellers only this month. The ones we had received so far were signed by Consul Jose Cabrera of the Philippine Embassy in the UAE,” Castro said.

The task force, Castro said, barred the travel of passengers on suspicions that they were seeking employment in the UAE and held their passports and visas for verification. “The documents are only for safekeeping until they present an authenticated work permit, or produce a notarised affidavit that they are no longer going to use their visit visas and airline tickets to go to Dubai. When we conduct an on-the-spot interview and ask them to furnish with documents, we had seen their attested diplomas which will be used for employment purposes,” he said.

When the Bureau of Immigration in Manila instructed immigration officers started allowing the departure of any Filipino passenger with a valid passport, a valid visa and a round-trip ticket without requiring the affidavit of support, it led to the rise in UAE-bound travellers on visit visas, he related.

Captain Reynaldo Jaylo, head of the PAIRTF, for his part, said: “We just want an assurance that those leaving the country on visit visas are tourists and are not job-seekers. We had advised them (passengers) to secure a guarantor letter which is notarised by the Philippine Embassy or Consulate in the UAE.