My new driving instructor is married to a Filipina. They have been so for quite a number of years now. He said that he also live in Paranaque for 7 years until 2001 (I think). He returned to the UK because of an unfortunate incident that happened to him in the Philippines. This is his story — text in italics are my side comments.

He had setup an IT business in Manila with a Filipina partner but he basically put in the capital. Probably due to the 50-50 rule that foreigners cannot control and own 100% any business in the Philippines without a local entity. His partners relatives also figured big time on the payroll. Hmm, Kamaganak, Inc. in practice! He said that he basically did most of the work, i.e. installing at client sites, etc. During the numerous man-hours he has put in the job, his ‘shares’ in the company had drastically reduced from 45% (I think) to a mere 10%. Apparently, his partner had conducted meetings behind his back and slowly took him out of the executive levels of the company but still using his money. He didn’t confront her outright upon discovery but when he did, she placed a complaint with the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) as being an abusive alien. Several weeks later, the BID appeared at his doorstep and took him to Bicutan for detention. Once there, they had demanded that he surrender his British passport to them but he refused profusely. He was quite right (in my opinion) for not giving up his passport as this is a property of the British Government. If it happened to me, I wouldn’t give it up either. When a representative of the British Embassy came to see him, they told him that he did the right thing. Well, long story short, he was asked to leave within X number of days otherwise, he will be deported. Left with no other choice, he returned to England.

My first reaction upon hearing his story was appalled — how could the BID not even make any investigation as to what really happened? Anyway, I searched the web and found David Deakin’s story here. The main index of that domain has been removed due to political pressure. Anyway, looks like my instructor’s story hasn’t been a single and unique incident.

One would say that some Filipinos have been treated in a similar fashion by foreign governments. There might have been otherwise, organisations such as the Philippine Migrant’s Watch would not have been established.

I suppose there is no conclusive solution to this. It’s more like, you do it to my people, I do it to yours. Being a Filipino in a foreign land, it just makes me nervous that any British national could turn against me for no reason at all. :ill:

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