We've been stressed with this issue for the past weeks. We were still hopeful that it will be settled just in time for our HK travel next month. But with the recent developments, I don't think we have enough time to process yaya's passport.
Just as a background, our yaya was married to a policeman. They are already separated when we hired her. According to her, ex-husband is already with another woman and even got her pregnant. So there's no chance for a possible reconciliation already.
When our yaya learned that we'll be travelling to HK by February, she expressed her intention of coming with us. She is very much willing to shoulder a part of the travel expenses. So, we asked her if she has a valid passport. She said yes right away. So without even checking her passport, we booked her immediately to avail of the Cebu Pacific Promo. The following day, she took a day off so that she can get her passport in her house. It was late Sunday evening already but she hasn't returned yet. When we texted her, she informed us that she cannot find her passport already. Eventually, she learned that ex-husband forcibly entered their house to get her passport and birth certificate.
This was the start of our struggle. Week 1 ( week of Jan 13 to 19 ) she tried to contact her husband. She was able to confirm that the passport was with ex-husband already. At first, ex-husband doesn't want to return the passport. He was blackmailing her not to sign the check of her monthly allotment ( a percentage of husband's salary is given to her ). We told her that it can't be the case since they have an agreement with this and she has a contract to prove her claim. Yaya has relative who is a high ranking official in the RDO. She texted the issue to him and given her several options. She was scheduled to go to Camp Vicente Lim to report the issue last January 18. Thank God that I have no work that day.
We went to my parent's house in Canlubang since Camp Vicente Lim is just within the vicinity. Ex-husband was there because he was told to report there. They were able to talk and she learned that the passport will be used by the "new girl" to apply for a work abroad. The other girl can’t have her own passport because she has another person with the same name and with a case. So, they agreed to return the passport to our yaya. The agreement is that husband will return the passport in Camp Vicente Lim and the passport will be sent through courier.
For week 2 ( Jan 20 to 26 ), there were recent developments already. Our yaya learned that her passport was already with a recruitment agency in Manila. I already have the guts that her passport has been tampered already. By Friday, yaya and ex-husband was scheduled to meet so that he could return the passport. She went Friday evening and met her husband. The passport was not with the husband. They scheduled to go to the agency the following day.
She left early and was out the whole day. I was yayaless again but it was ok and fun to be with the two kids. I was asking hubby for the developments because he was the one texting our yaya for the updates. Indeed, the passport was tampered already. Her picture was replaced by the picture of the other girl already. So I told hubby to inform our yaya not to go home without the passport. He texted our yaya but got no reply. Hubby even called her but she didn't answer. According to her, she was afraid to use her celfone in public. So, she left without her passport.
Again, she reported the status of the case with the relative in RDO. Her husband was asked to report again in Camp Vicente Lim. But as of to date, husband is nowhere to be found. The husband is AWOL already. Our yaya was trying to call him but the celfone is already off.
This can only mean two things. It's either the husband is trying to fix the passport before he reports to his superior or he has the intention of running away from the issue. While waiting for any developments, we are trying to figure out ways how to resolve the issue.
The easiest way to resolve the issue is to replace the picture of the other girl with our yaya's picture. The problem with this is that the passport is not with us and we don't have any contact who would do the deed. Second option is to do the legal way. File an application for lost passport. But according to the DFA website, there will be a fifteen days clearing before processing. So that means it won't make it to our scheduled trip already. Hubby asked their messenger to look for a contact who can process the lost passport without the fifteen days clearing. They found one but was charging a hefty P8,000! ! ! Passport processing is more expensive than our round trip ticket to HK.
With barely three weeks to go before our HK trip, we don’t know what to do. We'll just wait for any developments from the ex-husband of our yaya. I can't finalize our bookings because we're still waiting for the issue to be resolved.
