Punishment in Using the Philippine Passport as a Collateral for Loan
PHILIPPINE PASSPORT – Using this personal travel document as a collateral for loan has corresponding punishment and penalty.
Nowadays, you can go to a lot of places abroad even though you don’t have a visa for there are a lot of visa-free nations. However, any travel may not be possible without a Philippine Passport.
The PH Passport is a travel document applied at the Consular Office. It has a validity – passports now will expire after ten(10) years and holders would have to renew it.
However, it seems that not everyone uses the Philippine passport only for identification purposes during travel or for other legit transactions. Some people were using it as a collateral for loan.
Previously, it was reported that more than 1,000 PH Passports were confiscated in Hong Kong. Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) used their travel document as a collateral for loan.
Based on a recent report on ABS-CBN, using the Philippine Passport as a collateral for loan has corresponding penalty and punishment.
Attorney Noel Del Prado said to Usapang de Campanilla that a PH passport holder who would use his or her travel document for loan may face charges for violating the Philippine Passport Act of 1996.
The lawyer stressed that the said travel document is a property of the government and only left on the care of the holder.
Based on the report, for the first offense, the government can automatically cancel the validation of the travel document. In case the holder will apply for it again, the validity would be reduced to five(5) years.
For the second offense, only a one-way pass would be given to the violator and when it is proven that he or she used the passport as a collateral for loan, the holder may be fined from Php 60,000.00 to Php 150,000.00.