Nearly all Filipinos in Italy allegedly bilked by Alpha Assistenza SRL of 3,000 to 5,000 euros each (roughly P181,522 and P302,537) want Philippine Consul General Elmer Cato recalled to the Philippines by the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Common among their comments was the claim that Cato did not lift a finger when the shock and horror of a massive scam victimizing Filipinos in Italy lit up Filipino chat groups in the European country.
In interviews by DAILY TRIBUNE's Usapang OFW, a number of those Filipinos in Milan said they were forced to bring their complaint to the Italian police on account of the consulate's alleged inaction.
Screenshots of conversations with Krizelle Respicio, who owns Alpha Assistenza with partner Frederick Dutaro, showed her boasting to her agents of her closeness with Cato, something that videos and photos of them together bolster.
Reading between the lines of those conversations, the message of Respicio to her agents, who were apparently already feeling the heat from the victims asking for the return of their money, was that she had Cato eating at the palm of her hand.
As expected, the Milan consulate denied sitting on the complaints against Alpha Assistenza while remaining mainly silent on Respicio's primary sponsorship of its Independence Day celebration last 18 June.
Even before its fact-finding team met with Filipinos in Italy, the DFA issued a statement that tended to belie the claims against Cato, saying that it had been receiving reports from him since the matter came to the consulate's attention by the end of August.
Granting without conceding as a fact that DFA timeline, embassies, and consulates are supposed to be listening posts that should be always on top of happenings in their neck of the woods.
The scam victims had come out en masse by July thus, for the Milan consulate to allegedly know of the problem only by the end of August tended to show that Cato et al. may be sleeping on the job.
Worse, hearing it from some Filipinos in Italy who sponsored relatives in the Philippines to come to Italy, it may not be a simple case of dereliction of duty but of money changing hands from Respicio to the one accused of coddling her.
In contrast to our consulate in Milan, the Embassy of Italy swiftly addressed the Alpha Assistenza brouhaha, as it impacts directly on the integrity of their visa application process being facilitated by the Philippine Interactive Audiotext Services Inc. or PIASI.
The consular officer of the Embassy of Italy, Matteo Mascia, provided clarity and transparency by confirming that Alpha Assistenza SRL lacked the legal standing to process work visa applications for Filipinos seeking employment in Italy. This revelation was pivotal in exposing the illegitimate nature of Alpha Assistenza's operations.
It also revealed that Alpha Assistenza used counterfeit work permit documents, known as "nulla osta," to deceive visa applicants, a revelation that showed the extent of the scam and the fraudulent intentions of the perpetrators.
In response to a query by DAILY TRIBUNE, the Italian embassy said that it alerted PIASI, its third-party service provider for visa services in the Philippines, to only accept visa applications with prior verification of the authenticity of the nulla osta.
Likewise, Mascia emphasized the importance of Filipino applicants doing due diligence, urging them to rely on official sources and channels for visa application information. He also warned applicants to take shortcuts in their visa applications — the equivalent of using fixers — because doing so would expose them to scammers.
While the actions taken by the Embassy of Italy in the Philippines deserve commendation, some questions would require further investigation, considering that PIASI charges each applicant about P6,000 as a processing fee and an extra P3,000 for those who want VIP (very important person) treatment.
The embassy should categorically state whether the visa application denial letters received by the so-called Alpha 400 complainants were genuine, as they bore the handwritten names of the addressee, and some even lacked the embassy's seal.
If some of the visa denial letters handed by PIASI to the applicants are proven fake, then surely the embassy has to take a very hard look at the subcontracted aspect of its visa application system.
As in the visa application systems of other countries, the third-party firms that accept the applications have systems that ferret out any bogus document or application even before they are sent to the consulates or embassies. How come too many visa applications passed piasi's inital vetting?
The responsibility of the Italian Embassy extends beyond addressing the Alpha Assistenza scam. It is incumbent upon them to investigate PIASI to ensure that all dealings with visa applicants are above board.
This investigation should not only clarify the issues surrounding handwritten letters but also reaffirm the embassy's commitment to transparency and fairness in the visa application process.
