Difficulty to depart from Manila.

by Ow
(Singapore)

I've a friend who is coming from Manila on the 23rd. She is a Filipino. She is suppose to be here to participate in her cousins wedding, but she already has difficulty at the Manila airport!

She has 2-way tickets which are paid for including the terminal fee and taxes.

When she is in the immigration counter, she is asked for a 'authenticated invitation letter'. At that time, she has with her an 'invitation letter' and a copy of an 'identification card' of the person who invited her to Singapore.

She showed both of the papers to the FEMALE officier. But she rejected her. I don't understand what they mean by authenticated invitaion letter.

By dragging her at the counter, of course she missed her flight in the end. Then at that point of time, they asked her to purchase another ticket and she can go through. (What the hell is this immigration officer doing).

I've already had a very bad impression of Manila, because they are money-minded. All they want is money. The officer asked for 5,000 peso and my friend can go through.

IS this daylight robbery/bribery? Do they do this to all the tourists? Or just to Filipino?? Why do they do this to their own people? No wonder the country has no improvenment, with all this kind of dishonest people working at the immigration.

I've asked my friend to take down their names, and guess what? The officers hid their Name Tags!

What is the purpose of the name tag on their uniform? Do they have the right to hide their name ?

I hope someone can answer my query here..

(1) Why is there a need for the authenticated letter for tourist? Normal invitation letter won't do. If that's the case, then embassy will be filled with people. Does it apply to other Nationalities as well?

(2) Is the immigration officer allowed to cover their names to avoid people from seeing it? Then what's the purpose of wearing it in the first place?

(3) I have a feeling that they want money from the flight passengers, but why pick on Filipino?

Very disappointed, so sad to hear, not once, but a few times from some of my friends as well..