NOTING that some recruitment agencies “confiscate” passports of overseas Filipino workers to compel them to complete payment of processing fees, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III has sought to imprison individuals who would withhold passports of anyone to be used as a tool for monetary payments.

Pimentel filed a proposed bill amending Section 288 of the Revised Penal Code, which penalizes “coercion.” His proposed measure would make it “illegal” to withhold the passport of anyone in order to ensure that he or she would pay his or her debts.

“There have been cases where government-issued IDs were confiscated by certain individuals for purposes of payment, compliance, regulation, or punishment,” he said.

“A number of our overseas Filipino workers had their passports or travel documents retained, confiscated, or withheld by some recruitment agencies or employers to coerce them to pay the latter sums of money,” he added.

It is imperative to criminalize the illegal retention, confiscation, and/or withholding of passports not only to protect OFW “but all other possible victims of this form of coercion,” Pimentel said.

Under Pimentel’s proposal those found guilty will be meted out imprisonment of two years and a fine of not less than P20,000 or both. “Coercion is defined as a form of compulsion, force, duress, where a man is forced to do an act against his will,” he said.     Bernadette E. Tamayo