DOLI: No fee to get ATB

Applications for Authorization to Board letters are not for a fee.

Labor and Immigration Secretary Joaquin A. Tenorio said this, confirming that he received a complaint alleging that there were fixers charging a fee in exchange for facilitating ATB applications.

As this developed, Philippine Consul General Julia Heidemann echoed the reminder that ATBs are not for a fee, saying that based on the complaint she learned from a meeting with Tenorio, the fixers have been charging as much as $120.

“The ATB is free. According to the Secretary, he has heard that some people are asking for fee to facilitate the ATB,” Heidemann said. “The Secretary said no. There’s no fee for ATB, and they need not look for people to facilitate. Discourage fixers; it’s not good for the administration to have.”

Tenorio said the complaint was not pursued. “There was only complaint that I was very concerned to find out what this is — if this is true or not. But then I don’t have anymore.”

Although the complaint was considered as an isolated case, he said he would not hesitate initiating needed investigation, especially if a complaint is “something that holds water.”

“I don’t want to dig into this because who knows, there might be agency or agencies in the Philippines that help out people that come over here. And for their assistance, they may be charging them, and not necessarily [for] ATBs,” he said.

Tenorio said the fee may actually be for services rendered such as booking tourists to the hotels and providing car service from and to the airport.

“If you hear anybody doing that, you just let me know. I don’t think that’s right,” he said. “If I hear it again, I’ll get to the bottom of it. Right now, it’s all stopped. Nobody is complaining anymore.”

Unconfirmed reports said there are fixers who have contacts within the department that charges ATB applicants — as well as those securing other documents such as entry permits — for a fee in exchange for expediting the release of the needed documents.

“There’s nobody here [DOLI] that charges ATB. Nobody has told me that it’s coming from here. It’s coming from, possibly, agents,” he said.

Meanwhile, Heidemann said the Philippine Consulate is pleased with the proposed amendment to the ATB regulations being pushed by Tenorio.

If the proposal becomes a regulation, foreign nationals who have U.S. visas need not secure ATBs from the department to come into the Commonwealth. Other provisions that would relax the strict requirement to secure an ATB may also be contained in the amendment, Tenorio had said.