German Embassy in Manila remains silent besides compelling evidence of misconduct.

 

By Lolita Tan

 

Manila

 

 

The highlight in the yearly life of a journalist specializing in travel matters is a visit to the International Tourism Bourse (ITB), the world largest travel convention held every March in Berlin. Naturally, Ms. Marlyn E. was very excited when she got the assignment from head office in Sydney to attend and report as well as to conduct a research project on behalf of the publisher. Marlyn is working freelance for Partisan Voyager an online travel related news magazine with a trend to report on Philippine related travel matters. Besides, Marlyn is also the manager/owner of MNLTRAVEL a fully registered and licensed Tandag Philippine based travel agency and as a sideline also the owner of the Tandag adventure seafront campground. MNLTRAVEL is in a close cooperation with Phil Travel Service PTY. LTD a leading Sydney/Australia based travel agency (Est. 1984). On behalf of Phil Travel Service Marlyn had a second assignment at the ITB; to interview a number of applicants (with Philippine background) living in various European countries who showed interest to become “Tourism ambassadors” in order to promote travel to the Philippines.

 

Phil Travel Service made all the travel arrangements in order to comply with all the requirements necessary to apply for a visa for Germany which included a firm flight booking with China Airlines to/from Berlin, a room reservation in a hotel in Berlin and a personal guarantee from the Manager to cover all travel expenditures. This was an official document issued by the German Embassy for which they charged a substantial fee. Partisan Voyager obtained media accreditation from the ITB after submitting Marlyn credential. Marlyn issued herself as agent for the insurer a required travel insurance and to top it up she obtained from the European Chamber of Commerce in Manila a recommendation letter for visa purposes.

 

Therefore well prepared she applied personally for a 14 day visa to visit Germany but to no avail. Her visa was rejected by a certain Mr. Mueller from the German embassy because as he stated in a letter “The applicant has no intention to visit the ITB but must be intending to travel to Germany for another purpose (unspecified) because the applicant applied for a 30 day visa. The original application is very clear and was made out for a 14 day visit.(copy on file). Besides, the ITB visit, Marlyn was required to inspect Hotels/Pension houses in Oberammergau for possible future group bookings.

As another ground for rejecting the visa is mentioned” No travel insurance provided”

 

Prior to this event Marlyn had traveled to numerous other countries on a official assignment and never had a visa denied As an extra “nicety” the German embassy attached a stamp to her passport which is generally recognized as “visa denied stamp”  prompting Marlyn to obtain instantly a new passport in order to avoid problem obtaining other visa in the future.

 

Since both grounds of rejection were fabricated, amounting to gross misconduct or criminal behavior committed by an embassy staff member. There are only two possible scenarios.

 

1. Mr. Mueller rejected the application in a vicious manner based on non existing criteria.

             Or

2. Prior to the application reaching Mr. Muellers desk someone at the embassy has altered the original application and made the proof of travel insurance disappear.

 

The statement on missing travel insurance is obviously false. The applicant submitted the original policy on lodging the application and it was returned by the receiving person after viewing however at a later stage the applicant received a note from the German embassy that no proof of travel insurance was supplied upon which she immediately sent a messenger with a copy of the insurance policy to the embassy. (receipt on file).

 

Because Marlyn's travel plans had to be scraped Partisan Voyager did not get the reports from the ITB and MNLTRAVEL/Phil Travel Service suffered substantial losses because they were unable to continue with the Philippine tourism promotion campaign, after all who wants to deal with a company where the recruitment officer’s visa is denied.

 

The question is of course WHY the German embassy is acting in such a destructive manner and is not responding to our request for an explanation. There is a possible reason: It has been established that one rejected applicant from Germany claimed to be a good friend of a leading personality in the German embassy’s visa section. So could this be “payback?” We are aware that said visa officer visited the rejected German applicant while his application was pending and it can assume that Phil Travel project was discussed. If so a staff shake up at the Manila embassy is urgently required.

 

PS. Investigating journalist may request photo copies of all here mentioned documents and letters. Mr. Muellers rejection letter is written in German language.