So, what could probably annoy a former consulate the most? His forged signature on a fake document would be one.
“May namemeke pa rin pala ng pirma ko diyan. We just caught one,” said Consul Ferdinand Flores, who is now at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) home office in Manila after ending his your of duty in Dubai last December. “Kaka-bwisit.”
Flores, former head of the Philippine Consulate General’s (PCG) consular service section in Dubai, said he was shown by DFA’s Authentication Division in Manila, a Special Power of Attorney (SPA) from Dubai bearing his forged signature.
Flores is no longer signatory to any documents processed by the consular service section as his term is done.
“A representative of an overseas Filipino in Dubai submitted on his behalf, an SPA for authentication, and upon closer inspection, it proved to be fake. It was supposed to be signed by me but the signature is also forged because as you can see, I don’t hold office there anymore,” Flores told The Filipino Times.
“I asked the Authentication Division to investigate and, if possible, suspend the release of authentication certificate pending submission of a correct SPA. Apparently, there are still attempts to pay for and present fake documents in Manila with the lousy excuse that the applicant did not know that it is fake,” Flores said.
Flores took a photo of the document in question and shared it to media in his messaging app. The document, complete with red ribbon and gold seal, was obviously a counterfeit, as it has spelling and typographical errors that an authentic SPA from PCG does not have.
The red ribbon and the gold seal were also counterfeit or were from an old legitimate consular document Flores said.
“If you buy and present fake documents you accept the risk that it will be discovered and confiscated and ruin the possibility of getting your documents on time,” said the diplomat.
This is not the first time that Flores’ signature was forged. In February last year, the consulate also caught two cases of fake documents bearing his fake signature.
