Hi Pete,

I've had plenty of experiences at the Embassy over the years over blatant rudeness, and quite frankly, an utter disrespect for the people from the Embassy, both towards filipinas in general, but on occasion also to myself. Embassy officials tell all sorts of lies and make all sorts of mistakes, and, on one ocasion when my wife called them up on it, they tried to discredit her by saying, firstly, an ECO would never make a mistake(&#33 (yeah right, a civil servant, hmmm....), then when that didn't work they said that obviously my wife's (fluent) english isn't good enough and she either misheard or didn't understand English, as if she was some tribal native straight out of the jungle. This was all about the correct time to drop off some mostly irrelevant piece of information to the Embassy or some such, I can't remember the exact reason we were there now.

It was at that point that I stepped in to point out that I was also a party to the conversation my wife was referring to and the facts as she had relayed them were entirely accurate. The visa section manager (she no longer works there now as far as I know, but her name was Karen Finch) then told me "I find that very hard to believe"!!

I point blank refused to leave the Embassy until they had taken the document they had specifically asked us to bring in (they were saying we could only bring it in at a certain day/time and did not like it when we informed them that when we were asked to bring it in, no-one told us it had to be at this date or time. In the end, she conceded defeat, albeit most ungracefully, and, unbelievably, said that she'll take it, but she can't guarantee its safety on its journey from where she was standing talking to us now, to the point THREE FEET AWAY where she would need to place it in the intray or whatever. I was astounded at the rudeness and appalled at the indirect threat that she would deliberately 'lose' it because it wasn't handed in at the exact correct minute (which we were never informed about anyway). She clearly didn't like having to 'give in' and was no doubt annoyed that she found herself speaking to someone who knew what he was talking about.

We pay a fortune for this visa PROCESS (and it is the process we are paying for, not the outcome), and in return they should be providing a level of service commensurate with the significant size of the fee they force you to pay.

I had the same thoughts of letters of complaint (at the time Paul Dimmond was the ambassador, has he left now??), but then you have to get though UK immigration, then you have to do your 2 year renewal - there's always something that makes you think "hmm, maybe we'll leave it for a while".

But that is just one example of rudeness we have experienced (there are many others). It's disgusting. Makes you ashamed to be British when our representatives there, WHO WE PAY FOR, treat their host nation with such contempt and disrespect.

Like you, I also bristle at their assumption that the whole world is just clawing to get in to the UK. How arrogant, prejudiced, and WRONG.

Their style of questionning of Gina was appaling as well. I don't even know but it still makes me furious. I know they have to establish the facts, but a trained monkey with half a brain cell would have the intelligence to learn how to ask open ended questions, in a respectful way, which would allow the applicant to trip herself up (if she wasn't genuine), rather than badgering and pestering everyone, assuming they are all money grabbing bargirls waiting to get in and disappear, and trying to wear her down like that. Where do they think they are, Guantanamo?

As for writing to the CFO or DFA, I'd say save your pen ink. You've seen how poorly the Philippines treats 'foreigners' - their ridiculous, suicidal and misplaced 'national pride' is strangling their country into bankruptcy anyway. They'd probably take a measure of 'national pride' at the DFA to receive a letter from an irate foreigner who they've managed to inconvenience and annoy. Don't give them the satisfaction.

I spent most of my final year in the Philippines muttering quite loudly about corruption, backwards, stupid, etc (it really was time for me to leave, 3 years s more than enough, lol), when faced with the sort of nonsense the Philippines is full of. By that point, my wife was pretty much westernised, her eyes had been opened about how backward the country really is, and she would be the first one telling dumb, corrupt officials what her rights are and telling them what they can and can't do. It didn't half surprise them, one of their own with the independence and intelligence to call them to account for their incompetence and corruption, rather than just being a subservient little filipina who cowered in the face of officialdom.

Can fully understand the Embassy letter, but on the cautious side, be careful not to give them any ammunition to change their minds. As you've seen, a subjective whim and a deluded sense of power is all it takes with them.