publicduende wrote:
That is interesting. I did not know that those Korean men would not be able to take the mom of the child back with them without a marriage contract. In Davao I did meet one young woman, a friend's friend, who had 3 children from a Korean man, yet she wouldn't explain me why she wouldn't move to Korea with him. Perhaps her story was more complicated than that, yet the fact above does give a partial explanation.
You cannot compare laws in Philippines/Japan/Korea with those in Europe or USA. Handling of personal affairs is quite different in Asia, especially in case of minor children.
Philippines has various restrictions regarding children and can be complicated to handle. A lot of documents are required for Philippine children to bring them out of the country. If they all are travelling together, the father, the mother and their own children there is no problem - but otherwise you should ask for clearance papers from the welfare department before you consider your travel schedule.
Philippines does not know about divorce, only nullification of a marriage, this can cost some money and is time-consuming, especially if the other spouse resists to sign. Often people remain married, leave the other spouse and are just into co-habitation with another partner.
Guardian/costody rights are quite complicated, considering the biological father too, even if he does not care about the children at all and abandoned them. If he is refusing to sign to let the children to travel to overseas, you might find yourself in big troubles.
Japan, and as far as I know also South Korea will not issue any longstay permit for a foreign wife who is merely into co-habitation without a marriage certificate.
You will also have also prove that these children with you and her are your own offspring and not the children from some other man. Otherwise it might happen that Philippines authorities will refuse to let them board the airplane and the Japanese authorities will refuse to grant any visa/longstay permit. They might even not be able to get a passport under certain circumstances.
South Korea (but not Japan) even created laws to prevent South Korean men to bring a foreign wife easily - despite legally married - into South Korea.
They got this idea from USA, which has similar feminist regulations against dating a foreign wife, called VAWA-IMBRA.
-----
About paperwork regarding my abandoned fosterdaughter from Tagum region in Mindanao, both parents did not care at all about her, severely mistreated, sick, malnutrition etc. - a court with the help of the welfare department suspended parents rights temporarily and gave custody rights to a far away living relative, a Filipina who I know well in Cebu, who is an honest woman, and takes care of everything up to now. That's how we met when she was 8 years old.
I was worried that her biological parents might claim her back, but they never contacted us and never were asking about her, they abandoned also their older sister (who is almost blind) and their younger son, and the other 2 older children did not care about their younger brother and sisters, they moved away and disappeared.
Philippines has also very difficult restrictions for children up to 18 years, it is difficult to open even a banking account for them, even if parents are willing to co-sign. It is impossible to get any permit for them to do even an easy work, it is difficult to be with them as a foreigner not related to them in private rooms etc. etc.
It took us years to get a birth certificate (as her birth was not correctly registered in her village), her exact birthday is unknown, next step was a baptism certificate, as good schools in Cebu are all Catholic controlled. Some Catholic private schools are requesting a marriage certificate of the parents to prove that the child was born in wedlock.
It was never possible to get a passport and clearance papers to take her out of Philippines. She is now 19 and has her passport, but even in this situation, Philippines has protective laws to prevent young women - even as adults - to leave the country.
All in all, Philippines is a rather bureaucratic society and it is not always easy for a foreigner.
About these Korean men, there is always a shortage of Korean women nowadays for marriage - but to bring into their own country a foreign wife is also not so easy, especially not from Philippines and with HER children.
I understand that some men give up and leave with no return.
Some Korean men are more responsible and buy a condominium or small house, send some money and come often for visits to Cebu for a few days as the flight is cheap, not such a long distance.
-----
About all these bargirls, it's a totally different matter. I doubt if the Korean customer visiting a bar even knows, he is now a father - how can he know that? He was together with this girl and maybe other girls too for a few days only, going home to Korea and these bargirls are all moving on to the next customers. How can they even know after birth who is the father?