The Philippines embassy in the UAE has sought to tighten the screws against cheating overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who use fake certificates to remarry here, sink into debt and eventually abandon their families back home.

This develops as several families in the Philippines have lodged complaints in the embassy over cases of neglect by breadwinners who work here. Many abandoned wives have also filed cases with Philippine courts, demanding alimony and child support.

"We have received a number of complaints from wives in the Philippines seeking the embassy's assistance for child support from their husbands, estranged or otherwise, who have apparently abandoned them and engaged in undesirable relations," said Consul General Jose Ampeso, Chargé d'Affaires at the Philippines embassy in Abu Dhabi.

To stem the problem, the Philippines mission requested the Dubai Court not to authenticate any Filipino marriages in Dubai unless they have previously arranged the appropriate requirements with the embassy in Abu Dhabi.

A diplomat said that the OFWs who abandon their families in the Philippines rarely adhere to the embassy's pleas and many of the men who take a new wife are often found deep in debt.

"Apparently, there are too many Casanovas here. But it's no cakewalk to abandon families and marry another woman," the diplomat added.

Until recently, Filipinos who want to marry in Dubai only needed to submit four basic documents: a sworn declaration by the applicants that each of them are free to marry and not a Muslim, a completed application form, a photocopy of passports and two passport photographs of each person.

Statistics from the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) reveal that some 30 per cent of welfare cases filed there relate to abandonment. POEA had more than 2,500 cases of non-support during the last two years.

"When a married male Filipino working overseas feels lonely, he gets depressed and enters into an extra-marital relationship. Sometimes some of them even go a step further and start a new family. They get married by unscrupulous means," said the diplomat.

Bigamy or polygamy, in theory, is illegal in predominantly Catholic Philippines, where divorce is also not allowed. But disgraced former Joseph Estrada, who is known to have fathered children from at least five different women, was jailed not for his waywardness, but for plunder.

A recent study conducted by a Manila-based NGO revealed a marked rise in the number of incidents of separation and abandonment among families of OFWs.

Kakammpi, a community-based organisation composed of OFW families and migrant returnees, said most of the abandoned partners are wives of workers in the Middle East.

While there are strict requirements for Filipinos who wish to marry overseas - they have to get a "certificate of no marriage" authenticated by the National Statistics Office, the Ombud-sman and the Department of Foreign Affairs, which must then be authenticated by the embassy here - enterprising Filipinos have found a way to forge documents.

Philippine Foreign Affairs officials said that fake marriage certificates are bought at Recto Avenue in Manila and used by unfaithful husbands.

Among children of migrant workers, incidents of drug abuse, delinquency, early pregnancies or marriages are also increasing.

"Children manifest strong materialistic values as they become overly dependent on money and gifts from overseas," she said.

These youths look at their migrant father or parents as mere financiers of the family, the study cited, and most of them prefer to have their fathers continue working overseas. A long-term solution to this problem is for the government to provide jobs in the home country.

"We hope the day will come when we will no longer be separated by circumstances that, quite ironically, force the breakup of families in the name of their survival," she said.