I’m not a judgemental person so I didn’t judge all Filipinos based on my experience but at the same time it was pretty obvious that I was experiencing the horror story that people talked about. I was actually warned about that but I didn’t believe that, I never thought that I’d be part of that story.
Meet Belldon Colme, 51 years old, from Seattle, Washington. He used to be married to a Filipina whom he met in Singapore. After a few months of communication, he visited the Philippines, met her family, and eventually married her in Cavite.
It took three years of waiting to complete the spousal visa process, and during those years he found out that his wife was engaged to five different American men, from Florida, Colorado, and California. “At the end of the day all five men were sending money to [her] thinking that they were engaged to her,” he said.
“There really are no words to describe how you feel when you’ve been played like a fiddle so well. I mean you’ve been used, you’re a patsy, you’re everything that we tend to look down on… and that level of betrayal, there’s no words to describe it but inside you come apart.”
Catch the last part of our series next week, April 3rd. Belldon will share with us how he met his current partner Imy Calabio, and how she changed his life.
Effe Barker| Journalist 