Naaawa ako sa Pilipinas (I pity the Philippines). Because of political dynasties, graft and corruption, and voters who vote with their feelings instead of their head and who can be bought with a few measly pesos, we have have elected officials who, as they become richer, are leading our country and people deeper into economic morass.
For the past five years, the Philippines has dodged the recession plaguing the developed world mainly because of the billions of dollars sent home by some 10 million Filipinos living or working abroad. But the picture is no longer that rosy. Last week, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported that in March, remittances from overseas Filipinos grew at their slowest pace in nearly four years.
The Migrante Sectoral Party chapter in New Zealand is calling on President Aquino to stop wasting time and start using government funds for the benefit of thousands of stranded Filipinos in Jeddah, who are awaiting immediate repatriation.
The ruling was unanimous. But that didn’t make it any less unfair. Last Monday, the highest court in Hong Kong voted 5-0 to deny the appeal of Evangeline Banao Vallejos, a Filipino who has been working in the special Chinese administrative region as a domestic helper since 1986, to be granted permanent residency.
It’s the sort of thing that puts you in a quandary. That’s the unanimous decision of Hong Kong’s top court to deny two Filipino domestic workers permanent residency there. The two are Evangeline Vallejos and Daniel Domingo. Vallejos has worked in Hong Kong since 1986 and Domingo since 1985, or pretty much the whole of [...]
The Kris Aquino/James Yap and Chiz Escudero/Heart Evangelista brawls triggered a blogging frenzy. “There are more pressing concerns,” former Sen. Richard “Dick” Gordon protested. These range from Filipinos squeezed in the Sabah controversy to a severely strained school system. “Let’s keep our focus on issues that matter.”
We are thankful to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah for issuing a royal decree temporarily halting the execution of all convicts on Saudi Arabia’s death row, including overseas Filipino worker Joselito Zapanta.
I am glad the Commission on Elections (Comelec) re-enfranchised 238,557 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and professionals. Earlier this year, it deleted their names from the National Registry of Overseas Absentee Voters for their failure to vote during the last two consecutive elections held in 2007 and 2010. But on March 5, the poll body interpreted the law more liberally, reversed its earlier decision, and allowed our overseas kababayan to remain on the voters’ list.
I had originally intended to compose a synopsis of a speech I delivered last Feb. 26 at the Second Annual Arangkada Forum of the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce, hoping thereby to make my life easier. However, the Management Association of the Philippines featured virtually the entire speech in the March 4 issue of the Inquirer, and while I felt honored, I also realized that my lazy ploy had been thwarted.
The “Love Letter to Filipinos” of David H. Harwell (Inquirer, 2/17/13), describing overseas Filipino workers as those who do all the work, never complain and “make everything happen” while suffering loneliness and hardship, moved many to tears.
I am writing to thank Filipinos for the way you have treated me here, and to pass on a lesson I learned from observing the differences between your culture and mine over the years.
National Migrants Sunday will be marked tomorrow. Twenty-seven years back, a new Commission on Pastoral Care for Migrants and Itinerant People set the first Sunday of Lent to focus attention on a fast growing stream of migrants.
