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‘What to do now, Pinoy?’ DIE HARD III Herman Tiu Laurel 11/07/2011

Monday, November 7, 2011

‘What to do now, Pinoy?’

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
11/07/2011
I translated this letter from a Nigeria-based OFW, with some parts retaining the original.
“Pinoy, paano ka na ngayon?, by Lito Nucum: ‘NOW, THEREFORE, the POEA (Philippine Overseas Employment Administration) governing board resolves… to stop the deployment of OFWs to the above-mentioned countries for non-compliance with the guarantees required under RA 10022.” The POEA issued GB Resolution No. 7, Series 2011, which named 41 countries that have not complied with Rule III of RA 10022. Is this the appropriate response to help Filipinos who take their chances to work in other countries? Be it Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Kuwait, or Saudi Arabia, why do Pinoys still persist in leaving their homeland and face the perils awaiting them in these and/or other countries that are non-compliant still with Rule III of RA 10022?

“What I do know is that it is the right of every Filipino to seek a means of livelihood wherever in the world. When the state fails to provide its own people with sustainable employment, tutunganga na lang ba si Itay at Inay at titignang nakangiti ang isang katerbang mga anak habang tirik ang mata at nakanganga ang bibig sa gutom? ‘Survival,’ the life of the entire Filipino family, is at stake and we want to stir up the conscience of our government ‘not to impose’ a ‘deployment ban’ on whatever country. I know our government realizes the lack of opportunities in our country. That is why, despite violation of Section 5 of RA 10022 which ‘shall allow the deployment only of skilled Filipino workers,’ thousands upon thousands of inengs, ates, nanays, titas and lolas still force themselves into countries abounding with abuses. Ano sa palagay ng gobyerno natin, makiki-chismis sila doon, makikipag-karaoke lang? Gising… kailangan nilang mabuhay nang marangal.

“Many of those in government ride around in luxurious cars, have nice homes in Forbes, Dasma, or maybe Alabang, and send their children to Ateneo, UP, La Salle, sporting signature clothes, smartphones, and pa-Belo-Belo pa. Well, after all, madali lang naman sabihing, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to receive you but (I) only (need) to say the word and I shall be healed. Until next kumpisal ulit.’ Anyway, here are some parts of the report as seen on GMA News: ‘DoLE (Department of Labor and Employment) Secretary Baldoz said the ban will affect a little over 200 OFWs, who she said can avail of the government’s integration program if they wish to return home. Earlier Wednesday the POEA ordered a deployment ban on 41 countries for the lack of guarantees ensuring the welfare of overseas Filipino workers. She said many of the OFWs deployed to the 41 countries are employed by globally operated companies and are not covered by the deployment ban.’

“Nagtatanong lang ako kung saan nakuha ng kagalang-galang na DoLE secretary yung ‘a little over 200.’ Maybe, I thought, this was just a typo error and two zeros got lost. According to my research on POEA data, there are 21,948 land-based OFWs that are legally working in the countries cited. First is Libya where there are 11,000 heroic fellow Filipinos who, despite the war, choose not to return home yet. I would be grateful if only a little over 200 are affected by the ban in 41 countries, which means 21,700 of our countrymen working in globally operated companies are not covered by the deployment ban. But will this be the view of the BI (Bureau of Immigration)? E, walang hinihintay ang mga kapatid diyan sa BI kung hindi ang mga ganitong Resolution at iba pang government orders na siyang nagiging sanhi ng lalong pasakit sa Pinoy na gustong mag-hanap-buhay sa abroad. For the BI, those countries affected by the ban will become gold when GB R#7 comes into effect.

“I am certain that many of our countrymen working in countries affected by the ban will hesitate to take their vacations to the homeland, fearing they will not be able to return to the foreign countries giving them livelihood. What do they say to their families? ‘Inday, sorry Ma, i-explain mo na lang sa mga bata kung bakit hindi tayo magkakasama sa Paskong ito. Merry Christmas. I love you all very much at God bless; ingat.’ Like us here in Nigeria… many have fallen victim to that deployment ban; and I am one of them. That is why I took the nerve to express my innermost feelings, and cry out loud, ‘remove the deployment ban,’ or else another huge question shall face us all: ‘Pinoy paano ka na ngayon?’…
“About the partial deployment ban here in Nigeria, it should not be so. It is clearly stated in Section 6 RA 10022, ‘termination or ban on deployment,’ which states ‘notwithstanding the provisions of Sections 1 and 5 of this Rule, in pursuit of the national interest or when public welfare so requires, the POEA governing board, after consultation with the Department of Foreign Affairs, at any time, (may) terminate or impose a ban on the deployment of migrant workers.’ But what national interest and public welfare is affected for a certain country that is already compliant but still faces the ban, like Nigeria, that has given life to our hopes that our own country has not been able to give? Then they will impose the ban? Is this what the country that took us in gets in return — shamed before the whole world? Our government in the Philippines is ungrateful and treacherous.”

The letter speaks volumes about the plight of our OFWs under the present government of incompetence and naiveté that was brought in by the “civil socialites” of the Yellow and Akbayan charlatans. With P-Noy, they have all done huge damage, instead of good, to “the people” whose name they woefully invoke to claw to politics and plunder.

(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)

(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu-Laurel)

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111107com5.html

Worse than holiday economics EDITORIAL 11/07/2011

Worse than holiday economics

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
11/07/2011
Businesses are again grumbling about something that Noynoy had assailed Gloria of doing and which, during the campaign period said he would not fall into doing, which is adopting holiday economics.

Noynoy has even added yet another Muslim holiday which was not in existence before — the time for Muslims hajj.

A policy taken during the time of Gloria, holiday economics is bunching non-working days with a holiday by moving such days to the nearest Friday or Monday.

The program hoped to help local tourism by encouraging Filipinos to travel during long holidays..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111107com1.html

Certified hypocrite FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 11/07/2011

Certified hypocrite

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
11/07/2011
Noynoy says, in his bid to explain why he continues to delay the passage of the Freedom of Information (FoI) (FoI), that, among others, he was told when he was younger, that “absolute freedom is absolute imprisonment.”

Noynoy certainly has a skewed view of what freedom — especially the freedom of the people to exercise their right to have access to critical information and official documents, as provided in the Bill of Rights enshrined in the Constitution.

He is into doublespeak, that Orwellian language used in the fictional “1984” novel, where contradictions are merged, such as “War is Peace” and now, Noynoy’s “absolute freedom is absolute imprisonment.”

How on earth can freedom, even in its absolute form, ever be seen as an imprisonment, since truth is the very slayer of lies?.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111107com2.html

W/ Video: Let’s bomb Iran: Old song, new lyrics

Let’s bomb Iran: Old song, new lyrics

The US and its allies, such as the UK and Israel, may launch a missile attack on Iranian uranium enrichment facilities in the next 12 months, media speculate.



The possible bombing campaign may start after next November’s presidential election in America, reports The Guardian, citing unnamed sources in Whitehall. It also cites sources in UK’s Ministry of Defence as saying that the top brass are penning contingency plans to help the US with attacking Iran, should Washington launch offensive.

The military action may be chosen because Iran proved to be surprisingly resilient in the face of the international sanctions and the cyber attack on its nuclear facilities, allegedly perpetrated by American and Israeli hackers, the newspaper says. The damage done by the Stuxnet worm was reportedly less severe than first expected, and Iran has managed to overcome the sabotage..... MORE

SourceRT.com

URL: http://rt.com/news/bomb-iran-nuclear-sites-473/

Palm oil plantation grabs land, harasses farmers, indigenous peoples in Misamis Oriental

 Palm oil plantation grabs land, harasses farmers, indigenous peoples in Misamis Oriental

“We lost our land, our livelihood and possibly our source of water because of them,” Consolacion Payla, 66 years old and resident of Opol, Misamis Oriental
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com

CAGAYAN DE ORO, Misamis Oriental — In every community, the source of potable water is also their source of life. Thus, the palm oil plantation in Opol, Misamis Oriental, which endangers the source of potable water in the area, does not merely encroach on the lands of the indigenous peoples in the area but also threatens their very existence.

“I am angry because the company that manages the palm oil plantation has not been true to its words. We lost our land, our livelihood and possibly our source of water because of them,” Consolacion Payla, 66, said in the vernacular. Payla is one of the Lumads struggling against the palm oil plantation in Sitio Limbasan in Opol, Misamis Oriental.

Nakeen Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of A Brown Energy and Resources Development, Inc., was able to secure a permit from the government to cultivate over 600 hectares of public land located in Opol, Misamis Oriental, with corresponding tax perks for the proposed P174.4-million ($4.05 million) project. The exploration phase began late in 2010.


(Photo courtesy of Amihan-Northern Mindanao Region / bulatlat.com)
Trade secretary and Board of Investments chairman Gregory Domingo said that with the strong demand for palm oil both in the domestic and international market, “production can only get better with growing more palm trees in the country side.”

Palm trees grow up to 30 feet tall and have a life span of 25 years. It bears fresh fruit bunches, small reddish fruits, which are made up of oily pulps. Its seeds, called palm kernel, are also rich in oil. The palm oil plantation in Opol, Misamis Oriental has a capacity of over 13,000 metric tons of fresh fruit bunches a year and would require some 209 personnel.

A Brown started planting palm trees on January 2011 and the commercial operation, meaning harvesting of the fruits, is slated to begin sometime in January 2014. Yet, as early as now, Payla said, the company has already affected their lives. The community of Lumads fear that their source of potable water, which is a nearby river, would be polluted with the harmful chemicals sprayed on the palm trees..... MORE

SourceBulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/11/07/palm-oil-plantation-grabs-land-harasses-farmers-indigenous-peoples-in-misamis-oriental/

Turkey steps up pressure on Syria ANALYSIS 11/07/2011

Turkey steps up pressure on Syria

ANALYSIS

11/07/2011
ISTANBUL — Turkey is harshening its stance against its former ally Syria, laying the ground for Syrian dissidents including army defectors and readying to announce new measures against Damascus.

“We cannot remain a mere bystander” to the developments unfolding in Syria, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Berlin during an official visit on Wednesday

“We believe it is necessary to implement certain sanctions” against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, whose crackdown on protests has claimed more than 3,000 lives since mid-March, according to the United Nations.

Erdogan however did not elaborate on what kind of sanctions he was mulling against his former “friend” Bashar..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111107com3.html

Return of the PEA-Amari boy(s) C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S Jonathan De la Cruz 11/07/2011

Return of the PEA-Amari boy(s)

C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S
Jonathan De la Cruz
11/07/2011
One item which caught the public eye in the ongoing high profile dogfight between CamSur Gov. LRay Villafuerte and his erstwhile comrades-in-arms, Deputy Speaker Noli Fuentebella and the three other co-sponsors of the proposed Nueva Camarines province, namely, LRay’s father and predecessor, Rep. Louie Villafuerte and Representatives Nonoy Andaya and Dato Arroyo, was the injection of businessman George Trivino of PEA-Amari fame in the debate recently.

In his latest blast, Gov. LRay propped up Trivino, a known ‘90s wheeler dealer, as the “poster boy” of what awaits the new province under the Fuentebellas. Trivino, a.k.a. Uy Han Kiat or George Uy, is listed as the super majority owner (225000 shares out of a total of 250000 outstanding stock) of the Caramoan Dam HydroElectric Power Corporation (CDHPC) with an authorized capitalization of P100 million. This deal is claimed to have the tacit approval of the Fuentebella family whose area of influence includes the town of Caramoan, a charge which has been vehemently denied. Of course, it is very possible that Trivino is doing this on his own being himself an adopted son of CamSur having taken one of the province’s political patriarchs, the late Gov. Juan Trivino, as his godfather. But no matter..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111107com4.html

MILF expects it will be cleared on Al-Barka slay By Mario J. Mallari 11/07/2011

INSISTS ON NOT SURRENDERING ASNAWI

MILF expects it will be cleared on Al-Barka slay

By Mario J. Mallari 11/07/2011

Even after Malacacang affirmed a military statement that the government has withdrawn recognition of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s area of temporary stay (ATS) in Basilan, the MILF still maintains that the military was to blame for the Oct. 18 clash between MILF forces and members of the elite Army Special Forces (SF) that resulted in the killing of 19 soldiers.

MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal expressed confidence that the MILF would be cleared by the Joint Coordinating Committee on Cessation of Hostilities (JCCCH), the International Monitoring Team (IMT) and the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (Ahjag) of culpability in the slaying of the soldiers in the investigation which will start today.

Iqbal maintained elements of the 13th and 19th SF Companies attacked MILF positions in Al Barka town that sparked a 10-hour clash that ended in the killing of 19 SF soldiers, four of them junior officers, and six MILF fighters..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20111107hed1.html

Miriam’s ‘anti-epal’ measure gets Palace support 11/07/2011

Miriam’s ‘anti-epal’ measure gets Palace support

11/07/2011
Malacañang has backed a measure introduced in the Senate that will prohibit public officials from grabbing credit over projects that were funded by taxpayers’ money.

Deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte, in an interview over state-run dzRB radio, yesterday said Malacañang very much welcome such initiative from Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago since it follows President Aquino’s policy against the common practice of most politicians.

Santiago’s Senate Bill 1967, known as the “anti-epal” bill, is formally titled “An Act Prohibiting Public Officers from Claiming Credit through Signage Announcing a Public Works Project.”.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20111107hed4.html

PMA classmen vetted to replace Army chief By Mario J. Mallari 11/07/2011

PMA classmen vetted to replace Army chief

By Mario J. Mallari 11/07/2011

Two members of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) “Matapat” Class of 1979, considered now as the ruling class in the Armed Forces of Philippines (AFP), are being tipped to replace their mistah, retiring Army chief Lt. Gen. Arturo Ortiz.

Reliable military sources said that incumbent AFP deputy chief of staff Lt. Gen. Anthony Alcantara and newly-promoted Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) chief Lt. Gen. Jessie Dellosa are the strongest contenders to replace Ortiz, who is retiring days ahead of his Nov. 13 mandatory retirement.

It was gathered that Ortiz may formally relinquish the Army top post on Wednesday or Thursday. As of press time yesterday, President Aquino has yet to announce his choice..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20111107nat1.html

Surigao del Sur dad slain in shooting gangland-style 11/07/2011

Surigao del Sur dad slain in shooting gangland-style

11/07/2011
Gunmen killed a local official in Surigao del Sur in a gangland-style shooting as he emerged from a church yesterday, police said.

The gunmen opened fire on Rafael Viduya, 58, shortly after he stepped out of the church in Bislig City and sped away aboard motorcycles.

Viduya, who was a member of a provincial government council, suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was proclaimed dead upon arrival at a nearby hospital..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20111107nat2.html

Free surgery awaits kids with facial deformities 11/07/2011

Free surgery awaits kids with facial deformities

11/07/2011
Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim has entered into an agreement which will provide free operation of poor children with cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities but whose parents do not have the money to spend for the expensive medical procedures.

Aside from Lim, also signatories to the memorandum of agreement were Sta. Ana Hospital director Mario Lato, Operation Smile Philippines Foundation Inc. chairman Joaquin Santos and president Roberto Manzano and Operation Smile International founder William Magee where it was agreed that a space will be provided for the establishment of the “Manila Cleft Care Center (MCCC)” right inside the Sta. Ana Hospital to provide needed medical services to cleft patients for free.

Lim said with the project, indigent residents who have kids suffering from cleft lip or palate may now avail themselves of the free services which cost P70,000 to P100,000 if done in a private hospital..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20111107met4.html

Mother says Ramona left country for fear of her life 11/07/2011

Mother says Ramona left country for fear of her life

11/07/2011
The mother of slain actor Ramgen “Ram” Jose Bautista Revilla yesterday said her daughter made the decision on her own to leave the country reportedly for Turkey due to fear for her life despite being tagged by the police in the killing of her brother.

According to Genelyn Magsaysay, mother of Ramgen, her daughter Ma. Ramona “Mara” Belen Bautista was more than capable of making her own decision, contrary to the claim of some sectors that she had a hand in her daughter’s sudden flight.

“My daughter left the country on her own for fear of her life, it’s a decision made by her and her alone as a mature, married woman and I respect her decision,” Magsaysay said in a statement aired on GMA News Balitanghali yesterday..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20111107met1.html

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