KAKAMMPI News

MANILA, Philippines — Amid "low expectations" of the event, the Roman Catholic Church will send six delegates to the forthcoming second Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) in Manila next week. An article on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines website (www.cbcpnews.com) Wednesday said the Church wants to give the forum a chance to help migrant workers. "If this forum will indeed help promote the rights of the migrants, I personally feel that the Church's participation to the discussion is relevant, because promotion of their rights is essential to their own development," said Fr. Edwin Corros, executive secretary of the CBCP Commission for Pastoral Care for Migrants and Itinerant People. But Corros admitted he personally does not expect much from the forum, as he said civil society groups and non-government organizations are "divided." He was referring to groups protesting the GFMD, who are holding separate alternative activi...

MANILA, Philippines — Amid "low expectations" of the event, the Roman Catholic Church will send six delegates to the forthcoming second Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) in Manila next week. An article on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines website (www.cbcpnews.com) Wednesday said the Church wants to give the forum a chance to help migrant workers. "If this forum will indeed help promote the rights of the migrants, I personally feel that the Church's participation to the discussion is relevant, because promotion of their rights is essential to their own development," said Fr. Edwin Corros, executive secretary of the CBCP Commission for Pastoral Care for Migrants and Itinerant People. But Corros admitted he personally does not expect much from the forum, as he said civil society groups and non-government organizations are "divided." He was referring to groups protesting the GFMD, who are holding separate alternative activi...

MANILA, Philippines - Foreign and local participants of the People’s Global Action on Migration, Development and Human Rights kicked of the event on Wednesday with a protest rally in Manila against the lack of protection for migrants worldwide. A GMA News report aired over QTV’s Balitanghali said the activists rallied at the Rajah Sulayman Park in Malate even as the Manila City government revoked their permit to stage the event there. With the theme,"Migrant workers are human beings, not commodities," the nine-day PGA, as the activity is called, is meant to supplement the 2nd Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) This year’s GFMD will be held in Manila from October 27 to 30, with the Philippine government as host. Policies on migration and its relationship to development, including migrants’ rights, and negotiations on bilateral agreements on migration are expected to be discussed during the forum. The GFMD came out of the recommendations of the 2006 UN High Level ...

KAGMAN, Saipan – The body of a Filipino worker in the US island of Saipan who went missing Tuesday morning after big waves swept him away while fishing was found floating at sea Wednesday morning. Hilario “Larry" M. Palino’s body was recovered at 8:51 a.m. Wednesday and was pronounced dead at 10:26 a.m. He was 41. Palino, who is originally from the northern Philippine province of Ilocos Sur, left behind his wife Gigi and five children — the youngest is 8 months old and the eldest is 15. “Nag-hope pa ako na sana buhay siya nung Martes … Pero nung nakita na nila yung katawan niya kaninang umaga, tinanggap ko na sa sarili ko na wala na siya (I had hoped he’s still alive on Tuesday…But when they found his body this morning, I accepted that he’s gone)," Mrs. Palino told GMANews.TV on the phone Wednesday afternoon. The body was bloated when it was found at the same beach where he got swept away by big waves a day earlier while standing on a cliff line at Marine Beach in Kagman. He ...

MANILA, Phlippines - An officer of the Overseas Workers' Welfare Adminstration (OWWA) is urging amendments to the agency's current membership policy to include benefits for non-active members who have been languishing in jail or facing death sentences. Carmelina Velasquez, a director IV of the welfare agency, told GMANews.TV that under current rules, migrant workers who are unable to renew their OWWA membership because they are jailed would not receive the insurance benefits accorded to active members. OWWA members are entitled to death insurance that range from P100,000 (for natural cause of death) to P 200,000 (accidental). Velasquez said that while the OWWA still provides assistance to the dependents of distressed OFWs whose membership are not up-to-date, out of humanitarian considerations, there ought to be a change in the policy tso that the OWWA will have clearer rules on what benefits to give. “Even if we already have the policies, it's not cast in stone since we sti...

(UPDATED) MANILA, Philippines - A group of manpower agencies on Tuesday urged the government to look into its existing voluntary welfare insurance program for OFWs and make it mandatory for the benefit of all concerned. The Philippine Association of Service Exporters, Inc. (Pasei) said its Workers’ Welfare Enhancement Program (WWEP) - Personal Accident and Social Entitlement Insurance, which had been running for the past four years, is initially paid by deployment agencies and continued by workers on a voluntary basis. But it would be at no-cost to workers and to government, if it is made mandatory, Pasei said, adding that workers deployed by licensed agencies "will get additional benefits over and above and on-top of" what they will get from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), which is initially paid by deployment agencies and continued by workers on a voluntary basis. “Once this program is made mandatory to protect our workers at no cost to them, DOLE (Depar...

MANILA, Philippines - Most of the more than 8 million Filipinos working overseas have not been affected yet by the global financial storm, but a contingency plan has been cobbled together for possible layoffs, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said Wednesday. The workers are regarded as the country's financial backbone, with the earnings they send home — $14.45 billion last year — accounting for 10 percent of gross domestic product in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation of 90 million people. The bulk of them are in the Middle East, Asia, Europe and the United States, mostly working as nurses, laborers, construction workers and maids. Arroyo told a Manila business conference that reports by labor officials showed no displacement so far of overseas Filipino workers "related to the financial crisis." The government has prepared a plan to monitor for any sign of layoffs or a drop in labor demand, with Philippine embassies being asked to keep lists of the workers for poten...