KAKAMMPI News

‘Handle  with  care’ - this  is  the  note usually attached to the balikbayan box. This box has come to represent the traditional way Filipino migrants extend their love and affection to their loved ones back home. The sacrifices of every migrant worker is somewhat eased whenever they connect with their families by sending their remittances  and  the much awaited balikbayan box. The  recent attempt by the Bureau of  Customs,  headed  by Commissioner Alberto Lina to impose random physical inspection of balikbayan  boxes  in  order to  counteract smuggling and loss of revenue shows blatant disrespect for this important family tradition and all  migrant  workers. These hardworking people were responsible for a record-high contribution of USD 24.3 billion in remittances in 2014, yet they are disrespected by being likened to smugglers and their important family connection pursued for careless disrup...

A Filipino domestic helper in Singapore was hurt after her Indian ex-boyfriend attacked her with a penknife, reports said. A  report on The Straits Times  said Singapore police charged Palaiyan Murugadas, 41, a construction worker, with causing "grievous hurt" to Allen Remedios Adolfo, 38, last Sunday. A  separate report on Singaporean Stomp  said Murugadas left deep cuts on Remedios's throat, wrist, and palm, and left her to stumble back to her employer's second floor apartment after the incident. Remedios managed to ring the doorbell and alert her fellow maid and employer, Jose Mari Camacho, before passing out, the report said. "It was a very deep cut and I could see her trachea (windpipe) coming out from her throat, where blood was spurting out... There were also deep cuts on her wrist and palm. I could see her bones and ligaments. Her thumb and finger were hanging just by the skin," Camacho told Stomp. Remedios was taken to Changi General Hospital, where...

The Department of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said it respects the decision by a Singapore court on a Filipino nurse who was convicted of sedition for his anti-Singaporean comments on social media.   Ed Mundsel Bello Ello, 28, was fired from his job at the government-run Tan Tock Seng Hospital for insulting Singaporeans on Facebook and calling for a takeover of Singapore by Filipinos.   “Mr. Ello and his lawyer respect the judgment of the court and have done all that is possible to defend his actions,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said. “We await the sentence to be handed out by the court [on] September 16.”   Ello, who was out on bail, was  convicted on Aug. 26 of one charge of sedition “for promoting feelings of ill-will and hostility.”   He also pleaded guilty for lying to the police when he insisted that his social media account was hacked and that the posts were made by someone else.   Under Sinagpore laws, maximum penalt...

Another female Filipino nurse is now under isolation after she was suspected to have contracted the deadly MERS Coronavirus in Saudi Arabia, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Thursday. “This is a female nurse, no age was given and she was placed under isolation,” Foreign Affairs spokesperson Charles Jose said. “We are monitoring a total of four cases of Filipinos with MERS in Riyadh,” he added. Jose, however, declined to provide the identity of the new suspected Filipino MERS victim.   Earlier this week, two female nurses, aged 29 and 32, were reported to be in the Intensive Care Unit, one male nurse in isolation and another female was under observation, but later on tested negative for MERS.   Jose said one of the four health workers, a 50-year-old nurse, has been discharged from the hospital based on the negative result from the series of tests conducted on her.   The two nurses in the ICU, on the other hand, were already conscious, Jose said, addin...

Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Hong Kong are coordinating with their families in the Philippines in preparation for Friday's "zero-remittance day" protest targeting the Bureau of Customs (BOC), a report on Balitanghali said Thursday, citing migrants' rights group Migrante. "Nago-organisa na kami sa mga pamilya namin sa Pilipinas para talagang patalsikin na ang mga nangungurakot na ito, 'yung mga nangigipit sa mga OFW," Vicky Casia-Cabantac, chairperson of Migrante-Hong Kong, said in the report. Like their counterparts in the Philippines, members of Migrante-Hong Kong held a rally on Wednesday to protest the BOC policies that they said were anti-OFWs, among them the aborted plan to manually inspect balikbayan boxes. Sol Pilas, Migrante's secretary general, doubted the BOC's claims that the inspection would help curb technical smuggling as the bureau has not revealed its parameters for determining which balikbayan boxes should undergo inspecti...

A Filipino has been convicted in Singapore of violating its Sedition Act and of providing false information to the authorities,  Channel News Asia has reported. Ello Ed Mundsel Bello, 28, was reported to have been convicted in connection with the slurs against Singaporeans he supposedly made on Facebook earlier this year. He pleaded guilty to the three charges on Wednesday. According to the news website, Bello was found to have violated the Sedition Act when he promoted feelings of ill-will and hostility. Another charge under the Sedition Act and another for lying to the police will reportedly be taken into consideration during sentencing. In a Facebook post, Bello called Singaporeans "loosers (sic) in their own country". "We take their jobs, their future, their women, and soon, we will evict all SG loosers out of their own country", Bello said. He added that Singapore would be the "new Filipino state".  —NB, GMA News  

Pro-OFW groups on Wednesday pushed through with their protest despite President Benigno Aquino III's decision to stop the Bureau of Customs' controversial new policy to manually inspect random balikbayan boxes. A report on GMA News TV's "Balita Pilipinas" said members of Migrante International and women's group Gabriela held a rally in Manila to demand better service and OFW protection from the BoC instead of higher taxes on goods shipped through balikbayan boxes. Migrante chairperson Connie Bragas-Regalado also asked the BOC to refrain from adding to the burdens of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), as she described the aborted inspection policy as another way for the bureau to milk money from migrant workers. The report said the group is suspicious of the BoC's supposed goal of recovering the P600 million lost due to smuggling through the fees it planned to impose on balikbayan boxes. International chapters of Migrante will attempt a "zero-remittance...