KAKAMMPI News

SUSUPE, Saipan – A Superior Court judge in the US Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) denied the motion of a Filipino contract worker to dismiss the charge of smuggling of 11 foreigners from Saipan to Guam in June 2007. Edwin F. Blanilla, a contract worker from the Philippines, was charged for attempting to bring 11 Chinese from the CNMI into Guam, also a US territory, on a boat on June 27, 2007. The CNMI is less than an hour away from Guam by plane. Blanilla was the pilot of the boat that was supposed to drop the 11 individuals off to Guam. In exchange for dropping the foreigners off, Blanilla would receive the boat as payment. According to court documents, Blanilla planned to sell the boat then return to the Philippines. But Blanilla and the 11 foreigners were rescued by the US Coast Guard when their vessel got stranded in the waters approximately 20 miles north of Guam on June 27, 2007. The 12 individuals, including Blanilla, were questioned and charged after authori...

After a long wait, the remaining stranded OFWs who lived in tents at the Philippine consulate grounds in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for three weeks have finally been taken to the deportation area for processing of their exit papers. There were about 70 Filipinos who ran away from their employers on various reasons, including reduced or non-payment of their salaries, poor working conditions, physical and verbal harm, and substitution of contract terms. They were boarded on a bus at past 9 a.m. Wednesday, according to Eric Jocson, one of the stranded Filipinos who have agreed to leave the kingdom through legal means. Earlier, the run away Filipinos refused to give their real identity and the names of their employers on fear of being returned to their ‘abusive’ employers, or facing trump up charges. Jocson said there were a few of his colleagues who were left behind because they came late for the bus. But consulate officials assured they would all be sent to the deportation area for processing....

Amid allegations of rape and abuse of women by US servicemen in Okinawa, a group of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) based in the Middle East echoed the calls of Japanese activists for the immediate pull out of US bases which they claimed has brought “mayhem" in the east-Asian country. Migrante Middle East (Migrante-ME) sought the exit of US troops stationed in Japan after a report that a 21-year-old Filipino was raped by an American soldier in Okinawa, just two days after her departure from the Philippines. “We strongly condemn in the strongest possible terms this atrocious act committed by US military servicemen, who after the crimes have been committed, can simply and freely leave Japan without paying the crimes they have committed against the victims," John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-ME regional coordinator, said on Thursday. Prior to the incident involving the Filipina, a 14-year-old Japanese schoolgirl was allegedly raped by 38-year-old Marine staff sergeant Tyrone Lut...

MANILA, Philippines - Even before he could serve a 45-day jailterm, a Filipino’s stay in jail has been extended by one month for threatening to harm his wife once he gets out of prison. Borneo Post reported in its online edition Friday that Kokman Samad (a.k.a. Mohamad Hairy Mus) pleaded guilty to the offense before magistrate Intan Nurul Farena Zainal Abidin. The magistrate ordered him to serve his sentence effective from his date of arrest last Feb. 20. Initial investigation showed Kokman, 28, threatened to beat and hurt his wife, Harlinah Lahuse, by pouring acid on her face once he is released from the Kepayan jail in Kota Kinabalu. Prison officer Atip (a.k.a. Latip Nukrih), who was guarding 171 prisoners of Block H, I and J at the prison, filed a complaint after he heard Kokman, a prisoner of Block J, utter the threatening words. Atip and his colleague advised the accused not to carry out the threat. However, he was determined to do so. This prompted him to charge Kokman under Sect...

When financial whiz Miguel C. Bolos quit Saudi Arabia for good in 2005, he began setting the groundwork to help returning overseas workers like him a way to successfully reintegrate into the country. Today, Bolos, or Mike as he is more popularly known, has put up a four-story commercial building in the heart of Guagua town in Pampanga and began to look for businesses interested in setting up a shop inside his new business center. But he wanted these businesses to be owned by former overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) like him, or at least, by OFW families. Mike is not new to helping OFWs. He was at the forefront of the campaign for the enactment of the Overseas Absentee Voting law which was signed into law in 2003, and other welfare issues concerning his fellow OFWs in Riyadh. At the same time, Mike bemoaned his hometown Guagua’s lack of development, which was surprising in light of the fact that it counted among its residents more than the usual OFW beneficiaries. "It felt to me lik...

By RODNEY J. JALECO ABS-CBN North America News Bureau WASHINGTON D.C. - A triple threat of poor diet, a mostly sedentary lifestyle and high number of the uninsured or underinsured are putting many Filipinos here at risk of fatal heart diseases – an incidence higher for those living in America than those in the Philippines. "Hindi naman sila matataba but they still suffer strokes," observed Dr. Edith Bautista-Quint, a private practitioner based in Alexandria, Virginia. "Mataas ang cholesterol, mataas ang blood pressure. It can also be hereditary but that can be controlled," she added. She places the blame squarely on the Pinoy’s penchant for rich, fatty food, coupled with the lack of exercise. Dr. Bautista-Quint and other Fil-Am doctors joined a free medical mission in Gaithersburg, Maryland last weekend, volunteering one day’s to help not only Fil-Ams but other minorities as well. The mission was organized by the Philippine Medical Association, Migrant Heritage Comm...

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has set up a Canadian Desk tasked to handle queries and coordinate with concerned agencies on matters relating to the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Canada. Labor and Employment Secretary Arturo Brion issued Administrative Order No. 53, series of 2008, providing for the setting up of the Canadian Desk at the Office of the DOLE Secretary in Intramuros, Manila. Director Salome Mendoza of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) was designated to head the desk. Brion said the Canadian Desk would be the Secretary’s arm in coordinating with the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Manitoba in activities relating to the deployment of OFWs to these provinces as provided for in the labor agreements entered into by the DOLE and the governments of the three Canadian provinces. The POEA, as mandated by law, will continue to handle the actual deployment activities. He added that the Desk would als...

By JULIE JAVELLANA-SANTOS abs-cbnNEWS.com House Bill 2036 amending the Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003 (Republic Act 9189) has passed the committee level and will soon be taken up before the House of Representatives plenary. The bill was passed in a joint hearing of House committees co-chaired by Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr. (Suffrage and Electoral Reforms) and Cebu Rep. Antonio Cuenco (Foreign Affairs). Locsin stipulated, however, that authors of HB 3209, a related bill that will scrap the required affidavit of intention to return which is a requirement for immigrants to be able to vote, have to defend their position at the plenary. The approved bill was a consolidation of HB 2046 filed by Locsin and Cuenco and of HB 3209 filed by Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros, Zamboanga City Rep. Maria Isabelle Climaco, Valenzuela City Rep. Rex Gatchalian and Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez. The committees were initially convened for the consideration of measures seeking to amend RA 9189, w...

(Updated) The US military based in Japan has detained a soldier who allegedly raped a Filipino woman in Okinawa earlier this month. According to Kyodo News on Wednesday, the Prefectural police plans to seek an arrest warrant on the still unnamed US serviceman after the Filipina claimed that she was raped. Reports said the Filipina was assaulted around middle of February in a hotel in Japan’s southern prefecture where about 20,000 US troops are stationed. The alleged sexual assault is the latest incident in Okinawa involving US troops after a 38-year-old Marine staff sergeant Tyrone Luther Hadnott was arrested last week for allegedly raping a 14-year-old Japanese schoolgirl. Philippine Foreign Affairs spokesman Claro Cristobal told GMANews.TV that he has already coordinated with embassy officials in Japan regarding the incident. "I have already coordinated with our embassy in Tokyo which, in turn, has already asked the honorary consul general in Okinawa to look into the matter,...

Senator Manuel Roxas II called on the Department of Foreign Affairs on Friday to make sure that information provided by the US government on the reported rape incident involving a US serviceman and a Filipina in Okinawa, Japan are not “sanitized." Information obtained from the US government, which may be overzealously shielding one of its soldiers from the reach of justice, must be double checked, the senator said. “We have seen that happen here, and our DFA should be able to discern whether we’re being offered a sanitized version of events," said Roxas, pertaining to the case involving Lance Corporal Daniel Smith and a woman named “Nicole" who complained of having been raped on Nov. 1, 2005 in Olongapo City. Japanese Kyodo news agency reported on Thursday that a "US Army member (had been) held for allegedly assaulting a Philippine woman." The soldier was not identified. DFA spokesman Claro Cristobal said the Philippine embassy in Tokyo has confirmed that a Fil...

The Filipina who complained of having been raped by a US serviceman in Okinawa has decided to file a case in appropriate Japan court, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Wednesday. DFA spokesman Claro Cristobal said that consul general to Tokyo Sulficio Confiado reported that the Filipino victim has already accepted the embassy’s offer of assistance and protection for the duration of the investigation and judicial proceedings. Cristobal said that the victim is now in the protective custody of the Okinawa Police. Earlier reports said that the US soldier assaulted the Filipina around middle of February in a hotel in Japan’s southern prefecture where about 20,000 US troops are stationed. The alleged sexual assault, the latest incident in Okinawa involving US troops, has drawn a string of complaints and protests in Japan, forcing the US military to impose a curfew on all American soldiers in the military prefecture. - GMANews.TV

The House committee on overseas workers affairs on Wednesday asked the Department of Foreign Affairs to submit a detailed report on the utilization of the P100-million legal assistance fund for migrant workers provided under a 1995 law. Rep. Roman Romulo, vice chairman of the committee, said an audit of the fund was necessary to justify a proposal under House Bill No. 701, authored by Valenzuela Rep. Rex Gatchalian, providing the DFA with P30 million legal assistance fund every year for distressed Filipino workers abroad. Jose Cabrera, DFA representative in a public hearing on pending bills involving migrant workers, said he was not certain that the P100 million legal assistance fund provided under Republic Act No. 8042, or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, had been disbursed. RA 8042 identified the sources of the P100-million fund as follows: P50 million from the President’s contingency fund, P30 million from the Presidential Social Fund; and, P20 million from th...

Members of the House committee on overseas workers affairs agreed on Wednesday to consolidate five bills seeking to amend Republic Act No. 8042, or the 1995 Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act, with a view of providing further protection to Filipinos working abroad. The proposals include having a legal attaché office in the Middle East countries to provide legal assistance to distressed Filipinos embroiled in legal battles under House Bill No. 628, and institutionalizing a selection process for additional members to the governing boards of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration under HB 699. HBs 700 and 769 both propose higher standard of protection for migrant workers and their families while HB 701 provides for replenishment to the legal assistance fund for OFWs in distress situations. Under HB 769, South Cotabato Rep. Arthur Pinggoy wants recruitment agencies to put up a performance bond of P100,000 for the deployment...

A court in Hong Kong has slapped the maximum two-year prison sentence against a Filipina domestic helper who forged her former employer’s signature to steal a total of $302,000 (more than Php1.5 million) from him in a span of 14 months. Ria-Cecilia R. Caguioa, 30, pleaded guilty to 18 counts of theft on Feb. 27 before Eastern court magistrate Garry Tallentire. Tallentire sentenced her to a 12-month imprisonment on all the charges, but ruled that charges 2 and 3 will run consecutively to all other charges, 4 to 19, for a total of 24 months. A separate charge of forgery against Caguioa was withdrawn. According to the charge sheet, on various dates between August 2006 and October last year Caguioa stole a “chose in action" or simply, checks in the HSBC account of her employer, Raymond Chow, a civil servant. She first denied the offenses when she was arrested, but later entered a guilty plea. The court heard that twice a month from August to October in 2006, Caguioa successfully depos...

The head of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. rejected on Wednesday proposals in the Senate to put up a hospital exclusively for overseas Filipino workers and their dependents. Lorna O. Fajardo, acting Philhealth president and chief executive officer, said at a joint public hearing of the Senate committees on health and labor that it would be more sensible to use the money intended for the proposed hospital to augment existing medical facilities run by the government. “Another hospital that cannot be fully equipped will just add up to the number of ill-equipped hospitals, “ Fajardo pointed out. Besides, she stressed that the needs of OFWs and members of their families are no different from those of ordinary Filipinos, and that they should not be accommodated separately. Fajardo said there are around 700,000 OFWs enrolled in Philhealth, each contributing P900 membership fee before going to their destination countries. While Fajardo acknowledges that there are certain peculiarities i...

Bata, Bata, Karapata’y Ipaunawa: PACT calls for the IACAT’s immediate adoption of the Philippines Guidelines for the Protection of Trafficked Children ________________________________________ “Trafficked children are victims of human rights violations and should not be treated as offenders. Formally adopting the Philippine Guidelines for the Protection of Trafficked Children will help in upholding and protecting each trafficked child’s right to full respect and exercise of his/her survival, protection, development and participation.” This was the call of Philippines Against Child Trafficking (PACT), a national network with over 500 member individuals and organizations committed to protect children against trafficking, in a forum held at Newdesk Café in Quezon City with the theme, “Bata, Bata, Karapata’y Ipaunawa.” PACT said that the document aims to serve as guide to broaden the understanding of service providers such as social workers, law enforcers, NGOs and the State, to better unde...

A United States economic recession will bring about a deluge of concerns among Filipinos, foremost of which are job cuts, political instability, inflation, civil conflict, higher interest rates and strikes, the latest study by polling firm Nielsen Company showed. The latest Consumer Confidence Concerns and Spending Survey of Nielsen Company showed that the Filipinos' top concern with a US economic slowdown is unemployment, with 70 percent of respondents listing this as an answer, political instability (50 percent), inflation (43 percent), civil conflicts and rising interest rates (both 22 percent). “We have seen so much of them (unemployment, political instability, and civil conflicts and strikes) in the past. They worry people apparently," Benedicto Cid Jr., Nielsen managing director said. The survey results revealed that the Filipino concerns almost mirrored the regional average in the Asia Pacific. The poll showed that the Top 5 most worrisome for people living in the Asia ...

The number of jobless Filipinos would have soared by almost 50 percent in 2007 if not for the overseas employment of a large segment of the national labor force, according to the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP). In a statement, TUCP spokesperson Alex Aguilar said had the government completely stopped sending workers overseas, the country’s unemployment rate would have surged by as high as 9.3 percent last year. Records from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) showed that a total of 1,073,402 Filipino workers were deployed abroad in 2007, which was roughly the same number as the 1,062,567 who left for overseas jobs in 2006. “Assuming those who left to work abroad stayed home instead, and assuming further that they did not find any gainful employment here, then the ranks of wholly unemployed Filipinos would have ballooned to 3,335,102," Aguilar said. Based on the results of the latest Labor Force Survey, a total of 2,261,700 Filipinos, or 6.3 perc...

The Filipino health workers recruited to New York by Sentosa suffered a third blow in their long drawn legal battle against their recruitment agency in the Philippines and its counterpart in the US after the Department of Justice (DoJ) junked on Monday their complaint for illegal recruitment. Senior state prosecutor Doris S. Alejo said in a seven-page decision that the department found no substantive alterations in the employment contracts the nurses signed before their deployment that would support their allegations against officials of the Sentosa Recruitment Agency in the Philippines and the Sentosa Care LLC of New York City. Thirteen Filipino nurses accused Sentosa officials Bent Philipson, Francis Luyun, and Oliva Serduar in June 2006 for violating the Labor Code for furnishing and publishing false notice or information or document related to their employment as well as substituting or altering employment contracts initially approved and verified by the Labor department. The nurse...

The Manila city government will hold skills training programs for residents interested in applying for overseas jobs in view of the opening of more labor markets for Filipinos, particularly in Canada and Australia. On Tuesday, Mayor Alfredo S. Lim already handed out training-for-work scholarship certificates to 116 beneficiaries of the Livelihood at Iskolarsyip para sa Manilenyo (LIM), a joint project of the city government and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda). The mayor said the skills training program was intended to help his constituents take advantage of the opening up of the international market for skilled Filipino workers. Early this month, Lim discussed with Premier Gary Doer of Manitoba province in Canada, and earlier with the Australian premier, about job opportunities in their respective areas, and the preference of employers to Filipino workers for being hardworking and kind. “This is the kind of workers that they want to bring to their count...

Two House committees endorsed for plenary debates on Tuesday a bill amending the 2003 overseas absentee voting law to extend to seven years the requirement for Filipino immigrants to execute an affidavit of intent to return to the Philippines before regaining their right to vote while abroad. The committees on suffrage and electoral reforms and on foreign affairs dismissed a proposal removing the requirement altogether, and in stead, adopted through House Bill 2036 another provision that extends the three-year period to issue an Affidavit of Intent to Return imposed in the Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003 (Republic Act No. 9189) to seven years. HB 2036 consolidated HB 2046 filed by Makati Rep Teodoro Locsin Jr and Cebu Rep Antonio Cuenco and HB 3209 authored by Akbayan partylist Rep Risa Hontiveros, Zamboanga City Rep Maria Isabelle Climaco, Valenzuela City Rep Rex Gatchalian, and Cagayan de Oro Rep Rufus Rodriguez. HB 3209 seeks the deletion of the intent to return requirement, no...

Two House committees endorsed for plenary debates on Tuesday a bill amending the 2003 overseas absentee voting law to extend to seven years the requirement for Filipino immigrants to execute an affidavit of intent to return to the Philippines before regaining their right to vote while abroad. The committees on suffrage and electoral reforms and on foreign affairs dismissed a proposal removing the requirement altogether, and in stead, adopted through House Bill 2036 another provision that extends the three-year period to issue an Affidavit of Intent to Return imposed in the Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003 (Republic Act No. 9189) to seven years. HB 2036 consolidated HB 2046 filed by Makati Rep Teodoro Locsin Jr and Cebu Rep Antonio Cuenco and HB 3209 authored by Akbayan partylist Rep Risa Hontiveros, Zamboanga City Rep Maria Isabelle Climaco, Valenzuela City Rep Rex Gatchalian, and Cagayan de Oro Rep Rufus Rodriguez. HB 3209 seeks the deletion of the intent to return requirement, no...

The Filipino-American lawyer representing the Filipino nurses facing trial in a New York district court has expressed optimism that the charges leveled against the health workers would be dismissed. Salvador Tuy, a volunteer lawyer for 10 of the 26 nurses and a physical therapist from the Philippines known as ‘Sentosa 27,’ based his optimism on the interest that the state of New York has shown on the case following the findings of the federal health department and the NY state health department that the Filipinos did not endanger the lives of patients in a home care center when they quit in April 2006. He cited that a criminal charge requires proof beyond reasonable doubt and that this would be impossible if both the federal and state departments of health say that the nurses did not endanger the lives of their patients. According to him, the prosecution wanted to make it appear that the nurses’ act of resigning together was intended to cripple the operations of Avalon Gardens Rehabili...

A FOREIGN domestic maid in Singapore was not paid since she started work with her employer more than seven years ago. In all, she was owed salary arrears amounting to $19,398, which was eventually paid to her after intervention by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). She was one of 276 foreign maids here who were not paid by their employers last year. The ministry managed to recover more than $270,000 in unpaid salaries for these maids and convicted three employers for committing the offence. The latest employer to be convicted was Zubaidah Bte Sanluan, who was fined $4,500 in Court on Feb 11 for failing to pay the salary of her domestic help, and for making a false declaration to the Controller of Work Permits. Zubaidah will also be barred from employing another maid. Investigations by MOM in April 2007 revealed that Zubaidah's maid had not been paid her monthly salary since she started work in January 2001. Zubaidah also falsely declared that she had paid her salary when renewing her ...

The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) has opened the search for the 2008 Presidential Awards for Filipino Individuals and Organizations Overseas (PAFIOO). Conducted every two years, the PAFIOO aims to recognize exceptional individuals and organizations abroad for their outstanding contribution to Philippine progress and development. Since its inception in 1991 through Executive Order 498, the awards has so far conferred honors to 283 overseas-based individuals and organizations from 37 countries. Starting January 2, 2008, the CFO has been accepting endorsements from Philippine embassies and consulates for nominations to the awards. Awarding ceremonies will be done in Malacañang in December, which has been declared as Overseas Filipinos Month. The PAFIOO has four categories: The Lingkod sa Kapwa Pilipino, Banaag, Kaanib ng Bayan, and Pamana ng Pilipino. Lingkod sa Kapwa Filipino (Linkapil) is conferred on Filipino associations or individuals for their significant contribution to re...

An alliance of migrant workers groups based in the Middle East has launched a signature campaign for the immediate resignation of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo over what its leaders consider as ‘mountain of crimes’ under her administration. Migrante-ME initiated the petition, citing widespread corruption and bribery, gross human rights violations, election fraud, artificial economic development, and the neglect of migrant workers as reasons for Arroyo’s moral bankruptcy. “With her mountain of crimes against the Filipino people, GMA – and her lackeys in Malacañang and Philippine posts abroad– must step down. Else, the Filipino people and the migrant workers will be the ones to show her government the way out," the group said in the petition. Migrante-ME said that corruption has reached the top positions in government. “The multi-million dollar expose on the National Broadband Network [NBN] deal involving GMA and her husband has shown that corruption in the government continues ...

BY AUBREY SC MAKILAN, Bulatlat A Saudi-based Filipino migrant group said that there are still 191 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) stranded in Jeddah alone, including 103 OFWs who originally camped out under a bridge in Jeddah since December 2007. The Philippine Consulate in Jeddah earlier reported that a total of 922 OFWs who were stranded in Saudi Arabia with no contracts and jobs have already been deported back to the Philippines. But according to Migrante-Saudi Arabia chairperson Andrew Ociones, at least 103 stranded OFWs who camped out under Al Khandara Flyover in Jeddah are still in the Kingdom. Ociones said that only 23 women were confirmed repatriated, but the 80 women who were sent to the deportation facilities on February 10 still remain stranded. He added that of the 24 men who submitted themselves to 'due process' and were picked up at the Consulate, he said one was confirmed returned to his employer, 13 were transferred to the Deportation Facility in Riyadh and 10 ...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia began interrogating 57 men Saturday who were arrested for flirting with women in front of a shopping mall in the holy city of Mecca, a local newspaper reported. The country's religious police arrested the men Thursday night for behavior that also allegedly included dancing to pop music blaring from their cars and wearing improper clothing, reported the Okaz newspaper, which is deemed close to the government. Saturday's newspaper report did not say what kind of outfits the young men were wearing, but T-shirts emblazoned with drawings or English writing are often an invitation for harassment by the religious police. Islamic radicals also consider pop music a corrupting force. The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice runs the fearsome religious police, which is charged with enforcing Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic lifestyle. Its members patrol public places to make sure women are covered and not wearing make up, t...

ABERDEEN, South Dakota - Two Oacoma motel owners convicted of forcing several Filipino immigrants into servitude and peonage were sentenced Friday evening (Saturday in Manila). US District Judge Charles Kornmann sentenced Robert John Farrell to 4 years and 2 months in federal prison and his wife, Angelita Magat Farrell, to 36 years. A federal jury in November found the couple guilty on 18 charges including conspiracy to commit peonage, four counts of peonage, document servitude, visa fraud and two counts of false statements. Prosecutors say the Farrells made the immigrants work as many as 160 hours a week while being paid virtually nothing. - AP

Aside from keeping the country’s economy afloat, overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) may also contribute in the fight against terrorism, said a Manila-based US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officer on Saturday. According to Stephen Cutler, the US Embassy’s FBI Legal Attaché, OFWs are capable of establishing “people to people understanding" and in effect, destroy hate, which he said is the root of terrorism. “The OFWs allow the Philippines a unique window to the world. They help bridge the gap between people [in different countries] and improve trade," said Culter in a lecture on Global Terrorism at the Philippine College of Criminology. Culter explained that the more than 8 million OFWs all over the globe, some in countries believed to be ridden with terrorists, directly relay understanding of cultures to their family members. “[The government] needs to tap into that network that is unrivaled in other countries," Culter said. - Mark Ubalde, GMANews.TV

Five Filipino seamen were arraigned before a court in Ghana for allegedly stealing 73,900 barrels of crude oil worth $7 million. News site Ghanian Chronicle reported over the weekend that the crude oil belonged to the Saltpond Offshore Producing Company Limited. Arraigned were engineers Epifacino Moran Jio, Iloefonso Pagay Pama; Felix Borre Climaco; and captains Leonardo Planes Abrinica and Danilo Bagasol Bueno. The five worked for Saltpond. Epifacino remains at large. The court presided over by Justice Ofori-Atta adjourned the case on the request of an attorney general who was served with a habeas corpus order. Musah Ahmed, counsel for the accused, filed the habeas corpus writ against the attorney general to compel him to produce four of the accused Filipinos. The court has not yet taken the plea of the accused who were charged with stealing. They were arrested last February 6 in Lagos, Nigeria, and were brought to Ghana. Initial investigation showed the crude oil was loaded on a vess...

Migrants groups welcomed the suspension on Thursday of a memorandum that regulated direct hiring of Filipinos by foreign employers for overseas deployment. The Manila-based Center for Migrant Advocacy (CMA) said that the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration's (POEA) move suspending Memorandum Circular 4 is welcomed as overseas Filipino workers would stand to lose with the policy in place. "The suspension of MC 4 is partly a fruit of an open dialog initiated by migrants and labor groups with POEA recently and the concerted efforts of OFWs in opposing the guidelines," said CMA's executive director Ellene Sana in an interview with GMANews.TV. "In a dialog with POEA officials on February 7, migrants groups pointed out that MC 4 had been hatched and implemented without the benefit of genuine consultations with OFWs and other stakeholders," Sana said. She added that RA 8042, Section 2, states that NGOs are partners of the State in the protection of OFWs a...

Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who are holding top level position may find themselves exempted from paying the bond under the new direct hiring policy. The possibility of extending the exemptions to OFWs with executive posts was discussed Monday night in a meeting by the governing board of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), according to POEA Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz. We are now reviewing if it would be possible to include the professionals not to be covered by [payment of] the bond," Baldoz said, adding that professionals directly hired by reputable corporations are considered having the best protection. "Therefore, they should not be included in the new policy," Baldoz said. "The board believes that the protection [for professional OFWs] is over and above what we require because their employers are already familiar with their expertise, so there is no need to include them," Baldoz explained. Baldoz, however, stressed that nothing...