KAKAMMPI News

The remains of a Filipino woman who was slain in Singapore last March 15 arrived in Manila Friday night and was received by her sister at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport's cargo section. A report on dzXL radio on Saturday said the body of Roselyn Reyes Pascua was brought to Manila on a Cebu Pacific flight at 9:05 p.m. Pascua’s sister Jenny Leda said they plan to bury the remains this coming Tuesday at the Garden of East Memorial Park in Sta. Cruz, Laguna. Pascua, 30, was found with stab wounds in her rented room at Bencoolen Street before dawn last March 15. The Philippine Embassy in Singapore said Pascua entered Singapore on February 3 as a tourist and extended her social visit pass until April 4. She was staying alone in a rented room at the Peony Mansion when the incident occurred. Police arrested an Indian suspected to be behind the killing of Pascua. The Singapore Police Force (SPF) did not identify the suspect but said he was 34 years old. “Murder is a serious crime. W...

CHICAGO – Although the more than 200,000 marchers for immigration reforms were somewhat overshadowed by the health care reform debate at the Capitol Hill, they are hopeful that a bipartisan support from the U.S. Congress could put the long-sought sweeping immigration measure over the hump this year. “This is also how we will achieve a comprehensive immigration reform. It takes courage, clarity of purpose, boldness of action, and using the people's voices and stories to describe the reality of our human needs and conditions," said Juanita Salvador-Burris, one of the organizers on board one of the hundreds of busloads from Chicago, Illinois, who joined the hundreds of thousands of marchers in Washinton D.C. Salvador-Burris, an officer of the Alliance of Filipinos for Immigrant Rights & Empowerment (AFIRE), hopes the mammoth crowd in the nation’s capital put pressure on members of Congress to also give attention to the immigration reform legislation. “(It) took us more than 1...

The Philippine offices in Singapore and Hong Kong are changing their work hours during the overseas absentee voting period, which will run for a month starting April 10. The Philippine Embassy in Singapore announced it will be reverting to a Monday-Friday work schedule, as it expects large numbers of voters who will be casting their votes over the weekends. During the one-month period, the Embassy will be closed to public transactions on Saturdays and Sundays. No consular or labor services will be available on 11, 18, and 25 April and 02 and 09 May 2010, it said. However, the Embassy will be open for such services from Monday to Friday starting April 16 until May 7. Office hours will meanwhile continue to be from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and from 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Visa applications will continue to be received from Monday to Thursday only, the Embassy added, but applicants are still advised to schedule their visit. In Hong Kong, the Philippine Consulate General will be open from Monday ...

Three of the 12 Filipino seafarers virtually detained for over eight months in a Panama-flagged ship arrived in Manila Tuesday, bringing with them hopes not only for the payment of their back wages, but also for the speedy repatriation of their compatriots still in Greece. Fifty-year-old Primo Fernandinco, who worked as a cook in the cargo carrier MV Aetea Sierra, expressed concern for the welfare of the nine other Filipinos still aboard the ship, which has been grounded in Greece since July last year. “Tipid na lang kami sa pagkain para hindi maubos. ‘Yung tubig, kinakalawang na rin (We’re scrimping on food so it will last. As for our water containers, they’re taking up some rust too)," Fernandinco said in an interview with GMANews.TV. Fernandinco arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on the afternoon of March 23 from Athens, along with mess men Jerry Laride and Erolin Chong Jr. Stranded since July The MV Aetea Sierra was impounded in the Piraeus Port in September nea...

Overseas Filipino workers in Iran were warned against falling for "contracts" to carry items or baggage from Iran to another foreign city in exchange for money or leisure trips. Philippine Ambassador to Iran Generoso Senga said this is likely part of a modus operandi of drug-trafficking rings in the country. "Filipino victims were asked to bring a certain item or baggage from Iran to another country, usually Bangkok, Thailand or Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in exchange for money or leisure trips abroad," the Department of Foreign Affairs said in its website. The DFA also advised the public to be vigilant when offered similar job offers in Iran and to first check the veracity of the job being offered with the Department of Labor and Employment or the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency. Earlier, the DFA issued a warning to the public on smuggling illegal drugs in Iran after two Filipinos were apprehended for attempting to smuggle illegal drugs there. The two were lured b...

The Philippine Embassy in Riyadh has denied it had "overlooked" the repatriation schedule of 11 pardoned overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in the Kingdom, which resulted in the workers missing their flight. In a statement posted on the Embassy’s Web site Tuesday, it said the workers are in the custody of Saudi jail personnel, who in turn have the sole authority to make arrangements for the OFWs’ repatriation. "From their detention cells, the (OFWs) are directly brought to the tarmac and board the plane without going through the normal immigration procedure; they are not subjected to the departure protocols at the airport. It has to be emphasized that only Saudi authorities can bring the detainees to the airport and this Embassy does not have any authority to do so," the Embassy stated. The 11 pardoned Filipinos were originally scheduled for repatriation to Manila on March 15, but missed their midnight flight as their group, escorted by Saudi police authorities, arrive...

A Bermuda-flagged cargo ship with a Filipino crewmember on board had been hijacked off Oman, Philippine officials in Kenya confirmed on Wednesday. The Philippine Embassy in Nairobi said MV Talca was hijacked Tuesday off the coast of Oman, the Department of Foreign Affairs said. "On board the vessel are 23 Sri Lankans seafarers, one Filipino and one Syrian," the DFA said, citing information from the European Union Naval Force (EUNAVFOR). The ship was seized by pirates 120 miles off the coast of Oman, the DFA said. There are four Filipino seafarers, in two vessels, being held captive by pirates in Somalia, the DFA said. - RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia – Lavella Onggo Dangaran, a Filipino based in this Middle Eastern country, can not believe she is now a licensed civil engineer. “I am very excited, this is my first time to take the board exam and I passed it. Prayers, inspiration and preparation are the only thing I brought when I took the exam," she said, beaming. The 36-year-old Iloilo native, who sought overseas employment immediately after graduating from the Technological University of the Philippines (TUP) in 1996, thanked the Philippine government for giving her a chance to take the licensure exams even when she’s abroad. Dangaran was just one of the 48 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) here who passed the board exams. They took their oaths last Friday before the officials of the Philippine Consulate and the Philippine Professional Organization (PPO)-Western Region Chapter at the Ramada Intercontinental Hotel. Most of those who passed the exams were architects and engineers, according to the PPO. Phili...

Authorities have arrested an Indian national who is suspected to be behind the killing of a 30-year-old Filipino woman there. The Singapore Police Force (SPF) did not identify the suspect but said he was 34 years old. "On 17 March 2010 at about 4 p.m., the suspect was arrested in the vicinity of Kitchener Road in Little India. He (was to be) charged in Subordinate Court 26 on 19 March 2010 for an offense of murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224. If convicted, he faces the death penalty," the SPF said on its Web site. The victim, Roselyn Reyes Pascua, was found with stab wounds in her rented room at Bencoolen Street before dawn last March 15. u The Philippine Embassy in Singapore said Pascua entered the island city-state on February 3 as a tourist and extended her social visit pass until April 4. She was staying alone in a rented room at the Peony Mansion when the incident occurred. The police initially identified five suspects, including three Filipino women...

A Roman Catholic bishop from Paris, France visited the country this week to boost efforts to protect the welfare of Filipino migrants in France, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said on Saturday. Paris Auxiliary Bishop Eric de Moulin-Beaufort paid a visit to the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Migrant and Itinerant People (ECMI) to bolster coordination between the Filipino community in France and the Catholic Church in the country, the CBCP said in a news report posted on its website. “He learned about the CBCP’s response and concerns affecting the OFWs and their families left behind," CBCP-EMCI executive secretary Fr. Edwin Corros said in the report. With Moulin-Beaufort during his visit were Fr. Gil Apuli, chaplain of the Filipino community in Paris, and Elpidio Caimoy, coordinator of the Filipino Pastoral Council. According to Apuli, at least 40,000 documented Filipinos are currently working in France, mostly in Paris, Marseilles and Nice. During the visi...

A Filipina tourist detained for allegedly smuggling illegal drugs in Australia has been released from jail after she was found innocent of the crime, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Saturday. Filipina Maria Cecilia Silva was freed by Australian Police on Thursday—after five days of detention—after packets of iced tea recovered from her at the Melbourne Airport tested negative for drugs, an article on the DFA website reported. According to the DFA, Silva was arrested and detained last Saturday upon her arrival at the airport on suspicion that iced tea packets she was carrying contained the illegal drug methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu. Australian Customs officials and the federal police expressed regret over the incident. The Philippine Embassy in Canberra, who assisted Silva during the incident, urged Australian authorities to implement measures to ensure that similar mistakes do not happen again, the DFA reported. Silva received a compensation of 5,000 Australian do...

Job openings may be awaiting Filipino engineers and technicians, particularly in the health and development sectors in Afghanistan. Afghanistan foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul relayed this to Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo during their meeting in Manila earlier this week. "During the meeting, Minister Rassoul likewise briefed Romulo on developments in Afghanistan, including his country's need for engineers and technicians, particularly in the health sector, as well as more development experts from the Asian region," the Department of Foreign Affairs said in an article in its Website. Romulo and Rassoul met in Manila at the sidelines of the recently-concluded Special Non-Aligned Movement Ministerial Meeting (SNAMMM) on Interfaith Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace and Development. The DFA said that Romulo replied the Philippines is "ready to work with Afghanistan in those areas," but did not elaborate. During the meeting, both officials renewed their co...

They were just a minute too late, but 11 pardoned overseas Filipino workers missed their flight back to Manila after languishing in a Riyadh jail in Saudi Arabia for several months. Migrants’ rights group Migrante-Middle East said the eleven were supposed to depart from Riyadh via Saudi Airlines at midnight of March 15, but jail officers brought them to the airport just a minute after their plane had left. The eleven were among those earlier convicted of petty crimes and later granted pardon on December 11 by the King of Saudi Arabia to mark the return of crown prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz from medical treatment overseas. (See: DFA lobbies Saudi govt to include Pinoys in pardon) “Sir, tumawag ako para sabihin sa iyo na andito pa kami sa Malaz Central Jail. Naiwan kami sa flight namin. Namuti lang mga mata ng aming pamilya sa kakahintay sa amin sa airport sa Pilipinas (Sir, I called to let you know that we’re still here at Malaz Central Jail. We missed our flight. Our families in the Phi...

On the 15th death anniversary of Flor Contemplacion, repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFW) on Wednesday marched to historic Mendiola in Manila to call for an end to government policies which they said continue to undermine migrant workers’ rights and welfare. The workers were mostly former employees of the operations firm Annasban Group in Saudi Arabia, who stopped working October last year due to alleged unfair labor practices by the firm such as contract substitution, illegal salary reduction, and non-payment of benefits and overtime pay. Members of Migrante International and Gabriela Women's party hold placards calling for the scrapping of policies like the OWWA Omnibus Policies and the government's labor program which, they say, victimize OFWs majority of whom are women. Jerrie M. AbellaThey were repatriated early this year after staging a hunger strike following over four months of being stranded in Riyadh. (See: Protesting OFWs in Saudi ask RP to repatriate them) Ga...

Two Filipinos were found guilty by Hong Kong’s Wan Chai District Court of human trafficking in charges filed by their Filipino victims. In a release posted on the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) website on Wednesday, the two Filipinos, a club owner and staff, are facing a maximum penalty of not more than three years. Sentencing is scheduled on March 22. In June last year, two victims were recruited by a relative in Macau to work as waitresses in the Chinese special administrative region, the release said. However, upon arrival, they were told jobs were waiting for them in Hong Kong. The victims traveled to Hong Kong, where they were subsequently forced to work as entertainers or prostitutes in a club in the Chinese territory’s Wan Chai district. The victims were assisted by other Filipinos in the area who reported their plight to the Philippine Consulate General. In a raid at the club by the Hong Kong Police Force, nine Filipinos were arrested, including the Filipino club owner ...

The Philippines recently received kudos from other member-states of the United Nations for its efforts to promote gender equality and women empowerment. In a release posted on its Website, the Department of Foreign Affairs said the commendation was made at the 23rd Special Session of the UN General Assembly on the promotion of women's rights. The Special Session coincided with the 54th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women held last March 1 to 12 in New York. The DFA said the gathering was also meant to commemorate the 15th Anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, hailed as an important international agenda aimed at achieving greater equality and empowerment for women. Myrna Yao, Philippine representative and chairwoman of the Philippine Commission on the Status of Women, reported the country's policies and programs to promote gender equality and women empowerment. These include the enactment into law of the Magna Carta of Women, which involve ...

Twenty-six distressed overseas Filipino workers arrived in the Philippines Thursday following their repatriation from Doha in Qatar. According to a release posted on the Website of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), the OFWs arrived 3:35 p.m. aboard Qatar Airways Flight 646. The DFA said many of the workers were those under the custody of the Filipino Workers Resource Center (FWRC), which serves as the temporary shelter of distressed OFWs, and who were endorsed to the Qatari Deportation Center for eventual repatriation back home. During his visit to Doha this February, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Marianito Roque initiated the mass repatriation of the 26 workers and pledged to provide plane tickets for their return back to Manila, the release further stated. The Philippine Embassy in Doha, in coordination with the Office of the Labor Attaché and Workers Welfare Representatives (POLO-OWWA) in Doha, made representations with the Deportation Center authorities...

In a bid to prevent fixers from ruining its new passport processing system, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) will adopt a “no escorts" rule inside its new consular building. The DFA made this clear on the weekend before it starts accepting passport applications with confirmed appointments at its new consular building on Monday, March 8. “To avoid being victimized by fixers, applicants are advised to deal only with DFA-OCA (Office of Consular Affairs) personnel inside the building. No escorts are allowed to accompany individual applicants," the DFA said on its website. It added applicants will need to bring necessary requirements such as the application form available for download at the DFA website and at the reception desks of the new consular building. On the other hand, applicants are no longer required to bring photographs and will instead have their pictures taken using ePassport data capturing machines at DFA-OCA. The DFA said the new ePassport technology has bui...

A number of overseas Filipino workers’ (OFW) groups urged President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo last week to veto amendments to the migrant workers’ law, which they said are anti-OFW particularly the provision on mandatory insurance. In a letter dated March 4, the groups said while the intent of some of the amendments are laudable, the bill amending the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 or Republic Act 8042 should be vetoed as a whole for several reasons. The groups include members of the Consultative Council on OFWs (CCOFW), or representatives of migrant workers organizations, labor groups, trade unions, seafarers’ organizations, policy and research institutes and individual advocates. The bill’s provision on compulsory insurance, the groups said, applies only to OFWs deployed through recruitment agencies and excludes the majority of Filipino workers whose services were not contracted through agencies. The group said data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (PO...

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is looking at increasing the deployment of Filipino personnel to the United Nations’ (UN) peacekeeping operations to make the country’s participation in global peacekeeping efforts more effective. Addressing Filipino peacekeepers in the Golan Heights, DFA Secretary Alberto Romulo said he would like to see an expansion of Philippine participation in UN peacekeeping operations by deploying more personnel to support UN operations in the field and at UN headquarters in New York. “We hope to be able to see more Filipinos serving not only in existing and emerging missions but in the United Nations Secretariat as well," he said in a statement posted on the department’s Web site. Romulo added that officers and personnel to be sent to UN operations should be trained for the job and properly equipped to carry out their missions. As such, he said new equipment must be acquired for the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police, whos...

There were no Filipino casualties reported in the 6.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Turkey, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Monday. "The Philippine Embassy in Ankara informed the DFA that there is no reported injury or casualty among Filipinos during the earthquake that hit the province of Elazig in Eastern Turkey," DFA spokesperson Eduardo Malaya said in a text message to GMANews.TV. "Most of the Filipinos, who number some 5,500, reside in the city of Istanbul and nearby areas," he added. As of 2008, the Commission on Filipinos Overseas estimates there are 5,444 Filipinos in Turkey. Of the figure, 82 are recorded by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration as overseas Filipino workers. - Jerrie Abella/KBK, GMANews.TV

Two more Filipino seafarers held captive by Somali pirates were released Sunday night, reducing the number of Filipinos still in the hands of outlaws in the East African country to three. A statement posted on the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Web site said the two were among the crew of Thai Union 3, the Thai-owned fishing vessel that was hijacked off Seychelles last October 29. The vessel was also carrying 23 Russians and two Ghanaians, the DFA said. The department, citing information reaching the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers, said the released Filipino crew members were all in good condition. Details for the repatriation are still being coordinated, the DFA said. On Sunday afternoon, 17 Filipino seafarers who were released by Somali pirates after almost a year in captivity arrived in the country from Kaoshung, Taiwan. The 17 gained their freedom last February 11. Meanwhile, three more Filipinos remain in captivity in Somalia on board the MV St. James Park. ...

The Philippines’ election and foreign affairs officials gave Filipinos in Singapore a briefing about the country’s first automated polls. Commission on Elections (Comelec) official Armando Velasco led the event, which was attended by Filipino community leaders in the Asian city-state, the Philippine Embassy in Singapore reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). Ambassador Nestor Padalhin, Vice Chairman of the Overseas Absentee Voting Secretariat, also attended the briefing. The briefing included instructions regarding the use of the new ballot and automated poll machines, also known as the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS), the city-state’s Philippine embassy said. “Nine PCOS devices will be delivered to the Philippine Embassy in Singapore for the 2010 elections," the DFA said on its website on Monday. Automated overseas absentee voting (OAV) will be conducted only in Singapore and Hong Kong, from April 10 to May 10. Overseas voting elsewhere will be postal or manual. ...

The Philippines’ election and foreign affairs officials gave Filipinos in Singapore a briefing about the country’s first automated polls. Commission on Elections (Comelec) official Armando Velasco led the event, which was attended by Filipino community leaders in the Asian city-state, the Philippine Embassy in Singapore reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). Ambassador Nestor Padalhin, Vice Chairman of the Overseas Absentee Voting Secretariat, also attended the briefing. The briefing included instructions regarding the use of the new ballot and automated poll machines, also known as the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS), the city-state’s Philippine embassy said. “Nine PCOS devices will be delivered to the Philippine Embassy in Singapore for the 2010 elections," the DFA said on its website on Monday. Automated overseas absentee voting (OAV) will be conducted only in Singapore and Hong Kong, from April 10 to May 10. Overseas voting elsewhere will be postal or manual. ...

JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO, OFW Journalism Consortium More families of overseas Filipino workers are spending less on food and more on health, a study by the Asian Development Bank revealed. Using econometric estimations, Filipino Alvin Ang, Indian Shikha Jha, and Indonesian Guntur Sugiyarto noted that the percentage share of expenditures of migrant households to food went down slightly, from 44.9 percent in 2000 to 43.3 percent in 2006. But expenditures to health are increasing (from 2.3 percent in 2000 to three percent) while allocations for durables are steady (2.2 percent in 2000, 2.2 in 2006). Remittances “do not have a significant influence on other items of expenditure, particularly investment spending on education, health care, and durable goods," said the authors of “Remittances and Household Behavior in the Philippines." Whether it’s a crisis year or not, Ang told the OFW Journalism Consortium that the share of spending for food by households in the Philippines receiving...

Migration, for many people around the world, is sometimes the best, if not the only, option to improve their life choices, according to the United Nations Development Programme. For some Filipino workers now stranded in Saudi Arabia, however, overseas employment proved to be a choice they regret having made. Now on their third day of staging a hunger strike, five more Pinays in the Kingdom are pleading with the Philippine government to speed up efforts to repatriate them, about two months after they stopped working in protest of what they allege as harsh work conditions. The five overseas Filipino workers (OFW) are all women caregivers employed by the Annasban Group, a multimillion-riyal maintenance and operations firm previously implicated in several other complaints of unfair labor practices. Workers Rolmar Castañeda, Marietta Montaño, Jane Gerarman and Leonor Agorilla said in an interview with GMANews.TV they have been “detained" in the company-owned facility in Riyadh for abou...

JERRIE M. ABELLA, GMANews.TV Repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFW) camping out in front of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in Pasay City on Friday received financial assistance from the agency amounting to P10,000 each. In a statement, migrants’ rights group Migrante International described it as an “unprecedented victory" for the 43 OFWs who were repatriated from Saudi Arabia after staging a hunger strike. The OFWs were former employees of the operations firm Annasban Group. “This camp-out is an unprecedented victory for OFWs, because it shows what can be gained through collective and militant struggle. From their hunger strike in Riyadh to their camp-out in OWWA, these women workers of Annasban staunchly defended their rights, since the Arroyo government has consistently refused to do so," said Migrante chair Garry Martinez. The OFWs clinched the deal in conciliation talks Thursday night, the third and last day of the group’s camp-out, after vowing...

JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO and ISAGANI DE LA PAZ, OFW Journalism Consortium IBAAN, Batangas — A Scuffed brown wooden bench in front of a school serves as a throne of the struggles endured by women left behind by migrant spouses. The bench at Teodoro M. Luansing College in neighboring town Rosario is where Marivic Valencia, 43, sells adobong mani (roasted peanuts) during her school break and in-between taking care of her two children. The P200 daily profit she earns bankrolls many things. Aside from the school needs of 17-year-old son Christopher and milk for her two-year-old Christina, what she earns supplements her own schooling. Valencia is now on her third year in the college’s Computer Science degree program. The money also supplements what husband Rogelio sends from working as a construction worker in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. “If I don’t do these things, the remittance from Rogelio will not be enough for sure. I have to do my share here." At an average, Valencia says her husba...

(15 February – 6 March 2010) Sexual Exploitation of Children Vice Dean of a temple arrested for buying sex from boys (no web-link) THAILAND, Karasin province: police arrested a monk, 52 years old who was a Vice Dean of the temple and had been in a monkhood for 28 years. After receiving a report on the inappropriate behaviour of the monk, the police sent a decoy to go into the temple with other boys who were in prostitution. The monk confessed that he bought sex services from boys for many times by contacting them through telephone and paid them 200-500 baht each time. Kao Sod, 05 March 2010 (CONTRIBUTION FROM ECPAT FOUNDATION) Street children increased; boys commercially sexually exploited than girls (no web-link) THAILAND: Recent research on ‘Assistance for Street Children: Case Study on Street Teacher and Children Home (Shelter)’, conducted by the Foundation for the Better Life of Children during October 2009 – March 2010 in 5 GOs and 10 NGOs in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Nakorn Ratc...