KAKAMMPI News

At least 84 Filipina cleaners have been living in misery since being abandoned by their employer without salary, food, water and electricity at a home in the United Arab Emirates. While the local Filipino community has extended some help, the Filipina cleaners are also seeking redress from labor officials in Dubai as well as help from doctors. “We welcome any Filipino doctor who will come and check our health. Many have symptoms of hypertension due to the depressing situation, breathing difficulties, asthma, skin rashes, cough and cold. We are sleeping on the rooftop where we can get fresh air," Mary Grace Teneros said in an article posted Sunday on UAE news site Khaleej Times. Teneros was one of the first four cleaners who filed a suit before the Dubai court after they found out they were illegally brought there. For now, leaders of the Filipino community have helped keep up the spirits of the stranded Filipina workers and have brought them food, medicines, and toiletries. Roach ...

Iniwan nila ang glamoroso at maingay na mundo ng showbizness upang makipagsapalaran sa ibang bansa at makapagsimula ng bagong buhay. Sa episode ng OFW Diaries hosted by Kara David nitong Biyernes, ikinuwento nina Julio Diaz at Bernardo Bernando ang kanilang naging karanasan bilang mga overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Dekado 80 nang sumikat si Julio sa industriya ng showbiz bilang dramatic actor. Sa husay niya sa pag-arte, dalawang Best Actor Award na kanyang naiuwi. Ngunit matapos makagawa ng mahigit 60 pelikula, unti-unti nang nawala ang ningning ng bituin ni Julio, na nagmarka sa ginawa niyang pelikula tungkol sa buhay ng bayaning si “Macario Sakay." “During that time kasi nandito ako sa bansa natin, siyempre medyo bumaba na nang bumaba yung career ko, bumaba na yung marketing value ko rito as an actor, so sabi ko hindi ako puwedeng titigil lang dito para lang sa isang bagay na para bang maghihintay," kuwento ni Julio sa OFW Diaries. Taong 2002 nang lumipad si Julio sa Aus...

A battered Filipino maid in the United Arab Emirates is getting another shot at justice after officials in Sharjah emirate decided to reopen her case. UAE-based news site Khaleej Times reported the Sharjah Immigration is looking into the reasons why Marialyn Vinluan has not received compensation for torture she endured from her employer. Vinluan had escaped from her Lebanese lady employer in Ajman on August 9 last year after she was beaten up, but it was not until May this year that the unpaid compensation came to light. (See: UAE-based Pinoy workers rally around battered colleague) Maritess Bautista, a coordinator of the consulate, said immigration authorities learned that Vinluan is being forced to go home without compensation for physical and mental torture. Bautista is assisting distressed Filipino workers in Sharjah, Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah. Major Ibrahim Hamdan, assistant investigation officer at the Sharjah Immigration, meanwhile said the papers for Vinluan’s case are...

overseas Filipino worker in Saudi Arabia needs government assistance as his health is deteriorating after suffering a stroke last August. Migrante Middle East regional coordinator John Monterona said Tamano Saltan Ismail, 35, is staying at a shelter and needs to be rehospitalized. “Fellow workers and some kababayans (compatriots) are taking care of him but his recovery is too slow due to lack of proper medication and medical attention. As the KGS (Kapatiran sa Gitnang Silangan) welfare officers have told us, his condition is now deteriorating," Monterona said in an article on the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines news site. “We believe he must be rehospitalized for better medical attention and we need the help of the Philippine consulate on this matter," he added. Monterona said Ismail, a native of Maguindanao, was rushed to the King Saud Medical Center last August 24, and underwent brain operation. Citing a clinical abstract signed by attending physician Al...

Philippine officials have started helping overstaying Filipinos in Saudi Arabia take advantage of a six-month amnesty period allowing overstaying foreigners to leave the kingdom without punishment. Ambassador Antonio Villamor said he will meet with Interior Ministry officials in Saudi to clarify certain details so he can guide the concerned overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) on how to avail of the amnesty. "I have informed the Department of Foreign Affairs in the Philippines about this development. We are indeed thankful to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for this generous gesture," Villamor said in an article on Saudi-based news site Arab News. Meanwhile, the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah said it will issue an advisory about the amnesty to the concerned OFWs. Labor Attache David Des Dicang of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in the Eastern Region said the organization was “indeed happy beyond words over this good development." “OFWs who ran aw...

Seven Filipinas staying in London were recently arrested by the United Kingdom (UK) Border Agency and are set to be deported following a series of immigration crackdown operations. In a release posted on the website of the British Embassy in Manila, the seven Filipino women were arrested, along with other foreign nationals, during Border Agency raids on different addresses in Willesden in northwest London on September 16. “The enforcement operations are part of a planned nationwide crackdown by the UK Border Agency to tackle illegal working, sham marriages, bogus colleges and organised immigration crime," the release said. It was unclear, however, what specific immigration laws were violated by the seven. The release said UK Border Agency officers received information on locations of illegal migrants in Willesden and conducted the raid, along with Metropolitan Police officers and Brent Council staff. They found 50 people inside the addresses and in one accommodation, and arrested ...

After Saudi authorities announced a blanket royal pardon for all violators of the Kingdom’s residency laws, a Filipino migrant advocacy group there urged the Philippine government to assist undocumented overseas Filipino workers to avail of the amnesty. In a statement, Migrante-Middle East said there are thousands of undocumented Filipinos in the Kingdom who can benefit from the pardon. “We are urging the concerned RP posts to immediately guide and provide assistance to undocumented and illegally staying OFWs to avail of the Royal pardon," said Migrante regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona. An article posted on the Saudi Gazette said Saudi’s Ministry of Interior has announced a blanket “Royal pardon" for residency law violations, and illegal residents are advised to complete the procedure for their departure at the foreigners’ personnel offices of the Kingdom. According to the article, applications for inclusion in the pardon will be processed from September 25, 2010 t...

JERRIE M. ABELLA, Migrants’ rights groups have slammed two agencies of the Philippine government for allowing an “illegal" provision to be added to the employment contract of the 13 overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in Taiwan who have raised it as one of their labor issues. The Asian Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) scored the Manila Economic and Cultural Office in Taiwan (MECO) and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) for letting the 13 OFWs sign an addendum in their contract, which they said was declared illegal under Taiwanese law since 1999. According to a CBCP News article, the APMM said the addendum required OFWs to pay 2,500 New Taiwan Dollars (about P3,400) for their food, accommodation and airfare to and from Taiwan. APMM director Ramon Bultron said that by allowing the addendum to be part of the workers’ contract, both the MECO, the Philippines’ representative office in Taiwan, and the POEA are party to the crime of human trafficking. The addendum, t...

A labor group has urged the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to prioritize overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) coming from Iraq when deploying laborers to Guam. In a statement, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said DOLE should give preference to some 6,000 Filipino workers who will move out of Iraq, as it is set to enlist as many as 10,000 workers for deployment to Guam. "On one hand, we have 6,000 workers out of Iraq. On the other hand, we have 7,000 to 10,000 initial job openings in Guam. The DOLE might as well give priority to our workers from Iraq in filling up the Guam vacancies," said TUCP secretary-general Senator Ernesto Herrera, a former senator. He said doing so will minimize the potential economic impact on workers and their families of the continuing employment ban in the war-torn country. The US government last July ordered all its military contractors to send home all foreign workers coming from countries that have imposed a deployment ba...

The Philippine post in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on Monday said it is still confirming the nationality of the domestic helper who reportedly jumped to her death last week to escape her employer. In a phone interview, welfare officer Nini Lanto of the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah told GMANews.TV they have yet to verify if the domestic helper was a Filipina. “As of Sunday, we have yet to confirm if she was a Filipina. But out Assistance to Nationals Section (ANS) is working on the case," Lanto said. A report by the Saudi Gazette said the helper jumped from the window of her employer’s flat on the seventh floor of a building in Madina on August 31. The report said based on information from witnesses, the woman used an umbrella as a parachute to escape, but the umbrella failed to open at the right moment and the domestic worker crashed on the pavement, killing her instantly. Witnesses said the helper tossed out a bag containing her clothes before jumping. Her employer said the ...

A militant migrants’ group asked President Benigno Simeon Aquino III to seek pardon for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) jailed in Saudi Arabia. Migrante Middle East (Migrante-ME) said the Royal Family in Saudi Arabia usually grants amnesty for OFWs before or after the holy month of Ramadan, which ends September 10. “Gaining amnesty for jailed OFWs is usually granted by the Royal Family, before or after the Ramadan. We’re hoping that President Aquino should grab this opportunity to help our compatriots in jail, here in Saudi," Migrante Middle East coordinator John Monterona said in an article posted on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines news site. Monterona voiced alarm over the death of prisoners in jails in Saudi Arabia due to suffocation reportedly because of the high temperature and overcrowding in jails. He cited a newspaper report indicating that five Ethiopian prisoners died due to the heat in a Saudi jail in Jizan province. “In Malaz (district) Central Jai...

All the close to 700 Filipino workers who were staying in a shelter in Saudi Arabia had been repatriated, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). In a statement, DOLE Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said all the 698 Filipinos who used to stay at the Seaport Hajj Terminal in Jeddah have been repatriated as of September 1. “Our Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Jeddah had reported that as of September 1, there is not a single Filipino national remaining in the Hajj Seaport Terminal," Baldoz said. Citing a report by Labor Attaché to Jeddah Vicente Cabe, Baldoz said that 137 of the 628 repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from Jeddah from July 10 to August 31 this year were children. Of the total number of repatriated Filipino workers, 399 were adult females while 162 were adult males. OFWs who seek shelter in Saudi Arabia are usually those who escaped abusive employers. The DOLE explained that the Seaport Hajj Terminal is a place designated and operate...

The Hong Kong police will return the three mobile phones that the Manila authorities have mistakenly handed over along with the personal belongings of the victims of the August 23 hostage tragedy. According to a news report of the South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Monday, the Hong Kong police confirmed on Sunday that some of the mobile phones turned over to them by the Philippine authorities did not belong to the Hong Kong victims. The mix-up was revealed on Saturday when the Philippine investigating team discovered that one of the two phones that the hostage-taker used on August 23 was missing. "Of the eight phones that were given to them, only five were identified as belonging to the Hong Kong victims," said Secretary Jesse Robredo of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). The Philippine National Police (PNP) is an attached agency of the DILG. Robredo is the vice-chairman of the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC) probing the August 23 hosta...

The central bank is again set to revise the country's balance of payments (BOP) position forecast, confident that the projected surplus would be breached this year. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Gov. Amando Tetangco Jr. said over the weekend that monetary authorities will review the revised BOP surplus projection of $3.7 billion set in April, and come up with a revised target. "We will be reviewing the numbers and releasing the updated projections by November," Tetangco said. He attributed the widening of the surplus to strong foreign exchange inflows – higher foreign commercial borrowings of the national government, increased remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), and robust earnings of the business process-outsourcing (BPO) sector. The BOP measures the difference between foreign exchange inflows and outflows representing the country's transactions with the rest of the world I n a given period. BSP data showed that the country's BOP surplus climbe...

The central bank is again set to revise the country's balance of payments (BOP) position forecast, confident that the projected surplus would be breached this year. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Gov. Amando Tetangco Jr. said over the weekend that monetary authorities will review the revised BOP surplus projection of $3.7 billion set in April, and come up with a revised target. "We will be reviewing the numbers and releasing the updated projections by November," Tetangco said. He attributed the widening of the surplus to strong foreign exchange inflows – higher foreign commercial borrowings of the national government, increased remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), and robust earnings of the business process-outsourcing (BPO) sector. The BOP measures the difference between foreign exchange inflows and outflows representing the country's transactions with the rest of the world I n a given period. BSP data showed that the country's BOP surplus climbe...

Ninety-seven repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from Kuwait will arrive in Manila on Monday morning, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Sunday. Most of the workers left their employers for various reasons and sought refuge at the government-run Filipino Workers Resource Center (FWRC) where they stayed for three to eight months, a DFA statement said. According to Philippine Ambassador Shulan Primavera, Kuwaiti immigration authorities waived the usual exit or repatriation requirements through representations made by the Embassy and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office there. Kuwaiti authorities also shouldered the repatriates’ plane fares, the DFA said. The DFA said the usual deportation procedure requires the OFWs from FWRC to be surrendered to the local police first. The police will then summon the workers’ employers, who will then be required to surrender the workers’ passports. The workers’ visa will also be canceled and authorities will produce their plane ticket...

Ninety-seven repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from Kuwait will arrive in Manila on Monday morning, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Sunday. Most of the workers left their employers for various reasons and sought refuge at the government-run Filipino Workers Resource Center (FWRC) where they stayed for three to eight months, a DFA statement said. According to Philippine Ambassador Shulan Primavera, Kuwaiti immigration authorities waived the usual exit or repatriation requirements through representations made by the Embassy and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office there. Kuwaiti authorities also shouldered the repatriates’ plane fares, the DFA said. The DFA said the usual deportation procedure requires the OFWs from FWRC to be surrendered to the local police first. The police will then summon the workers’ employers, who will then be required to surrender the workers’ passports. The workers’ visa will also be canceled and authorities will produce their plane ticket...

The Philippine Embassy in Riyadh warned Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia to be wary of compatriots who are pretending to be in need of assistance but are actually working with local immigration officials. In a release, the Embassy said a Filipino worker fell for the scheme two weeks ago, after coming to the aid of an OFW who claimed she needed to be “rescued". The Embassy said according to the victim’s narration, a Filipina called him and asked that she be brought to the Embassy or the Philippine Overseas Labor Office. The Embassy said that even as the Kingdom prohibits people from taking into their custody those workers who escaped their employers, the victim still agreed to assist the “distressed" Filipina. The victim first brought the Filipina to his residence. It turned out, according to the Embassy, that they were followed by immigration authorities, who stormed the victim’s house and demanded for his immigration documents as well as those of the others living with him. ...

Children of Filipino migrant workers stand to benefit from a pilot high school subsidy scheme by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA). The subsidy scheme, which also aims to benefit other disadvantaged youth, was ushered in this September by the IOM, which describes itself as “an intergovernmental organization … committed to the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and society." “The pilot secondary education subsidy aims to keep up to 250 children in secondary school over the next two school years, who would have otherwise dropped out or not enrolled for financial reasons," IOM said on its website Saturday. Initially targeted by the scheme are participating public high schools in Masbate, Antique, Agusan del Sur and Maguindanao. Beneficiaries will get a monthly allowance of P1,000 for transport, food and other expenses, and P500 for school-related fees. The subsidy scheme is part of...

Children of Filipino migrant workers stand to benefit from a pilot high school subsidy scheme by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA). The subsidy scheme, which also aims to benefit other disadvantaged youth, was ushered in this September by the IOM, which describes itself as “an intergovernmental organization … committed to the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and society." “The pilot secondary education subsidy aims to keep up to 250 children in secondary school over the next two school years, who would have otherwise dropped out or not enrolled for financial reasons," IOM said on its website Saturday. Initially targeted by the scheme are participating public high schools in Masbate, Antique, Agusan del Sur and Maguindanao. Beneficiaries will get a monthly allowance of P1,000 for transport, food and other expenses, and P500 for school-related fees. The subsidy scheme is part of...

A Filipina domestic in Saudi Arabia has accused her employer of inflicting flat iron burns on her. In GMA News’ “24 Oras" report, the 18-year-old overseas Filipino worker (OFW) identified only as Ranya said her employer did not like the way she ironed clothes and so burned her arms with a hot flat iron. Ranya said she had entered Saudi Arabia just recently as an overseas worker, but had no choice but to escape from her employer and file a complaint before the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Jeddah. POLO officials in turn filed charges against the employer, who subsequently denied the accusation, claiming that Ranya inflicted the burns herself. Local Saudi police had also urged Ranya to admit that the injury was self-inflicted, the report added. POLO officials meanwhile vowed to follow upon Ranya’s complaint.—Jerrie M. Abella/JV, GMANews.TV A Filipina domestic in Saudi Arabia has accused her employer of inflicting flat iron burns on her. In GMA News’ “24 Oras" repor...

Filipinos seeking jobs in Malaysia should beware of an online recruitment scam, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said Friday. DOLE Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the scam involves a supposed "email" from the Malaysian immigration department seeking visa processing fees. “Such notices are a hoax and prospective workers for Malaysia should be very wary about answering these hoax emails," Baldoz warned, citing a report from the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Kuala Lumpur. Baldoz said the email claims to be a notice from the immigration authority, informing a prospective applicant of a pending appointment letter from a certain "Mobil Oil Company." The email then allegedly requests for the processing of the applicant’s documents — and a processing fee. Labor attaché to Kuala Lumpur Hassan Gabra Jumdain cited a sample email received by a prospective applicant, with the email seeking processing fees for a visa or residence work permit. Such f...