KAKAMMPI News

Criticism against the compulsory insurance policy of the Philippine government for overseas Filipino workers continue to mount, with Taiwanese employers also threatening a moratorium on hiring Filipino workers unless the policy is scrapped. The Pilipino Manpower Agencies Accredited to Taiwan Inc. (PILMAT) said companies in Taiwan have threatened to cancel some 50,000 job orders for Filipinos next year and instead source workers from other countries, such as Indonesia and Vietnam, if the government insists on implementing the policy. “With the imposition of this insurance scheme, we will lose our competitiveness in the labor market," PILMAT president Jackson Gan said. Gan said Taiwanese companies have expressed “strong opposition" to the policy, as labor laws in the island already mandate insurance coverage for contract workers. According to Gan, Taiwan’s labor laws mandate personal insurance for contract workers, with coverage amounting to $800,000 NT dollars or about P1.2 mi...

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz will meet with Vice President Jejomar Binay to thresh out the problem involving mandatory insurance for overseas Filipino workers. Baldoz said the meeting will be held this week, where she will update Binay on the implementation of the mandatory insurance, and get his inputs on the matter. “I will be meeting with the Vice President this week. One of the agenda will be to provide him an update on what’s happening in the implementation of the mandatory insurance for overseas Filipino workers," she said in an article posted on the government portal. Baldoz said she asked for the meeting, and will bring her officials including Undersecretary Hans Leo Cacdac instead of Undersecretary Danilo Cruz, who is attending the Global Forum on Migration and Development in South America. She said she will also bring with her the heads of the various Labor agencies involved in the implementation of the mandatory insurance for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), includ...

As the tension in Korea is still high, Philippine labor officials are drawing up a list of undocumented Filipino workers there who may need assistance if the situation worsens. Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said they have coordinated with the Filipino community in Korea to locate these undocumented workers, radio dzBB’s Carlo Mateo reported Friday. According to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), there are 50,000 to 60,000 Filipino workers in Korea, Baldoz said. On Thursday, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos Jr. had said their records as of December 2009 show there are 50,270 Filipinos in Korea. Tension in Korea is expected to rise further this weekend when the United States and South Korea engage in joint military exercises. The exercises stemmed from North Korea’s artillery attack on South Korea earlier this week. P25-M fund for OFWs in Korea On Thursday, Baldoz said labor officials have readied ...

More than 25 percent of the recorded Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-positive patients in the Philippines are overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said. In a statement issued on Monday, the TUCP said out of the 5,729 HIV-positive cases listed in the National AIDS Registry since 1984 up to the end of October this year, 1,501 cases are OFWs. The country's first case of HIV was recorded in 1984. In October, 104 HIV-positive cases were reported. Twenty cases involved OFWs, and the median age of the HIV-positive OFWs was 36. "This is very unfortunate because at 36 years old, they are at the prime of their lives and productivity," said TUCP secretary general and former Senator Ernesto Herrerra. Out of the total number of HIV cases among OFWs, about 75 percent of the infected patients (or 1,127 persons) are males. Around 96 percent of the HIV-positive OFWs were infected through sexual contact. Herrera said the figures underscore...

Foreign companies with projects in Algeria continue to prefer overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), saying they intend to employ more people for construction and oil and gas projects. At least three companies intend to hire more OFWs for various projects in Algeria, according a release by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). The release is based on a report by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Tripoli, Libya. Labor Attaché Nasser Mustafa said he conducted site verification and ocular inspection of Algeria-based companies COJAAL, Samsung, and Doodsal and found that work conditions in the companies’ sites are “satisfactory." He also met with the management of MITAC, the Japanese firm which built a 220-km road project with the Algerian National Agency for Highways. The road project was clinched through COJAAL, a consortium of five Japanese companies including Kajima, Taichi, Nishimachu, Hajana, and Ituchu. Mustafa said that COJAAL is now starting the construction of anoth...

Some Filipino students in South Korea do not seem to mind the tension in the Korean peninsula caused by last week’s artillery attack by North Korea on a small South Korean island, Sen. Edgardo Angara, who is in Seoul, said on Monday. “I was surprised that when I arrived here there was no sign of panic, contrary to what is being reported in the Philippines," said Angara in a statement. Angara, chairman of the Senate education committee, met with 82 Filipino scholars in Seoul last Saturday to assure them that the Philippine government is closely monitoring the situation there. Angara was in South Korea as a keynote speaker at the Korea-Philippines Multi-Industry Cluster (MIC) Development Cooperation Forum held last Sunday. He and Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri went there on Wednesday, a day after North Korea’s attack. Four South Koreans, two of them civilians, died after Pyongyang rained artillery on the small Yellow Sea island of Yeonpyeong, which is home to both fishing communities an...

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said six Filipinos died and 21 others were hurt in a road accident in Japan over the weekend. According to the DFA website, the Philippine Consulate General in Osaka reported that 12 slightly injured Filipinos who figured in a road accident in Kameyama City, Mie Prefecture were discharged from the hospital. The minibus driver, a Japanese citizen, was among the injured. Nine other seriously injured Filipinos remain confined in six different hospitals, the DFA said. The Filipinos, including one naturalized Japanese citizen, were on the way to work at the Sharp Kameyama facility. The victims' minibus collided with a truck at an intersection at about 7:45 a.m. on Sunday. Six passengers died in the accident. In a report by radio dzBB's Nimfa Ravelo, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration head Carmelita Dimzon identified the six fatalities as: Randy Bayron Cornel Alma Dula Adarlo Remedios Bertoldo Cargullo Ceferino Salengua Pedro Jr. Mabini Ba...

Overcoming the temptation to use the money for his cancer-stricken mother's hospital bills, an airport immigration officer returned the $10,000 left on his desk by a Canada-bound Filipino passenger. Immigration officer Amando Amisola admitted in a radio interview Monday he was tempted to keep the money but eventually decided he had to do the right thing. "Honestly naalala ko mother ko na Stage-4 cancer itatakbo that morning sa hospital. Kalalabas lang sa PGH kaya lang naghihingalo na. Pinakita ko sa kasamahan ko, parang sinasadya ng tadhana, parang pagsubok. Naisip ko di akin yan kaya isauli ko sa may-ari," Amisola, 37, said in an interview on dzBB radio. (Honestly I thought of my mother who is suffering from Stage-4 cancer. She was to be rushed to the hospital that day. I showed the envelope with the $10,000 to my work colleagues and remarked fate must be testing me. But in the end I decided the money was not mine, so I decided to return it.) Amisola said the incident oc...

Last October 11, 2010, the APEC Digital Opportunity Center (ADOC) Secretariat in Chinese Taipei announced the country champions for the first round of the ADOC 2.0 blog competition. In the Philippines, the Samahan ng Mamamayan – Zone One Tondo Organization (SM-ZOTO) was declared country champion besting 6 other teams in the process. The Samahan ng Mamamyan – Zone One Tondo Organization is the oldest urban poor federation in the country today. It is composed of 646 local urban poor organizations with 32,777 members working within 28 relocation sites in Metro Manila and nearby provinces. It envisions a society of economically and politically empowered citizens who are accorded their due dignity, who foster gender equality and democracy and live in a healthy and bountiful environment. One of its programs, the computer literacy program under the children and young people’s program, is being supported by ADOC. As an ADOC supported organization, it is eligible to join the ADOC 2.0 blog comp...

Philippine bishops, leaders of the world's third largest Catholic Church, told the Vatican that Filipino laypeople have been defending the faith on crucial issues such as reproductive health. Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president and Tandag Bishop Nereo Odchimar mentioned this in an interview with Vatican Radio in Rome last week. Nearly 100 Catholic bishops are visiting Rome in three batches from November 25 this year to March 5 next year, for their "ad limina visit." The "quinquennial visit ad limina apostolorum" or simply "ad limina visit" refers to the obligation of diocesan bishops to visit every five years the tombs of the Apostles, Saints Peter and Paul. The bishops also have to meet the Pope and report on the state of their dioceses or prelatures. According to the news site Zenit, Odchimar spoke with Vatican Radio about the priority issues that Catholic bishops are facing in the Philippines. With an estimated 73 mi...

Certification requirement of host countries for OFW deployment suspended11/29/2010 | 06:57 PM Share3 Vice President Jejomar Binay has suspended for 60 days the implementation of the required certification of host countries for the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFW). A statement posted on the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) website quoted Binay, who is also the presidential adviser on OFW concerns, as saying that the suspension was to allow for ample time to assess compliance of host countries with the new Philippine law on migrant workers. The newly amended Republic Act 10022 or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos’ Act of 1995 seeks to intensify protection for OFWs by deploying them in migrant-friendly countries. The statement said that in a meeting of the POEA Governing Board that was attended by Binay last week, both the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) agreed to extend the 90-day and 120-...

As tension continues to rise in Korea, the Department of Budget and Management reassured Filipinos in Korea that the government has enough funds for their repatriation if the need arises. Budget Secretary Florencio Abad gave this assurance Monday as he said President Benigno Simeon Aquino III continues to monitor closely the situation in the Korean Peninsula. “Meron tayong kahandaan na tumugon sa anumang contingency sa kasalukuyang tension na nangyayari sa Korea," Abad said in an interview on dzXL radio. (We are prepared to respond to any contingency resulting from the tension in Korea.) However, he did not give figures on how much the government expects to spend for repatriation if the need arises. Tension in the Korean Peninsula escalated over the weekend as the United States and South Korea started military exercises. Last week, North Korea shelled a South Korean island where four South Koreans, including two civilians, were killed. North Korea insisted its attack was in self-d...

The Philippines has signed a mutual assistance agreement with Israel on Customs matters in that country, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said. Citing a report from the Philippine Embassy in Tel Aviv, the DFA said the Mutual Assistance in Customs Matters was signed in Israel on Tuesday. Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and Philippine Ambassador Petronila Garcia signed the agreement on behalf of their governments, the DFA said on its website. Garcia said the Philippines is very fortunate to have Israel as a partner in this endeavor, noting that the negotiation process began five years ago. The agreement is essential for countries to safeguard their economies, public welfare, and international interest, she added. The agreement establishes the framework by which both countries will assist each other on customs-related issues according to the domestic laws of each party. Under the agreement, both countries will: Exchange information on whether goods exported from/import...