KAKAMMPI News

GARAPAN, Saipan – Some 10,000 foreign workers mostly from the Philippines will be able to continue working in the US Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) for an additional five years or up to 2019, based on US Labor Secretary Thomas Perez’s decision to extend the foreign worker program. Without the US Labor secretary’s decision, some 10,000 foreign workers would have been forced to exit the CNMI after Dec. 31, 2014. CNMI Governor Eloy S. Inos and the CNMI’s delegate to the US House of Representatives, Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan, along with businesses owners and employees, said failing to extend the program would be catastrophic to the local economy.   This is because there are still not enough qualified US workers to take over the jobs held currently by foreign workers. Overseas Filipino workers are a major economic driver in the CNMI, working as nurses, engineers, architects, teachers, certified public accountants, mechanics, reporters, hotel and restaurant employees...

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is encouraging the over 13,000 Filipinos in Libya to leave the country as soon as possible due to the worsening security situation there. Under Crisis Alert Level 3, which the DFA raised on Thursday, the government will shoulder the repatriation cost of those who will return home. Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario went to Tripoli, Libya on May 28 to meet with Philippine Embassy officials and the Rapid Response Team there to implement the government's contingency plan.  "In view of the worsening security situation in Libya where an estimated 13,122 Filipinos reside, Crisis Alert Level was raised from Level 2 (Restriction Phase) to Level 3 (Voluntary Repatriation Phase) effective Thursday, May 29," the DFA said in a statement. Libya has been plunged into turmoil since its 2011 uprising ended Muammar Gaddafi's one-man rule.   Many Libyans have grown frustrated with the government and parliament's failure to contain ...

A Filipino couple in the United Arab Emirates is seeking help for the treatment of their daughter, who was prematurely born last April, a UAE news site reported Thursday. Nijel Dela Cruz, 29, and wife Josie, 32, said their combined monthly earnings of Dh8,000 (P95,971) cannot cover daughter Mikaela Luciana's medical expenses,  Gulf News reported . “Our backs are against the wall. She is our little angel, our first born,” said Cruz, a worker at a fashion outlet in Dubai. He added the hospital has asked them to deposit at least Dh20,000, as well as blank checks and original passports to continue treatment. Mikaela Luciana, originally due in August, was born last April 16 at Belhoul Hospital. She was considered “extreme pre-term” and was rushed to Zulekha Hospital. Weighing just 650 grams at birth, the infant suffered from respiratory distress syndrome, neonatal sepsis, apnea and anemia of prematurity. She is now on a ventilator and is suffering from conditions including deranged ren...

WELLINGTON - The husband of a Filipina killed in a seemingly random attack in New Zealand said Thursday that his family was "lost in darkness" after her death. Blessie Gotingco, a 56-year-old mother-of-three, disappeared on Saturday night on her way home from work in central Auckland.   Her body was discovered in a cemetery not far from her home two days later and police on Wednesday charged a 27-year-old man with murder. The cause of death has not been revealed.   The killing has shocked New Zealand, where such attacks are relatively rare, and Gotingco's husband Antonio said he had been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from across the small South Pacific nation.   He said he had known his wife of 30 years since they attended primary school in Cebu City, describing her as his best friend.   "She is the light of our home and without her we will be lost in darkness," he said in a statement released by New Zealand Police.   "Right...

Twenty-five Filipino workers will arrive from strife-torn Syria on Thursday at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) as part of the government's mandatory repatriation program. The batch, which will arrive via Emirates Airlines EK 332 at 3:55 p.m., will bring the total number of repatriated Filipinos from Syria to 5,361. Of these, 2,332 crossed through Lebanon with the help of the Philippine Embassy in Beirut. Airline fare by the repatriates were provided by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Damascus, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). Refugees from Syria  are pouring into neighboring countries as the conflict within the country intensifies. Some 3 million refugees have fled abroad while 6.5 million remain displaced within the country, half of whom have minimal access to essential services. Within three years of Syria's civil war, a total of 140,000 out of the country's 23 million people have died. Kin of Filipino migrants in ...

There was never a tangled Christmas tree light in the many years – since 1998 – that florist Dennis Josue had been decorating the Harlem home of Maya Angelou.   Author, feminist, civil rights activist and literary immortal Maya Angelou.  The FilAm photo But one time was embarrassingly memorable. Dennis of Fantasia Floral Design on the Upper East Side, was called back to Angelou’s house. The Christmas tree had toppled over from the heavy ornaments he used to adorn her 15-foot fir. “I rushed back the following day,” said Dennis recalling with a laugh that singular time when the poet, best-selling author, feminist, civil rights activist and literary immortal asked him to fix her tree. “She did not get angry. Dr. Angelou was a very nice lady, a very gentle woman.” Dr. Angelou. That’s how Angelou would ask people who was not family or she was not intimate friends with, to address her. And that’s how Dennis paid her the ultimate respect. Dennis met Angelou through a friend, G...

With the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) still a threat in Saudi Arabia, Filipinos in the Kingdom were reminded Thursday to observe proper coughing and sneezing etiquette there.   The reminder came from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), whose head Hans Leo Cacdac urged OFWs there to be careful.   "To our dear Saudi OFWs: Cough and sneeze etiquette from the Saudi Ministry of Health web site. Mag-ingat po tayo!" Cacdac said in a  post on his Twitter account . To date,  five Filipinos have died due to MERS-CoV  in Saudi Arabia. Symptoms of MERS-COV, according to the World Health Organization, include fever, cough, shortness of breath and even diarrhea. Public awareness campaign   At the same time, Cacdac posted a screenshot of an  awareness publication by the Saudi Ministry of Health  suggesting that people:   cover their mouths and noses with a tissue when coughing or sneezing; an...

Philippine labor officials this week extended an assistance package to the family of an abused overseas Filipino worker who was scalded with boiling water in Saudi Arabia earlier this month. Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) head Carmelita Dimzon released an initial financial assistance of P15,000 to the relatives of Fahima Alagasi, 23, MindaNews reported Wednesday. “We will do everything we can to assist (Alagasi) and her family while they go through this ordeal,” the report quoted Dimzon as saying in a press conference in Koronadal City. Dimzon also said the OWWA will provide scholarships to Alagasi’s two children, aside from livelihood assistance to her family. Alagasi, who hails from Pikit town in Cotabato, was reportedly abused by her employer in Riyadh, and suffered burns when she was scalded with boiling water. Returning home soon? Dimzon said her office has coordinated with the Department of Foreign Affairs and other concerned agencies to let Alagasi return home as...

WASHINGTON - Tens of thousands of children unaccompanied by parents or relatives are flooding across the southern US border illegally, forcing the Obama administration and Congress to grapple with both a humanitarian crisis and a budget dilemma. An estimated 60,000 such children will pour into the United States this year, according to the administration, up from about 6,000 in 2011. Now, Washington is trying to figure out how to pay for their food, housing and transportation once they are taken into custody.   The flow is expected to grow. The number of unaccompanied, undocumented immigrants who are under 18 will likely double in 2015 to nearly 130,000 and cost US taxpayers $2 billion, up from $868 million this year, according to administration estimates.   The shortage of housing for these children, some as young as 3, has already become so acute that an emergency shelter at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, has been opened and can accommodate 1,000 of ...

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has apologized to the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over the arrest of the wife of one of its attachés for alleged illegal recruiting. According to an exclusive report on “24 Oras” on Wednesday, the DFA issued the apology after the diplomat's status was verified with the embassy. “We issued a diplomatic note addressed to the Embassy expressing regret for the incident,” said DFA spokesperson Charles Jose at a press briefing. Under the  Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations , diplomats and their families cannot be arrested in the country where they are assigned. However, Jose noted that the diplomatic immunity clause in the convention was put to help diplomats carry out their official work and “cannot be used as a cover to do illegal activities.” The diplomat and his wife have already been released, but the Saudi Arabia embassy still protested the arrest. “The Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia... hopes that within this acti...

What could have been a happy reunion with their OFW father turned out to be a nightmare for two sisters in Pangasinan. An exclusive report on “24 Oras” on Wednesday said the 50-year-old OFW repeatedly raped his 12-year-old daughter for one month during his three-month vacation in the Philippines. The report said medical findings showed that the victim's five-year-old sister was also sexually abused. The victims' grandmother said she only learned about the incident when the elder sister told her about it after their father returned to Saudi Arabia. She said she also learned that the incident was first reported to the sisters' aunt, who reportedly told the elder sister not to tell anyone about what her father did to her. “Anong sabi ng tiyahin mo? [Ang sabi raw], 'Maski sino wag mo sabihan kasi tutal aalis na si papa mo. Pagdating na lang ng mama mo, dun mo na sabihin',” the grandmother said. The victims' mother was also an OFW who works in Lebanon, the report sai...

A House panel that investigated the “sex-for-flight” scheme in the Middle East has scored the government for allegedly not doing enough to hold the perpetrators of the “prostitution, racketeering and extortion ring” accountable. In its report, the House committee on overseas workers affairs particularly chided the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) for supposedly failing to use all of their resources to bring justice to those victimized by the scheme. “If both agencies are truly committed to hold erring officials accountable and restore our OFWs’ trust in these institutions, they would have exhausted all avenues and used every resource to secure the victims’ testimonies and gather sufficient evidence to hold their officials liable,” said Akbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello, the committee chairman, in a letter attached to the report. “Sadly, we did not see such efforts,” he said. The panel said DOLE's decision to mete out a one-mon...

The  Philippine Independence Day Council, Inc. (PIDCI)  partners with  GMA International  to further enrich the parade, street fair, and cultural festival in New York that is the  Philippine Independence Day Celebration , through the presence of top Kapuso primetime artists  Tom Rodriguez  and  Heart Evangelista .   The Philippine Independence Day Celebration showcases the best authentic Philippine cuisine, customs, and products. It draws crowds of around 100,000 Filipinos and Filipino-Americans coming from the Greater New York area and the Northeast region. Mainstream Americans are expected to attend the event on  June 1, 2014  at  38th Street to 23rd Street on Madison Avenue .   The event is spearheaded by the PIDCI, which is a non-profit organization responsible for conceiving the biggest Philippine Independence Day celebration outside the Philippines. Prior to Philippine Independence Day, PIDCI supervises affairs suc...

A Filipino soldier will be among the over 100 fallen peacekeepers who will be honored posthumously in New York on May 29 during the celebration of International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers. Sgt. Benson Angot, who died of malaria in October last year while serving in Liberia, was one of the 106 peacekeepers who died while on duty in 2013. “We grieve with their friends and families and we recommit ourselves to ensure that their contributions to the cause of peace will never be forgotten,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a statement Wednesday. A total number 3,200 personnel have been lost since the first UN peacekeeping mission, the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), at Palestine in 1948. Angot and other peacekeepers, composed of police, UN, and international volunteers, will be commemorated at the UN's headquarters in New York, with Ban himself presenting the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal. The Dag Hammarskjöld Medal was established in 2000 as a standard awar...

The female employer of the scalded Filipino maid in Saudi Arabia was temporarily released from detention, but was placed under the custody of a third-party sponsor, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Wednesday. In lieu of bail, a defendant in Saudi can file for temporary release to a third party, Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said. The Philippine Embassy learned about the release of the employer on May 27, Tuesday, when her Filipino victim, Fahima “Candice” Alagasi, appeared before the Prosecutor’s Office in Riyadh to give a formal statement on the incident. “Our embassy found out from the prosecutor’s office that the employer has already been arrested but temporarily out of detention under the custody of a sponsor,” Jose told a press briefing. However, he said the investigation of the case by the Saudi prosecutor will continue. “Normally, [it’s] out on bail, but in this system somebody has to sponsor so she will not flee,” Jose said. The sponsor, he explained, is re...

The Court of Appeals in Qatar has junked the petition for bail filed by the three Filipinos convicted of espionage and economic sabotage there, a report on GMA News' News TV Live said Wednesday afternoon. The report quoted the lawyer of the three as saying that the Filipinos should be allowed to post bail as the verdict on them is not yet final and that they have been in jail for the past five years. He also reportedly said that the three — one sentenced to death and two meted with life imprisonment — could not leave Qatar as there is a travel ban imposed on them. The petition for bail was filed on the first day of hearing before Qatar’s Court of Appeals. The News TV Live report said the next hearing is set in October. The three were convicted last April 30 for allegedly passing along Qatar security and defense information to the Philippine government and allegedly committing economic sabotage. The Philippine government has denied any involvement in the case. — KBK, GMA News

A United Arab Emirates court has ordered a Filipina maid jailed for two months and fined Dh1,500 for beating and biting a fellow housemaid, all over a quarrel over household duties last April. The Misdemeanors Court in Ras Al Khaimah imposed the penalties on the 28-year-old maid,  UAE news site Gulf News reported Wednesday . Judge Fat’hi Al Qal’a announced the verdict on Monday morning, Gulf News quoted a judiciary official at Ras Al Khaimah as saying. Court records showed the Filipina and an Ethiopian colleague were working at their sponsors' house when they squabbled over household duties. The squabble turned violent when the Filipina bit the Ethiopian in the lip and scratched her body, prompting their Emirati sponsor to take them to the police. Medical reports showed the Ethiopian maid sustained wounds and scratches on her body.  — Joel Locsin /KBK, GMA News