KAKAMMPI News

By:  Jocelyn R. Uy  - Reporter /  @mj_uyINQ Philippine Daily Inquirer  / 07:33 AM July 26, 2017 Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto is pushing for an inquiry into the new Bureau of Customs (BOC) rule on the shipment of balikbayan boxes, warning that it might create a new form of red tape and encourage tampering. Recto on Tuesday said the congressional customs and tariff oversight committee must be activated and convened as this was the “right group” to investigate if the new rules were excessive. “We should review it because balikbayan boxes will be wrapped in red tape [if the requirements are complicated],” said Recto. ADVERTISEMENT Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon earlier announced that cargo forwarding companies would have to provide the bureau copies of the list of items in every balikbayan box sent by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) beginning October this year. The new requirement was included in the bureau’s Guidelines on th...

Written by EMontano PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has yet to formally terminate peace negotiations with the communist rebels Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said in his regular press briefing yesterday that even without a formal written notice, Duterte is  firm with his decision to stop negotiating with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the negotiating arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines. As has been previously agreed, the peace talks can only be terminated upon written notice by one party to the other. “Officially there’s none (written notice),” Abella said. Duterte pulled the government panel out of the peace talks after New People’s Army rebels ambushed a Presidential Security Group convoy in Cotabato while backchannel talks for the planned fifth round of negotiations were in progress. “You could say that at this particular stage, those are his directives,” Abella said. “Unless otherwise.”    Labor Secr...

July 26, 2017 Written by Efren Montano Published in  Top Stories Read: 210 FEATURED Sison & Duterte “PAKAMATAY ka na lang,” President Rodrigo Duterte  told Jose Maria Sison as he pressed his word war with the founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines. He said that he would be doing the Royal Norwegian Government a favor by doing so. “Sison, tumanda ka na lang diyan, ayaw mo pa aminin na may sakit ka. Maawa ka naman sa Norwegian government, pakamatay ka na lang,” Duterte said during the ceremonial turnover of financial assistance to the families of the fallen soldiers and policemen killed in Marawi City Tuesday evening. Duterte had claimed in his State of the Nation Address on Monday that Sison had colon cancer. Sison however denied the claim, calling Duterte a liar. Duterte also said that Norway’s sponsorship of talks between the Philippine government and the NDFP had become a political issue there, with the Norwegian...

OFWs slam the agency for announcing the IDs without clear guidelines Don Kevin Hapal @@donkevinhapal Published 11:03 PM, July 17, 2017 Updated 11:51 PM, July 17, 2017 OFW ID. Sample OFW ID card launched Wednesday, July 12. Photo by Patty Pasion/Rappler MANILA, Philippines – The lack of implementing guidelines on the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) newly launched Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) identification card has left many OFWs confused regarding its benefits and functions. The OFW ID, also called iDOLE, is supposedly one of the Duterte administration's key programs for OFWs and was launched on July 12, 2017. According to Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III  in a briefing in Malacañang on July 4 , the ID will be given to “all bonafide OFWs at no cost” and will serve as their overseas employment certificate (OEC). “This will serve as your OEC…so they don’t have to go to the POEA (Philippine Overseas Employment Admi...

For the first time in the history of Filipinos in Australia, the creation of a nationwide student alliance comes closer to reality David Lozada @iamdavidlozada Published 6:02 PM, July 17, 2017 Updated 6:02 PM, July 17, 2017 PHILIPPINE PRIDE. Filipino student participants pose for a photo with Ambassador Minda Cruz (lowest, 3rd from left), Philippine Honorary Consul of Victoria Felix Pintado (lowest, 2nd from L), and Minister and Consul General Nina Cainglet (lowest, 1st from L). Photo courtesy of FASTCO. MELBOURNE, Australia – For the first time in the history of Filipinos in Australia, the creation of a nationwide student alliance comes closer to reality as student leaders from different states came together on Saturday, July 15, at the First Filipino Australian Student Leaders summit. The event, hosted by the Filipino Australian Student Council of Victoria (FASTCO) in the University of Melbourne, drew participants from as far as Sydn...

PARIS - France will cut visa delivery time to 48 hours for Russians, Indians and citizens of six more Asian countries in a bid to boost tourism, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Wednesday. After a drop in 2016 following a wave of attacks that hit Paris and Nice, tourist numbers are rebounding this year. France is eyeing a record of as many as 89 million foreign tourists, up from 83 million last year, and 100 million visitors in 2020. Citizens of Russia, India, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Indonesia will from Nov. 1 see the time to get a visa—which now takes around 10 days or so, more in peak season—fall to 48 hours. This measure, which is already in place for a few other countries, including Qatar, would be extended to Saudi Arabia and Vietnam next year if a change in EU visa procedures for those countries allow it. The government also said it would assign more staff to airport passport checks to limit waiting time to 30 minutes for EU ci...

Trishia Billones, ABS-CBN News MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday said he has ordered a budget increase in assistance funds of overseas Filipino workers. "They are our heroes. They and their families have sacrificed much for the country. We all know how a large part of our economy comes from their remittances," he said in his State of the Nation Address. "That is why to ensure that their rights are protected, I order the increase of our assistance to the OFWs from P400 million to more than P1 billion," he added. Remittances from roughly 2 million Filipinos working overseas account for around 10 percent of gross domestic product, which has grown at one of the fastest paces in the world in recent years. READ: Peso finds savior in OFW remittances In May this year, remittances reached  $2.31 billion . This is 5.5 percent higher compared to the same month last year. "We have been hard at war at securing the rights and welfare of ou...

Mariëtte Le Roux, Agence France-Presse A South African girl has become only the third child to beat the AIDS virus into long-term remission -- almost nine years and counting -- after receiving a drug cocktail in infancy, researchers announced Monday. The child was given a ten-month course of anti-AIDS medicine until she was one year old, then taken off the drugs as part of a medical trial. Eight years and nine months later, the virus is still dormant and the girl healthy without needing treatment, a research team reported at the International AIDS Society conference on HIV science in Paris. "This new case strengthens our hope that by treating HIV-infected children for a brief period beginning in infancy, we may be able to spare them the burden of life-long therapy," said AIDS expert Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) which funded the study. Some scientists refer to sustained, drug-free remission as ...

By:  Philip C. Tubeza  -  @inquirerdotnet Philippine Daily Inquirer Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said on Thursday that the government would not send any representative to a US congressional inquiry into extrajudicial killings under President Duterte’s antinarcotics campaign. Cayetano said he had instructed the Philippine Embassy in Washington to instead send the US House of Representatives’ Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission a copy of the government’s report to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in May. As a senator, Cayetano led a Philippine delegation to the UNHRC’s universal periodic review (UPR) session, where he denied allegations of a wave of state-sponsored summary executions in Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs. “All I’m saying is, they are not the United Nations, they are not our boss, so they have no right to summon us. Now if they invite us as a guest, then we’ll make an assessment and decide whether to go,” Cayetano told ABS-CBN Ne...

Starting August 1, only relatives of the sender can receive balikbayan boxes sent from overseas, GMA News' JP Soriano reported on 24 Oras on Thursday, citing a memorandum from the Bureau of Customs. Customs Memorandum Order 04-2017 also states that a balikbayan box should include an itemized list of its contents as well as receipts for items that are newly purchased. However, these new regulations do not sit well with forwarding companies, saying they make sending packages burdensome to Filipinos abroad. "Kung ang reglamentos ng Customs ay ayon sa batas na nakalagay ngayon, ito ay magpapabigat sa ating mga kababayan," said lawyer James Ian Dela Vega, counsel for Door To Door Consolidators Association of the Philippines (DDCAP). "Kung pinadala niya po ito sa kanyang kaibigan, sa kanyang girlfriend o sa kanyang nobya, hindi po siyang maaring magkaroon ng availment doon sa insentibong o pribileyong ibinibigay ng batas," he also said. Under CMO 04-201...

Saudi imposes “dependent’s fee’ on foreign workers The government of Saudi Arabia now requires expatriate workers, including overseas Filipino workers, to pay for each family member or dependent holding a resident permit or iqama. Starting July 1, 2017, foreign workers in the Kingdom have to pay to the General Directorate of Passport the amount of 100 Saudi riyals or approximately Php1,350 per dependent per month. Dependents include wife or wives, children, parents, in-laws, house workers, drivers, and any person whose name is registered in the system as sponsored by the expatriate worker. The fee applies to dependents of all expatriates working in the private sector. The fee will be paid in advance up to the date of validity of iqama and is nonrefundable. The government will not issue exit and re-entry visas or renew residence permits without payment of dependent’s fee. The dependent’s fee is being implemented gradually and annually through the government-run SADAD payment banking sy...

By  RIE TAKUMI , GMA News Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Wednesday denied that the new ID system for OFWs was rushed in time for President Rodrigo Duterte's second State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 24. "Itong idea of OFW ID, panahon pa ni former President [Fidel] Ramos," Bello said at a news conference. "It is high time that our OFWs should be given this benefit of an ID. Hindi ito para sa SONA. Matagal na ito. Hindi ito minadali." Bello said the idea was only realized now because of Duterte's initiative. "I am proud to say that we now have a president who put into realization 'yung matagal nang pangako sa ating mga OFW," he said. The new ID called iDOLE or ID of the Department of Labor and Employment will replace the Overseas Employment Certificate, which many OFWs want abolished for supposedly being useless and a financial burden. New ID will be free Amid criticism, Bello stressed that the iDOLE will be free....

BY  CRISPIN R. ARANDA ON JULY 17, 2017 ANALYSIS MIGRATION practitioners and stakeholders have this sinking feeling that overseas Filipinos—overseas Filipino workers (OFW) mainly—are losing their competitive edge in the world stage. The Philippines—long esteemed as the great example of labor and migrant mobility—is said to have been left behind in the international arena seeking to formulate and establish a global migration policy. The dialectics of migration shows that both external and internal factors are causing this dilemma. The rise of a neo-nationalist policy in Europe brought about by the mass movement of migrants and refugees; the US President and the Republican Party’s claim about a deluge of criminals, rapists and drug lords from Mexico; the Australia and New Zealand First policies emulating that of Donald Trump have redefined migrants as job-snatchers and benefits/welfare program smoochers. Keep them out or make it hard for them to come in, is now a rally...