A sleeper in the Senate

Senator Panfilo Lacson has turned-down former President Joseph Estrada’s offer to mediate between him and Senate President Manuel Villar Jr., who has been at odds with each other over the latter’s alleged impropriety in the C-5 road extension project. Estrada had hoped to reconcile the two in order to unite the political opposition [...]

Fil-Ams too won’t remit on October 29

An alliance of 12 organizations in five cities across the United States has signified their intention to support the International Migrants Alliance (IMA) and Migrante International’s call for overseas Filipinos not to remit their hard earned cash on October 29 to protest the Global Forum on Migration and Development’s (GFMD) agenda of legitimizing “forced migration [...]

Middle East as OFW “shock absorber”

Department of Labor Export Secretary Marianito Roque proudly announced yesterday via phone-patch from Qatar that the Middle East region could be the nation’s saving grace in this time of global financial crisis.
He said OFWs whose jobs will be displaced or those whose deployment will be affected because of constricting labor markets overseas due to the [...]

An OFW’s appeal from Saudi death row

“Life is the most important and sacred human right… The human blood is impermissible and nobody dares shed it… He who endangers the life of one person is considered to be endangering all mankind…”

Dear Sir / Ma’am
A greetings from Dammam Central Jail, Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia…
I, Mr. Rodelio Don2 Celestino Lanuza, 34, was incarcerated [...]

Zero Remittance day on October 29!

The International Migrants Alliance (IMA) has declared October 29 as “Zero Remittance Day” in protest of the Global Forum on Migration and Development’s (GFMD) exploitative agenda of exacting more profits out of migrant workers.

“The Zero Remittance Day principally takes the GFMD to task for being an elitist, anti-migrant forum aimed to perpetuate the greater commodification [...]

Tan’na naman!

Nakakapanggalaiti.
Habang ang karaniwang mamamayan ay hindi na magkanda-kuba sa kababayad ng buwis tulad ng Value Added Tax (VAT) maging sa mga produktong petrolyo; si Lucio Tan, may ari ng Philippine Airlines, Philippine National Bank, Fortune Tobacco Corp. at ikalawa sa pinaka-mayamang tao sa buong Pilipinas (US$1.5 billion na ngayon ang kaniyang net worth) ay biniyayaan [...]

Department of Labor Export

The Arroyo government, by way of a press release and after weeks of deafening silence, has finally disclosed their contingency plan to assist the thousands of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) that will surely be displaced by the global economic crisis.

In a statement posted on its website yesterday, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Marianito [...]

2nd GFMD: It’s like drinking and driving. They don’t mix!

Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) Chairman and Department of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos says the 2nd GFMD, which will be held here in Manila this end of the month, will “shine the spotlight on the human face of migration.”
Well shine your spotlight on this Mr. Chairman…
Human Faces

The “human faces” in the picture [...]

Was he focusin’ on the ‘person’ on this one?

Speaking of poverty, today being Blog Action Day and all, I am reposting here Migrante International’s press release on the yesterday’s beheading of another OFW in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The 8-10 million OFWs after all is one of the most palpable indications how extreme poverty is in the Philippines.
On October 27-30, the Philippine [...]

Hard times ahead: What awaits our OFWs?

Massive repatriation of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) likely in the next few months as a result of impending mass lay-offs. The vast army of those who toil in the service and production sectors comprising nearly 40% of all OFWs deployed in 2007 would be the hardest hit.
For those whose jobs will be spared, their [...]