Don't know where to put this so will just start a thread on the Philippine Diaspora. And how it affects society .

You guys out there should know. Half the forum (or more!) is not here.

-mama padala pera-



RP among top migrant sending countries, says IOM study

First posted 09:46am (Mla time) June 22, 2005
Agence France-Presse



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GENEVA -- The Philippines is among the top migrant sending countries and its workers among the top for remittances, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Wednesday.

The Philippines ranks third, with seven million Filipinos abroad, behind India, with 20 million, and top-ranked China with a diaspora of 35 million workers in different parts of the globe, the IOM said in its new study, which showed that concerns in Western countries that immigrants cause job losses and increases in welfare spending were not only flawed but contradicted evidence.

Mexico topped the list for remittances, followed by India, the Philippines, Egypt, and Morocco, the IOM study said.

Migrants are a key source of income for many poorer countries, the report said. They officially sent home 100 billion dollars in 2004.

Another 100 billion dollars is thought to flow home through informal channels, the IOM said.

The world's estimated 185-192 million migrants -- up from
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175 million in 2000 -- boost the economies of their new countries and the homelands they leave behind, although the impact of the brain drain on poor nations remains a concern, the IOM also said.

"We are living in an increasingly globalized world, which can no longer depend on domestic labor markets alone. This is a reality that has to be managed," said Brunson McKinley, the IOM's director general.

"If managed properly, migration can bring more benefits than costs," McKinley told reporters at the launch of the 2005 World Migration Report.

Focusing on Western Europe, where many studies have highlighted a need to fill gaps caused by low birth rates, the IOM said direct competition between migrants and local workers is rare.

Migrants are concentrated at the higher and lower ends of the employment market, often in jobs the locals are either unable or unwilling to do, said the IOM.

They can also generate billions of dollars for government coffers, with their taxes outweighing welfare payments.

However, many governments, particularly in Europe, are still failing to get to grips with the need for proper immigration policies, said the IOM.

"Migration is not like goods and capital crossing borders," said Irena Omelaniuk, the report's editor.

"It has some irrational, personal and subjective elements to it, which make it more difficult for governments to understand and to manage," she said.

The United States remains the world's top destination, home to about 35 million migrants, said the IOM.

It is followed by Russia, with 13.3 million, largely people who left other republics of the former Soviet Union after 1991.

Germany (7.3 million), Ukraine (6.9 million), France (6.3 million), and economically booming India (6.3 million) are next.

However, the downside for developing countries is the loss of skilled people who would be essential for the homeland's development, the report said.

Estimates suggest that some 400,000 scientists and engineers from developing countries work in industrialized nations, compared with 1.2 million at home, the report said.

More Ethiopian doctors are practicing in Chicago than in Ethiopia, it noted.

The IOM has developed programs to bring professionals home, sometimes temporarily, to work or train others.

i'm more worried about brain drain.. :ohno:

My siblings and I are planning to put-up multiple businesses in the Philippines. Each of us has a different specialization, in engineering and it communication, food, rtw, and soon arts and crafts. My brother has opened a start-up business and he’s up for expansion later this year. Working abroad helps me earn the capital to get things going because I am the so called “investor” and we don’t want to borrow money.

I don’t like the Pinoys living abroad who bad-mouth the Philippines. I tend to argue with them and ignore them in the end. At the same time I feel sorry for them because obviously life in Pinas was hard during their time and most of them had to come as tnt. I don’t associate with those people particularly the ones who act “pasosyal” and speak with a trying hard conyo accent, eeww. I notice that they are the ones clamoring for a blue passport. I don’t think I will give up my green passport ever. It’s my identity. I don’t care if I have to apply for visas to go for vacation. I’ve never been denied and the visa officer likes me during interviews:P

^^ oo nga. u couldnt blame them sometimes but their comments bout their own country are just too much to bear!! akala mo kung sino...crazy!!

:)

I would like to ignore the people who badmouth the Philippines as well. However, there is something constructive in differing opinions. No matter how disruptive or how negative people may be, these negative views are catalysts for change because they move people to reflect more on their own faults. After all, we have to accept the Philippines, warts and all.

I'm interested in the idea that like other places, the idea of culture or ethnicity is beginning to be transnational. People think that globalization means corporate globalization. But the very idea of Filipino is becoming global and less rooted in what we think of as geo-political boundaries. The Filipino national community is not just located in the southeast asian islands. It's something that exists in multiple localities, in the ether (here in the internet), and most importantly in our imaginations. "Filipino" becomes less an attachment to a geographical center but becomes attached to an idea or an emotion. After all, who is to say what is more "authentic?" What does authentic mean?

A few years ago, I sat behind this Filipina lady (who was obviously a balikbayan) and an American passenger on a plane to Manila. The American was a tourist going to the Philippines for the first time with his family. The American asked the Filipina about the Philippines and where he and his family should go. To my dismay and disbelief, the Filipina asked the American why he even thought of visiting the Philippines. She said that it was stinky place with trash all around and that it was a dangerous place to visit. She started ranting about all the smoke and pollution and how we had the worst traffic jams in the world. I could not believe what I was hearing! I mean I was not expecting the lady to lie and tell the American that the Philippines was perfect but the least she could have done was bring up the good things too. Anyway, apparently my dad and I were thinking the same thing and so he ended up butting into the conversation and telling the American about our beaches, Tagaytay, Cebu and other places (di pa uso Boracay non e). Till this day, my blood curdles whenever I remember that experience.

To go back to the topic. I will be going back home to Manila in September after four and a half years of being away and will be putting up a business with my bro (while helping run my dad's business too). I guess after almost five years, I've come to realize that the Philippines, despite it's shortcomings, is the best place for me. I left basically due to what I shall call "political fatigue" and of course the basic need to provide for myself and my future family. It's a bit ironic that there is once again political turmoil back there just when I am about to go home. I plan to give a try again this time though. However, I may have second thoughts if they succeed in ousting GMA and bringing Erap and his cohorts back to power.

In the United States it's so hilarious how some Filipinos who were born and reared in the Philippines pretend they are Hawaiians, I know of someone who pretended to be Hawaiian in the salon I frequent for haircuts but I quickly shut her down and started conversing with her in Tagalog. I have no patience for such antics and I don't care for people who are maarte and "trying hard".

Regarding overseas Filipinos, remittances last year amounted close to 17 billion US dollars which was coursed thru banks, remittance centers, relatives and other means. Remittances coursed thru banks almost reached 9 billion US dollars. This definitely buoyed the Philippine economy.

Bakit nga ba may ganon? (pertaining to ramvinger's and jbkayaker's experiences with Pinoys/Pinays abroad.) Ano kaya ang psyche nila? No pride in their roots.

I'd like to consider myself as a global Filipino or Filipino-American to be exact. Is that an oxymoron? Well as Mike (boybaha) stated, "Filipino" becomes less an attachment to a geographical center but becomes attached to an idea or an emotion. And as Carlos Bulosan wrote, "Philippines is in the heart." I am a dual citizen. For those who do not ascribe to dual citizenship, well it's just a matter of personal choice and conviction. I will not argue with you. My passport is not my identity. It is just a matter of convenience. Kung puede lang, wala ng passport-passport and people can travel freely around the world and be good global citizens.

I love the Philippines, the land of my birth and ancestry. I also love America, my home and benefactress. I don't think it makes me less Filipino in the heart. Can a good mother divide her love among her children. She loves each child wholly and not in terms of percentages. That's how I feel. I don't have divided loyalties. I am foremost a global person -- a humanist. I first look at the person as a fellow human being regardless of origin or ethnicity or religion, etc. Authentic to me is being true to one's self. Magpakatotoo ka lang. Well, perhaps I digress from the topic.

diaspora is in a sense, a blessing and a curse. but we cannot be choosers at this point. obviously our country is in a bad state of affairs. sometimes, i would feel the guilt wondering if i have bad-mouthed my country. i really hope not. when i call home, i would hear the usual rant, sobrang hirap na sa atin. this rant has been going for years, maybe even more. i thought about those childhood days where you don't worry about tomorrow, but, how did our parents thought of it then? sure life was not easy right, simple yes, not easy.

the scattering of filipinos, southasians, chinese and others is a fact. we cannot deny that people want to better themselves for a price. i remember my dad who had to work in indonesia for 16 years in the middle of a jungle. yes, for a promise of double his salary way back then. yes, life even then was not easy, that was way back in 1973.

diaspora may have given us a breathing room financially, it also claimed some social problems. but it has given us something, the willingness to sacrifice for our family's sake. frankly it's a give and take situation.

i too, have followed my father's footsteps, but luckily for me, i have text, email, cheap long distance calls, webcams, digital cameras, etc. my father? he had letters every 3 or 6 months. telegrams that was as slow as snail mail. very expensive long distance calls. and the marvel of technology then, telex.

now back to the bad-mouthing, pinoys i don't know for what reason, look down upon other pinoys. countless of times, i've encountered a lot looking at me from head to toe. hahaha. parang nagtataka na bat ka nakarating sa canada. oh yes, mainis ka na ng mainis, but it's real. yes, a lot are a trying hard, copycat, showing you that they have that twang even with a mangled grammar. hahaha. but one thing pinoys cannot be accused of? for not trying hard enough. you cannot see pinoys idling, they're always there somewhere, wanting to earn an extra buck. so kung ano man ugali mo, pinoys are a harworking lot, comparable to none, or maybe the chinese, or that southasian or ... oh well.

O my God! If I can just tell you all the stories I have about Pinoys having bad attitudes. I work part time at a Filipino restaurant and I have had countless encounters with Pinoys who seem to have forgotten (or want to forget?) about their past. Sometimes I answer the phone at the restaurant to get orders or give directions. There are those who pretend that they do not know how to speak Tagalog at halatang hirap na hirap mag Ingles (nothing wrong with that), so I speak to them in Tagalog, right? But they simply refuse to speak Tagalog. Ingles pa rin ng Ingles kahit halos di ko na sila maintindihan. And the funny thing is, pinipilit pa nilang mag- American accent! Ayayay! Meron din naman yung mga bastos na mababa ang tingin sa mga waiter at sa akin na rin (I'm the cashier). Kung mag utos ay kala mo sila si Queen Elizabeth. Ang nakakatawa pa e order sila ng order, open drinks daw. Halatang nagyayabang sa kanilang mga bisita. Tapos pagbayaran na e biglang lalapit sa akin at bubulong kung pwedeng libre nalang ang kanin at drinks o kung pwedeng may discount!!! Hahaha! Bigla nawawala ang yabang!

Anyway, anybody ever hear of the joke that says that the Philippine diaspora is actually part of a grand scheme for world domination? After we have placed Pinoys in every nook and cranny of the world, especially in the households of the rich, powerful and the world leaders, they will all at the same time hold them hostage (or assasinate them). Or ask for 1 biliogaziliomamilionanilion dollars! HWAHWAHWAHWAHWA!

Personally, my citizenship is the only American thing about me. My nationality/ethnicity will always be Filipino/Asian no matter how hard I try to forget it or don't. If a Pinoy person talks to me in Tagalog, I will answer back in Tagalog, but if they prefer to converse in English then I too will follow suit. It doesn't matter to me what language I use as long as the communication between the person and myself are clear and with no misunderstandings.

Personally, my citizenship is the only American thing about me. My nationality/ethnicity will always be Filipino/Asian no matter how hard I try to forget it or don't. If a Pinoy person talks to me in Tagalog, I will answer back in Tagalog, but if they prefer to converse in English then I too will follow suit. It doesn't matter to me what language I use as long as the communication between the person and myself are clear and with no misunderstandings.

I prefer to talk to Filipinos in Tagalog but the pretension of other Filipinos are really so "trying hard". If there are others around who dont speak the language then I speak in English just to show respect for the rest.

But with respect to all that has been said here, Filipinos tend to assimilate quite fast wherever we decide to live or work. It is natural for us to blend in right away with our surroundings without losing our identity and that makes us a cut above the rest.

So ok na rin pero ayoko pa rin sa ibang mga "trying hard" hehehehe.

Well it's ok for me if one chooses to pursue what they believe will be a better life for them elsewhere. It's a personal choice and ultimately they're responsible for their own happiness. Life is short so ces't la vie. But it is sad that some people do wish they were not who they are. If they want to be american or canadian or australian that's ok, people have been moving around and about before countries were made, but pretending to be someone you're not and worse badmouthing where you came from denies a part of yourself.

I'm personally not too worried about brain drain and the like. A lot of people I know who've left actually come back, better trained and stronger people with more realistic attitudes on life. If they prefer not to come back that's also ok, the fact is we've got to much human capital for our state of development and it let's people on the bottom a chance to get to the top. Our demographic problem lies not with our smart people going out but our smart people staying only in Manila/Cebu/Davao while the 2 hours away from those cities in lubang island/ leyte/ davao oriental, there are not enough doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc for filipinos who are living one generation away from the bronze age. (And I don't mean the tasadays lang!)

i too,..really really hate filipino's who live's abroad that bad mouth the Philippines.."i refer to them us social climbers"....or the village people...para mga nakalaya sa kulungan tapus akala mo kuung sino na...ang yayabang...ayaw mag tagalog pag kinausap mo tagalog...TAGILID NAMAN ENGLISH...WHEEEEWW I HAVE NO SYMPATHY OR TIME for those people !...i will always be a filipino...Im australian citizen coz i grew up here but i will definitely get my filipino citizenship back to prove my loyalty...im only Australian in Paper...but in heart im filipino...there's no other place like Philippines!!!...i hate filipinos living abroad badmouthing Philippines without facts!but based on what they see on TV...I'd rather save up now and live my life in Phils kaysa naman sa mga bad mouthers na nakatira abroad na malaki utang sa bank sa mortgages at nagbabayad until they're 80yrs old....im not gonna waste my time and grow old paying mortgage...i'd save up and start a biz in Phils...."opinion ko lang mga kabayans"!!.......peace..........

im home sick already...

one thing i wanna say though gusto ko mabago sa Pinoys....

"sana magkakampi mga Pinoy...hindi yung pagalingan tapus pag umaasenso yung kabayan mo sisiiraan mo"..dahil inti midated ka..instead dapat suportahan mo pa para sama sama tayo umahon....hindi naiiwan ng neighbour countries natin"....

I'm not one to migrate, but I'm a sort of person that can't stand being in the same place for an extended period of time. Maybe its because I've been moving a lot as a kid. I like to soak up culture and look at it from an outsider's view. Here in the Philippines, its been difficult. While I have learned Tagalog to a degree that I don't sound like a complete idiot when I speak it, I am hard-pressed to like the local culture. This is supposed to be my home, and yet I've never felt more like an outsider. I simply cannot bring myself to be entertained by noontime shows, showbiz bores me, and I find it very difficult to relate to fellow filipinos at times, and these include my cousins. If I were a foreigner, I would get some slack, but as I'm not, I'm derided as being too snooty. Oh well.

Dapat yung mga OFW/OCW na nag-reremit ng dolyar ay hikayatin din ang kanilang mga pamilya na mag-negosyo at hind na lang aasa sa mga padala. Hindi habangbuhay may trabaho ang mga OFW/OCW kaya habang may income kailangan matuto na magnegosyo at palaguin ito. Kung kailangan nila ng tulong, pumunta sila sa TLRC at magpaturo ng gusto nilang negosyohin.
May nabasa ako na balita sa mga dyaryo na pagpasok ng remittance, agad din mauubos. Paano na uunlad ang buhay nila kung aasa na lang sila.

Solblanc, I believe Philippine Society (Manila in particular) has stratified to the point that there are two if not more distinct cultures emerging. One is the one which watches Channel 2 and actually finds there sitcoms funny, these guys voted for erap/fpj, still very traditional in values, (mano po, pakisama et al), may only be slightly western in attitude but only on the surface, then there's people who are quite westernized, look to NY or Paris or wherever for inspiration, and have a totally different outlook. Neither one is better just different.

This is the living proof that Pinoys starting to colonize the world hehe :)

Bebot
by Black Eyed Peas

Album : Monkey Business (2005)

A.
bebot bebot
be bebot bebot
be bebot bebot
be
ikaw ang aking/ay

B.
pilipino, pilipino, pilipino, pilipino

Verse I
hoy pare pakinggan nyo ko
eto nang tunay na filipino
galing sa baryo sa pangbato
pumunta ng LA nagtrabaho
para makatulong sa nanay
dahil sa hirap ng buhay
pero masaya parin ang kulay
pag kumain nagkakamay
yung kanin, chicken adobo
yung balot, binebenta sa kanto
tagay mo na nga ang baso
pare ko inuman na tayo

Verse II
masdan mo ang magagandang dalaga
nakakagigil ang beauty mo talaga
lambingin di nakakasawa
ikaw lang ang gustong kasama
yung bahay o kubo
pagibig mo ay totoo
puso ko’y laging kumikibo
wala kang katulad sa mundo ko
pinoy ka sigaw na, sige
kung maganda ka sigaw na, sige
kung buhay mo’y mahalaga, sige
salamat sa iyong suporta

Wow that's great Christerdom. Better listen to that!

http://www.philstar.com/philstar/NEWS_FLASH070220052071_6.htm

DOLE: Remittances of OFWs contribute 9.2 percent to country's GNP
07/02 3:20:40 PM

Filipinos working or living abroad have become a substantial subset of the Filipino society with their remittances contributing some 9.2 percent of the country's gross national product (GNP).

Labor and Employment Secretary Patricia A. Sto. Tomas said Saturday there are now about 8.1 million Filipinos living or working in 194 countries and territories all over the world.

The overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and migrants, she said, now make up almost 10 percent of the total Philippine population.

Of the total, 3.2 million are permanently living abroad while 3.6 million are temporarily working overseas. Irregular Filipino workers overseas, on the other hand, are estimated to constitute some 1.3 million.

Sto. Tomas said the overseas Filipinos, including migrants remitting dollars to their kin in the Philippines infused into the economy in 2004 a total of 8.5 billion US dollars, which is roughly 9.2 percent of the GNP during that year.

She said that at least six percent of Filipino families are receiving income from abroad; six out of 10 of these families reside in urban areas and are relatively better off.

Today, she added, migrant workers and their families are looked upon as the emerging middle class and being accorded respect by the local community.

"At the same time, overseas employment is pivotal in easing the pressure on the local labor market," she said.

With overseas employment and the attendant infusion of OFWs remittances, the country managed to generate a consumption-led economic growth amidst recession and high unemployment, Sto. Tomas further said.

If banks could lower the fees they charge on money remittances it would mean less people sending through informal means. There are so many ways of sending money home from couriers, text messaging through Globe and Smart, relatives....

It will be very hard to truly gauge how much money overseas Filipinos send to the Philippines. I even read it could go as high as 12 - 17 billion dollars but it will be very difficult to really have a fixed amount on the total since not all monies are being coursed through banks.

^I know some of our kababayans and some Japanese, too, who send money through
a Pinoy store here.

PNB Tokyo has lowered its remittance fee (2000yen or 1,000pesos)for any amount you send to Phil. and registration is now free (2,000yen before) to attract more remitters. But still there are not few who continuously prefer the illegal means, that charge double than the PNB and the main reason is proximity of the place and they think it's troublesome to go to a bank.

For all of you in different places, I wonder how you in particular and the whole community in general view the current bouhaha. What does the Diaspora say?

It will be interesting because the demographics of Japayukis in Japan, Doctors and Nurses in the States, Mades in Hk and Italy, Engineers in Singapore and saudi, etc, all have different ideas.

and the people here in Manila just keep on shopping ( the bigger news from a very local (as in your office) is the evat - which I personally think is more important that the current GMA bouhaha, btw may sale sa megamall in a few weeks :))

I feel sorry for the Filipinos in the Philippines, GMA may not be the best president as far as the others are concerned but she's way better than some of the candidates of the opposition if they ever get their act together.

Actually you'd be surprised how people here are, in a way it's a sign of political maturity. The people here are much more calm than the comments I read from forumers abroad! There's a stronger belief that most institutions and the future are more secure even with the current scandals of GMA. As I said in the thread above I think more people are concerned about EVAT- a neccesary evil than GMA screwing herself!

Quite frankly if Filipinos would rather have Arroyo out of office that is your business and goodluck to you all in the Philippines. As far as I am concerned I will still be vacationing in the Philippines and continually enjoy my vacation regardless of who is in office while you people in the Philippines wallow in the problems you've created.

My friends and I believe in the programs of President Arroyo.
The main reason why my friends are scattered abroad is because they don't like Erap and his cohorts. In other words, they left the country when Erap was seated as president.

Quite frankly if Filipinos would rather have Arroyo out of office that is your business and goodluck to you all in the Philippines. As far as I am concerned I will still be vacationing in the Philippines and continually enjoy my vacation regardless of who is in office while you people in the Philippines wallow in the problems you've created.

huh?! it would be unfair to say such a sarcastic remark :( how do u think u would want us(& urself) to look from that remark?! hindi ka nakakatulong...

:(

huh?! it would be unfair to say such a sarcastic remark :( how do u think u would want us(& urself) to look from that remark?! hindi ka nakakatulong...

:(
Just in case you have not realized yet whenever a Filipino overseas takes a vacation in the Philippines that in itself is help directly benefiting the people in the Philippines.

Who wants to help people who keeps commiting the same mistake over and over again and does not even want to try make things work. Case in point the most recent one, VAT.

By the way what I said on previous post wasn't sarcasm. It's life, we all create our own problems and we better deal with them and in the case of Filipinos in the Philippines well, goodluck is all I can say to you all.

jbkayaker,

Although you are entitled to your own opinion, I feel that the remark is a bit insensitive because not everyone in the Philippines created this problem. They are helpless with the unfolding of the events. A lot are not as lucky as you and me who are able to migrate to other more prosperous countries. I know that you don't feel as detached as that because you still have an interest in the mother land. Sana lang maayos na ang lahat para sa ikabubuti ng bayan at ng lahat.

I think a lot of people who go abroad share his view. I mean that's why they go abroad in the first place because they have a choice and they're not happy with this place. It's a logical thing to do. Obviously if you feel that most the population and you disagree on how to run the country (voting erap or gma etc) exercise whatever options you have and find an choice which you perceive will give you better and happier life.

jbkayaker,

Although you are entitled to your own opinion, I feel that the remark is a bit insensitive because not everyone in the Philippines created this problem. They are helpless with the unfolding of the events. A lot are not as lucky as you and me who are able to migrate to other more prosperous countries. I know that you don't feel as detached as that because you still have an interest in the mother land. Sana lang maayos na ang lahat para sa ikabubuti ng bayan at ng lahat.

Truth hurts doesnt it???!!! Let them fix their own problem, if they want somebody else aside from Arroyo more power to them!!

Still, as Mysa said, it doesn't help to make this remark... "I'll continue to vacation in the Philippines .... while you people in the Philippines wallow in the problems you've created." Someone in another thread mentioned something about rubbing salt to the wound.

I think a lot of people who go abroad share his view. I mean that's why they go abroad in the first place because they have a choice and they're not happy with this place. It's a logical thing to do. Obviously if you feel that most the population and you disagree on how to run the country (voting erap or gma etc) exercise whatever options you have and find an choice which you perceive will give you better and happier life.

It's a different matter to be able to exercise this option when it is available to you. A lot of migrants have also sacrificed a lot to live abroad. But it's quite a different matter to pin the blame on what is happening to the country to those who are left there and do not have this option as to say "while you people in the Philippines wallow in the problems you've created". It's too simplistic a generalization.

true, i myself find the said statement inflamatory and overlysimplistic, but that's his opinion nothing more, there are a zillion opinions here which have similar tone which I find outrageous but in the end it's up to each of us to process, and accept or not , the points made in the posts

Still, as Mysa said, it doesn't help to make this remark... "I'll continue to vacation in the Philippines .... while you people in the Philippines wallow in the problems you've created." Someone in another thread mentioned something about rubbing salt to the wound.

If you want to give them psycho babble go ahead Lili, you have my blessings but as far as I am concerned I don't like to beat around the bush. I tell it like it is and if you don't like it, tough!! You're starting to bore me Lili!!

Goodluck Filipinos in the Philippines!!

Tschau!!

well....i hope this thing passes......anyway im still also gonna continue visiting Phils although we cant blame some Filipino's overseas to get sick of these....kahit ako naiinis...but its such a sensitive issue...i guess education about these matters need to be implemented to the general Public....i mean if they changed Arroyo....do they expect Phils to go up right away?..then if a new leader comes and people get impatient again...opposition/and people will find a way again to topple the new leader...HINDI BA IMPATIENT YAN!!...did Japan gain stong economy in 2 or 3 yrs?...no!!i took decades......GUSTO KASI NG IBANG PINOY INSTANT SOLUTIONS!!!...WELL HINDI PO ITO INSTANT NOODLES....same .....NO!...it will take time i think....the poor are still poor now.....but if a new leader comes....the poor will still be poor.....it will take time to deal with poverty....Minsan naiinis ako sa mga mentality ng ibang Pinoy's...hirap ma describe...i feel na madami impatient....

im not trying to have a go at the poor....but im just saying kahit mabago leader...it doesnt mean that the poor will get better lives right away..."sad to say"...but no matter who is the leader..i think it will take time...and for me Personally i think PGMA can do more than those aspiring to topple here....

"less instability.....more unity"...........4 words, my advice...


i know many wont agree with me.....but thats my opinoin and i stick by it...peace...........

Just in case you have not realized yet whenever a Filipino overseas takes a vacation in the Philippines that in itself is help directly benefiting the people in the Philippines.

Who wants to help people who keeps commiting the same mistake over and over again and does not even want to try make things work. Case in point the most recent one, VAT.

By the way what I said on previous post wasn't sarcasm. It's life, we all create our own problems and we better deal with them and in the case of Filipinos in the Philippines well, goodluck is all I can say to you all.

well, if u dont anymore want to help just bec u think this country is hopeless, sana naisip mo mas marami pang Filipinong mas kawawa sa atin, na simple lang ang pangarap sa buhay. and sarcasm bout ur own country will just further leave them in a confused state of mind, leaving them finally w/o any hope at all :( ur literally saying magdusa kami lahat dito tapos sasabihin mong good luck??!! we never need luck, but hope...hindi ka nga talaga makakatulong...

:(

If you want to give them psycho babble go ahead Lili, you have my blessings but as far as I am concerned I don't like to beat around the bush. I tell it like it is and if you don't like it, tough!! You're starting to bore me Lili!!

Goodluck Filipinos in the Philippines!!

Tschau!!

Well, I'm not here to entertain you. I don't engage in psychobabble. I'm also speaking my mind, Mr. Bigshot. I don't need your blessings either. Ano ka, pope? Napaka-simplistic and arrogant kasi ng statement mo porke wala ka na sa Pinas. Mataas na ang ihi mo. Sige, start picking up fights again as you are wont to do. I will not dignify it any longer.

although some of you guyz have different opinion, still i am delighted that we are on same side here of seeing RP become a prosperous nation. this kind of showdown however (difference in opinion), is what exactly happening from top to bottom and all corners of the Phils right now.

Therefore, whoever from the Philippines asking OFWs to stop sending money back to the Philippines to show 'we dunno longer support the government', all I can say is 'ANU KA HILO!!!'. Gutumin ko ba ang family ko because of your stupid pakikibaka?!?

For me, whether opposition and administration, will still continue to send my remittances in the Philippines, why? Do I have a choice? No, i need to support my family and it not just because of the Philippines.

Here's a post from my cousin who moved abroad.


Australia used to consider itself a part of Europe and the English Commonwealth. For the past 25 years, that attitude has changed and Australians consider themselves a part of Asia. Hence anything that borders on a crisis is of interest to them. Here is an analysis by an Australian Reporter of the situation in the Philippines after GMA's COMELEC fiasco. It gives you a view of how foreigners see the Philippines at this point in time.

=======================================
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's crisis call

July 02, 2005

Greg Sheridan, THE AUSTRALIAN

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15791792%255E25377,00.html

'HI Garci," intones a stentorian female voice in the most popular new ring tone for mobile phones in Manila. If it weren't so tragic, it would be hilarious, for the voice is that of Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, taken from a recording of a phone call she made to a senior Philippines election official.

The President's phone conversation is one of more than two dozen that were illegally tapped by Philippines military intelligence and later released by Arroyo's political Opposition.

They reveal her ringing senior Commission on Elections (Comelec) official Virgilio Garcillano while the votes from last May's presidential election were being tallied. At that stage local votes were being consolidated into district and province aggregates, the stage at which vote rigging traditionally occurs in The Philippines. In a May 29 call Arroyo plaintively asks Garcillano: "So will I still lead by more than a million?"

Arroyo eventually beat her opponent, the movie star Fernando Poe, who died from a stroke a few months after the election, by a little more a million votes. Nearly half that margin came in Mindanao, the site of a murderous Muslim rebellion, a province for which Garcillano had responsibility. At one point Garcillano says to the President: "The way in which your votes were increased was done well."

At another point Garcillano appears to be comparing vote tampering in Basilan with that in Sulu. He says: "In Basilan the military wasn't so good at doing these things, like in Sulu, with General Habacon. But I already talked to the Board of Canvassers in Sulu. I think we should just ask the election officer of Pangutaran to hide so he doesn't have to testify."

Arroyo is facing an exceptionally complex set of scandals and accusations and, as usual in The Philippines, nothing is clear. It is just possible to interpret her recorded conversations innocently. She claims she was checking her lead rather than asking for vote tampering.

The scandals have given rise to thousands of Filipino jokes and eccentricities. Pirate CDs of the three hours of her clandestinely recorded conversations have been selling briskly, so much so that a spoof headline was posted on a website this week: "China files case in World Trade Organisation against cut-throat competition of pirate CDs in The Philippines."

But it's worth pausing to consider the strategic significance of what's going on in The Philippines. The National Security Committee of the Australian cabinet meets at least once a month in Canberra. It meets much more often than that when necessary. It has come to the conclusion that the country in Southeast Asia that is the weakest link in the war on terror, with the biggest challenge and least capacity to meet it, is The Philippines.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade recently updated its travel warning for the eastern Malaysian province of Sabah because of intelligence warnings that terrorists were planning to kidnap Western tourists. It's not Malaysian terrorists that DFAT is worried about but terrorists from the nearby southern Philippines.

The most senior US officials confirm that Washington is much more worried about The Philippines than Indonesia, in terms of Islamist terrorism as well as economic stagnation.

This week the political crisis plunged The Philippines' peso to 56.19 to the US dollar, near its record low of 56.45. Despite huge remittances from millions of Filipinos working abroad, economic growth this year is predicted to be 4.75 per cent - not quite catastrophic, but not nearly enough to make any impression on poverty or unemployment in The Philippines, which has one of the highest birthrates in the world. Rising oil prices are having a cruel impact on the economy.

Through the 1980s and '90s, when the communist New People's Army insurgency was very active, Australians were regarded as the second most likely foreign target of NPA terrorist attacks after Americans. In the past few years most Philippines terrorism has been directed at the state, or at sowing terror among civilian Filipinos. But intelligence agencies have picked up plans by extremists to attack targets with a higher Western profile. Again, it is just common sense that Australians and Australian interests will be a likely target.

While the West is understandably focused on Islamist terror, especially groups such as the Abu Sayyaf, arising out of the rebellious Mindanao province in the south, the communist movement is undergoing a rebirth. Philippines analysts report, dismayingly, that whereas the NPA was formerly a middle-class movement of educated urban radicals, it is now recruiting significant numbers of impoverished peasants.

While the communist movement is geographically dispersed, it is strongest north of Manila, in central and northern Luzon. Unlike Islamist terrorism, it has something to say to the bulk of the Philippines population that is not Muslim.

Mindanao serves as a training ground as well as a rest and recreation centre for regional Islamist terrorism, from home grown groups such as Abu Sayyaf and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to the Indonesian Jemaah Islamiah.

Philippines analysts had been hopeful of a peace deal between the Government and the MILF, the biggest Islamist group in Mindanao. But there have been many peace deals in Mindanao and their history is that as soon as the deal is negotiated, the leaders start to enjoy the good life and the radicals break away, because their irreducible demand is for an independent state.

US officials in secret talks have offered the MILF up to $US50 million as a first payment in aid to support a peace deal, aid that the MILF would be allowed to control. But nothing has so far worked.

The MILF claims that, unlike Abu Sayyaf, it is not part of the JI-al-Qa'ida infrastructure in Southeast Asia, but there is no doubt the MILF has co-operated intimately with JI, especially in training camps.

Hundreds of US soldiers and CIA and other agents continue to work with the Philippines forces in the south against the terrorists. Officially US forces are restricted to training and logistics, but it's hard to imagine they never get involved in operations.

The Howard Government is quietly doing everything it can to help the Philippines increase its capacity in counter-terrorism. There is a strong, semi-permanent Australian Federal Police presence, with special emphasis on forensic techniques, focused on helping in the fight against terror.

Our substantial military co-operation program is focused on maritime surveillance, which is designed to impede terrorist movement into and out of the vast Philippines' archipelago.

And in August at least three Philippines cabinet secretaries will come to Sydney for the first Australia-Philippines ministerial forum. Because the Philippines naturally does not want to be seen as a basket case in the grip of terrorists, it is important to put these efforts in a broad development context.

Not all the recent news is bad. Arroyo, though a timid reformer, has got a better tax system and has collected more tax than ever before. A much improved mining law, which could lead to substantial Australian investment, has been ratified by the Philippines Supreme Court. And kidnappings in Manila are down.

But Arroyo's perfect storm of crises has probably put her close to lame-duck territory one year into her six-year term, and may have paralysed her administration for years. This can only exacerbate the profound, long-term crisis of capacity that is crippling the state.

Even before the latest Comelec scandals, Arroyo had recorded the lowest presidential approval ratings in the history of opinion polls in The Philippines. It took her three weeks to respond to the telephone call revelations, and that response only came after a dozen of her cabinet secretaries reportedly threatened to resign.

Finally she made a statement admitting that the telephone calls were "a grave error of judgment" but denying that she had tried to rig the vote. Then, later this week, she exiled her husband, "first gentleman" Mike Arroyo who, along with her son Mikey and brother-in-law Iggy, was accused of taking huge bribes from the illegal juteng gambling industry. Some doleful commentators note that the first people power revolution, which ousted Ferdinand Marcos, was brought on by a rigged election, and the second, which ousted Joseph Estrada, by corruption allegations. Now an unpopular President faces both sets of accusations.

But there is little sign that the middle class or the Catholic Church, key players in the previous people power revolutions, have decided Arroyo must go. Although impeachment processes have begun in the Congress, analysts believe Arroyo will hang on for now.

But she is hugely damaged, and intensely vulnerable should just one more crisis break out. The ability of her Government to pursue desperately needed economic reform, or to resolve either the communist or Islamist insurgencies, looks weaker than ever.

In a nation of 85 million at the heart of Southeast Asia, this is bad news for everyone, not least Australia.

I fully agree with Christerdom, while we differ in opinions let's try to find our common bonds of being filipino and human, after all it's not being in the Philippines which defines the filipino but the values inside of you:) Am happy to see that all of you so far away still care enough to fight over it.

although some of you guyz have different opinion, still i am delighted that we are on same side here of seeing RP become a prosperous nation. this kind of showdown however (difference in opinion), is what exactly happening from top to bottom and all corners of the Phils right now.

Therefore, whoever from the Philippines asking OFWs to stop sending money back to the Philippines to show 'we dunno longer support the government', all I can say is 'ANU KA HILO!!!'. Gutumin ko ba ang family ko because of your stupid pakikibaka?!?

For me, whether opposition and administration, will still continue to send my remittances in the Philippines, why? Do I have a choice? No, i need to support my family and it not just because of the Philippines.


you're right Christerdom ... bakit sila ba magpapakain sa pamilya mo pag nagutom na? Anong pakikibaka ang gusto nila? Those who call and urging Filipinos abroad to stop sending their money is indeed SELFISH. Are they joking to campaign for that? Do they know what they are talking about? Kind of crap ... hehehe. Will they provide and help my family back home, just in case? I wonder whether this whistleblowers have indeed financially stable family in the Philippines? They act as if this is a kind of a big joke.

Well, I'm not here to entertain you. I don't engage in psychobabble. I'm also speaking my mind, Mr. Bigshot. I don't need your blessings either. Ano ka, pope? Napaka-simplistic and arrogant kasi ng statement mo porke wala ka na sa Pinas. Mataas na ang ihi mo. Sige, start picking up fights again as you are wont to do. I will not dignify it any longer.



Lili dont beat around the bush!! Speak your mind regarding the situation in the Philippines and how you feel towards our kababayan. You will gain more respect this way and enemies as well but at least you've voiced your opinion. It does not really matter where I am residing I will still voice my opinion regardless of my whereabouts!!

So the unpopular opportunist NPA-thinktank is now asking OFWs not to send remittances. Para raw lalo bumagsak ang ekonomiya.
Sorry na lang sa kanila dahil ang OFW ay hindi nagpapadala para gamitin pang-pulitika kundi para sa kanilang pamilya.
I'm going to increase mine 5fold....

I don't know where to post this, but this is one fella that's still proud to be identified with Pinoy (and willing to still help and contribute).

Black Eyed Peas member to build up Pinoy artists
FUNFARE by Ricardo F. Lo
The Philippine Star 07/07/2005

Proud to be Pinoy.

That aptly describes Allan Pineda, a.k.a. apl.de.ap, the Pinoy member of Black Eyed Peas which came for a promo tour last year. Allan returned early this year by himself to visit his relatives in Pampanga. Everywhere he goes, Allan tells everybody that he is a Filipino – and proud to be one – and that he was born to Filipino parents but was adopted by an American couple who brought him to the US. His life story was featured last year in an episode of the ABS-CBN drama series Maalaala Mo Kaya (hosted by Charo Santos-Concio).

The good news is that, according to People magazine which featured the Black Eyed Peas in an early-July issue, Allan is putting up a record label which will concentrate on discovering and building up Filipino artists. Great, isn’t it?

Here’s the brief, full story from People:

In the Philippines, where apl.de.ap (real name: Allan Pineda) was born, "they have a movie about him," says bandmate Taboo (Obviously referring to the Maalaala episode. – RFL). "A movie!" Pineda, 30, who was raised in L.A. by adoptive parents, is hoping he won’t be the last Filipino to find worldwide fame. With a solo album of Filipino music in the works, he is starting a record label dedicated to discovering artists from his homeland. When the Peas went there last year, he was given a hero’s welcome – and got to share it with his biological parents. "I actually got to go back to where I was born and perform there," he says. "I just brought my mom up onstage and was like, ‘Look, here we are.’"

yeah.. I heard of that news before... It makes me proud to see successful Filipinos abroad who aren't afraid to shout to the world that they are Filipino... or has Filipino heritage.. :D

good for him!

ang question ko lang is sino ba siya doon, I could never figure it out, siya ba iyung matangkad o iyung parang maliit na egoy. Noon pa naman pinagdedebatehan.

He's the shortest one. The tallest one is Mexican-American.

ayun, lili, ty

NPA deserve to be listed as a terrorist organisation...
that makes Ka Roger mad!...heheh...hindi naman headache mga yan....its so easy to assasinate their main leaders."i dont care they do it to innocent people")...

deal with Abu Sayaf first....NPA can be executed one by one..then they can be hunted like wild pigs in the caves they burrow in..............

uy may galit sakin....baka may NPA dito ah .......... :bash:

^ as in No Permanent Address

I don't know where to post this, but this is one fella that's still proud to be identified with Pinoy (and willing to still help and contribute).

Black Eyed Peas member to build up Pinoy artists
FUNFARE by Ricardo F. Lo
The Philippine Star 07/07/2005

Proud to be Pinoy.

That aptly describes Allan Pineda, a.k.a. apl.de.ap, the Pinoy member of Black Eyed Peas which came for a promo tour last year. Allan returned early this year by himself to visit his relatives in Pampanga. Everywhere he goes, Allan tells everybody that he is a Filipino – and proud to be one – and that he was born to Filipino parents but was adopted by an American couple who brought him to the US. His life story was featured last year in an episode of the ABS-CBN drama series Maalaala Mo Kaya (hosted by Charo Santos-Concio).

The good news is that, according to People magazine which featured the Black Eyed Peas in an early-July issue, Allan is putting up a record label which will concentrate on discovering and building up Filipino artists. Great, isn’t it?

Here’s the brief, full story from People:

In the Philippines, where apl.de.ap (real name: Allan Pineda) was born, "they have a movie about him," says bandmate Taboo (Obviously referring to the Maalaala episode. – RFL). "A movie!" Pineda, 30, who was raised in L.A. by adoptive parents, is hoping he won’t be the last Filipino to find worldwide fame. With a solo album of Filipino music in the works, he is starting a record label dedicated to discovering artists from his homeland. When the Peas went there last year, he was given a hero’s welcome – and got to share it with his biological parents. "I actually got to go back to where I was born and perform there," he says. "I just brought my mom up onstage and was like, ‘Look, here we are.’"


I think this is a good thing being done by the guy, even though their music stinks. But anyways, there are many stories of Filipino and abroad-Filipino pride and development such as this one, and this is great to see.

And by the way, just quick responses to past posts here:

- please ignore those abroad filipinos who put down the Philippines. They're just "trying hard" and stereotype or not, just look at those people anyways and how they are. you could see how they present themselves and what they do, that they are complete fakes. And there are also people in the Philippines who put down their own country while still in the Philippines. Funny people. All of these kinds of people should be sent to the middle east, some parts of latin america and africa so they could really see how the Philippines is.

- and to the one (i'm sorry I've forgotten your name but i'm sure we've talked before) who mentioned the sad story of that filipina who was badmouthing the philippines to that tourist? Thanks for sharing that. We need to be aware that these things really happen. And we need to stop them. Ironic because we're supposed to have hiya! Well that filipina was walang hiya. Dumb bitch. I'm glad your father stepped in on the conversation and saved the Philippines from her false words. When I was reading the first part of the story, I actually started hoping someone interrupted that woman. Say thank you to your father for me. :)

Wired (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.06/philippines.html)


Nation Overseas
Need (hired) help? Try the Philippines, the forerunner of tomorrow's distributed economy, supplying nurses, teachers, techies, and sailors to the global village.

By David Diamond

They're known as bagong bayani, a Tagalog expression meaning "new heroes." That may sound a bit inflated, but at a succession of December celebrations in Manila, Filipinos who work on contract in foreign countries get treated something like the Series-winning Yankees coming home to New York. One day is Health Awareness Day, when thousands of overseas Filipino workers, also called OFWs, are treated to free medical care, and another is Family Day, when at malls all around the nation, the government throws a mass party. Bright welcome banners stretch from rafters. Christmas music spills from loud speakers. Returned workers, along with their spouses and kids, walk around in costume from the Auntie Anne pretzel emporium to Ace Hardware to the Gameworx bowling arcade. They also make pit stops at the booth for free dental checkups and the booth for psychological counseling. Two years is a long time away.

December's bizarre climax comes when President Gloria Arroyo travels to Manila's Ninoy Aquino Airport to personally greet returning workers, who zoom through specially designated express lines for immigration and customs. After a welcome speech, Arroyo turns a big drum filled with tickets bearing the names of returnees and picks one from the batch to win a $2,000 grand prize.

It may look like a TV game show, but the Philippines has discovered the future of work. At any given time, about 10 percent of the country's 76.5 million population is hard at work - outside the country. During 2001, more than 800,000 people headed out on a commute that makes Rye-Grand Central seem like a milk run to the corner store. They went to Italy, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Singapore, and Uzbekistan. They went to Mongolia and Equatorial Guinea. Unlike Mexicans, who flock primarily to the United States, Filipinos traveled to 162 nations in all. Unlike Indians, who fill mostly tech and medical positions, Filipinos toil as domestic helpers, engineers, nurses, bricklayers, teachers, farmers, seafarers, stenographers, hairdressers, crane operators, cooks, and entertainers.

Having discovered its prowess as an outsourcer of labor, the Philippines is now pursuing the opportunity with fervor. Whereas the US has spent decades bemoaning the export of its jobs (to Mexico, to China), the Philippine government revels in the export of its people. Using technology to stay involved in family life back home, Filipino global commuters constitute one of the biggest sources of stability for the economy of a country perennially known as the Sick Man of Asia. Remittances, the money they electronically send back to their families, account for 8.2 percent of the nation's gross national product, stabilizing its peso, improving foreign currency reserves, shoring up consumption, and making more than a dent in the unemployment rate (now 11.1 percent). Last year, overseas Filipino workers sent home $6.2 billion. Indians sent home twice the amount - with 13 times the general population.

In short, this archipelago nation has succeeded at creating the world's most distributed economy, where the sources of production are so far-flung it boggles the mind. The machinery has gears in Andorra and the Seychelles and even Diego Garcia, wherever the heck that is. (Answer: a 17-square-mile atoll of coral and sand in the middle of the Indian Ocean, mostly a joint US-UK military base that's become a temporary work location for more than 1,000 Filipinos.) With advances in transportation and telecommunications barreling ahead, it's only a matter of time before the Philippine miracle becomes a standard for the new mobile global order, with skilled and unskilled workers commuting over multiple time zones to fill in labor gaps, zapping their wages homeward through space, reentering for a new assignment. Welcome to virtual nationhood.

In fact, this thriving "trade" has already made the Philippines the envy of the developing world. Officials from such poverty-plagued countries as Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nepal, and Vietnam have come to Manila to find out how they too can be prime producers of labor. The market for contract migrant work, they know, is growing: According to the International Monetary Fund, worldwide remittances totaled $2 billion in 1970; by 2000, the International Labor Organization set that figure at $73 billion. After a visit to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, Indonesia's labor minister, Jacob Nuwa Wea, said, "We learned some things we can adopt at home - like mechanisms to protect overseas workers, how to prepare candidates to meet skill requirements, and how to license private employment agencies." Pakistan has patterned its overseas workers welfare fund after the one established by the Philippine government.

Flexible, industrious, and frequently skilled, Filipinos are finding their way into unexpected niche markets. Nurses trained in the Philippines, for instance, are more likely to end up working elsewhere. Hospital recruiters from Norway and the UK travel to Manila to hire them. Likewise, American school districts having trouble attracting new teachers are discovering ample supply in the Philippines. Recruiters hop on a plane to Manila, where, in crowded hotel conference rooms, they handpick certified teachers, who are given crash courses in Georgia history or California politics before they arrive on US soil.

Signs of this future already abound. You see them mobbing Hong Kong's Statue Square any Sunday afternoon - young Philippine domestic workers who celebrate their day off together: Hong Kong is a temporary home to 200,000 Filipinos. You see signs in the Dubai airport, Filipinos napping on benches between connections to various Persian Gulf destinations: They have been a major source of labor - both white and blue collar - in the Middle East since the 1973 OPEC oil embargo. You see their mark on ships and in ports everywhere: At least 25 percent of the world's seafarers are Filipinos, and the majority of cruise waiters, too.

"It's an industry," admits Patricia Santo Tomas, the Philippine secretary of labor and employment. "It's not politically correct to say you're exporting people, but it's part of globalization, and I like to think that countries like ours, rich in human resources, have that to contribute to the rest of the world."


Fifty-three-year-old Vidasto Lantaca is wearing thick glasses, his hair a mess. He paces barefoot, holding an unlit cigarette, in his mother-in-law's tiny house in Barangalo Hulo, an overcrowded neighborhood in Manila's Mandaluyong City served by the Parish of Our Lady of the Abandoned. A college-educated mechanical engineer and the father of two sons, ages 10 and 13, Lantaca has been unemployed for three years. His wife, Percy, a nurse, worked on and off as a baby-sitter overseas until her age prevented her from getting another contract. When she came back to stay, she began work as a midwife, supporting her family on barely more than $2,100 a year. But the Lantacas' lives are about to change.

The perennial Sick Man of Asia now has a borderless business plan: "It's not politically correct to say you're exporting people, but it's part of globalization."

In nine days, Vidasto will make his way through Metro Manila to Ninoy Aquino Airport, where he'll depart for the Middle East. Having scrounged up a job placement fee - he borrowed $1,000 from a friend and took out a loan of $400 from his recruiter - he'll head for Dubai to work as a quality control manager for a construction company. His monthly paycheck of $1,400 will help cover food and schooling, and might even enable the family to save.

This isn't Vidasto's first job overseas. He's been a Philippine global temp before. He worked for six years as a construction supervisor in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, coming home for long-enough stints to meet Percy and marry her. He also did time as a mechanical engineer in Eritrea. But for the past three years, the family has been living on a mere $175 monthly while Vidasto searched out his next opportunity. That meant digging themselves into debt and giving up their TV to pay for his physical - but this job in Dubai will ultimately get the Lantacas' lives on track again.

In his new post, Vidasto will oversee the maintenance and operation of machinery, like cement mixers, for National Ready Mix, a construction company owned by the conglomerate Lootah Group. He'll be responsible for assigning jobs to about 40 equipment handlers and for ordering spare parts. When he arrives in the United Arab Emirates, he'll be met by a company representative, shown around, and settled into his own private room. Along with his salary, the firm will pay for his food and housing. He'll communicate with Percy and the kids via cell phone - perhaps the company will throw in some minutes - and within a few months, he'll deposit thousands of dollars into the family bank account.


What sets the Philippines apart from other countries whose legions also spill over their borders into wealthier lands (200,000 Malaysians commute daily to Singapore, for instance; some 200,000 Thai nationals, or about a third of a percent, leave home to work elsewhere each year) is that the federal government here is avidly encouraging the flow. In an example of socioeconomic engineering on an unprecedented scale, the Philippine leadership is embracing its role as temp agency to the world and structuring a political "business plan" accordingly. Although the ratio of remittances to GNP in nations like El Salvador and Cape Verde tops that of the Philippines, no other government maintains so sprawling a network of workers with as strict a hand.

The government official responsible for all this is labor secretary Santo Tomas, whose office is located on the seventh floor of a centuries-old building in Manila's oldest section. She is in charge of local and overseas employment; these days, for instance, her department is busily trying to fill demand for health care workers in developed nations where populations are aging. Santo Thomas also helps protect employees once they're relocated. Under her purview, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, funded by both employer and worker contributions, maintains a network of 27 worldwide and 14 regional offices to intervene when problems arise. It was the OWWA that was responsible for moving 30,000 Filipino workers to safety during the Gulf War.

Perhaps most important, Santo Tomas and her staff regulate the hundreds of recruiters who broker close to a million job placements each year. In 1974, Ferdinand Marcos created a mechanism for managing overseas workers on a government-to-government basis, but the phenomenon grew so quickly and became so unwieldy that four years later the government handed the business over to the private sector, choosing instead to provide regulation and oversight. Today, there are 1,300 private recruiters on record at the government's labor registry. They are the link between foreign employers - who also must register with the government - and job-seekers. They populate the upper floors of two- and three-story buildings along Manila's jeepney-clogged roads, advertising "Worldwide Jobs!" and they make money by charging the hired employee a placement fee. For a licensee to recruit legitimately, Santo Tomas and her staff require $7,000 up front as a surety bond, to be kept in escrow, and a clean legal record. Thereafter, her office keeps a regular public file of a recruiter's status (Good Standing, Delisted, Forever Banned).

"When I was young," says the labor secretary, "the only people in this country who traveled were the rich. Now we've democratized travel. I have a niece in Italy, a nephew in Bern, another nephew in Brussels. I have nieces in Los Angeles and New Jersey. By becoming an exporter of labor, we have broadened our horizons."

Santo Tomas has the poise and unharried demeanor of a long-ago charm-school graduate or pleasant younger grandmother as she sits back on a sofa in her massive office. She is open enough to admit that she pays her housekeeper the typical sum of only $50 a month and is willing to write her cell phone number on her business card in the event of further questions.

Appointed to her post in 2001, she weaves a convincing case for promoting and protecting international labor. The minimum wage in Manila is $5.30 a day, compared with the average $15 a day earned abroad under contracts approved by the federal government. Working in Manila, nurses bring in $15,000 a year; in the US they earn an average of $47,000. By diligently remitting money home, Filipinos help their local banks, which not only make a profit on currency exchange but use the capital to finance trade or buy Philippine bonds. The billions of dollars in foreign currency deposits go a long way toward underwriting the country's own development.

Of course, in the grand scheme of the Philippines' future, providing temporary labor to the planet is itself supposed to be only temporary. If the governor of the nation's central bank, Rafael Buenaventura, has his way, each productive, dedicated overseas laborer will be an advertisement for doing business right there in the Philippines. Buenaventura envisions global companies choosing the Philippines for establishing new plants, corporate headquarters dotting his archipelago and a million mothers working minutes from home. The push to send workers out of the country will pay back in spades. "At this time," he says, "it is too late to be competitive in manufacturing. The biggest boon we have is trained manpower that speaks English; therefore, we could be an outsourcing center." He pauses. "But if ever we can get our act together, we'll be like Ireland, where you can bring back skilled workers. That doesn't bring in remittances, but it provides jobs and raises export earnings."

For now, though, it's hard to imagine the labor flow reversing. Many Filipinos actually find their host countries preferable to their homeland: Among the estimated 7 million overseas workers, more than 2 million have chosen to stay permanently, either getting amnesty or marrying into foreign citizenship.

I MISS YOU; DO YOUR HOMEWORK; SEND MONEY - 100 million cell phone text messages a day are why overseas Filipino workers and their families remain families.


The Philippines' unique three-sided history has made it an oddity within Asia, perfectly suited to supporting this distributed economy. Until about 3,000 years ago, the islands operated almost completely in isolation. Most people lived in small villages at the mouths of rivers, subsisting on fish and rice. With the growth of trade, however, Chinese, Indian, Arab, and Indonesian travelers imposed an Asian influence on the islands. In 1493, Spain and Portugal made the bilateral decision to divide up the unexplored portions of the globe, and by 1521, Ferdinand Magellan wound up in what is now Cebu. He was killed by islanders two months later, but that didn't stop the Spaniards from colonizing the 7,100-island country for more than 300 years. Then in 1898, when Spain lost out to the US in the Spanish-American War, the Philippines fell under America's authority, where it remained until the Japanese occupation in 1941. A major battleground in World War II, the nation was recaptured by the Allies in 1945 and granted independence the following year. Today, "Look Asian, think Spanish, act American" is a common refrain.

While Filipino fruit pickers began streaming into the US as early as the end of the 18th century, it wasn't until the 1950s that professional workers - dentists, engineers, nurses, and scholars - followed suit. Equipped with Christianity they'd inherited from the Spanish, as well as English they'd learned as a second language, they slowly began arriving on other shores, too. They became dancers and musicians in nearby Malaysia. They went to Nigeria and New Guinea as professors and bank tellers. In the 1970s, Middle Eastern nations in search of workers to sustain the exploding oil industry hired construction workers, excavators, and hotel and medical help. In the '80s and '90s, in nations like Italy, Filipinas began taking care of the home front, enabling local women to go to work. Meanwhile, cheap airfares and new telecommunications drove further migration.

Today, the sprawling Philippine population is held together with the newest forms of groupware. Foreign workers rely on a variety of Web services for not only staying in touch with their hometowns (one site, for instance, is dedicated to Filipinos from Cagayan Valley who work in Hawaii) but also creating communities in their new locales (say, Filipinos in Austria, and, yes, there's a site for Filipinos in Diego Garcia). Moreover, the country's residents send and receive more cell phone text messages than citizens of any other nation.

Take Victor Morillo Jr., a 21-year-old volunteer organizer for a group in Manila called Assembly of the Sons and Daughters of Filipino Workers. With his green T-shirt, red backpack, and baggy jeans, he looks the part of a college-age activist anywhere in the world. But Morillo's story is quintessentially Philippine. His mother is employed as a fabric cutter on the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain. "When I run out of food," he explains, pulling a Nokia phone from his pocket, "I send my mother a text message telling her I need money for bread." His mom deposits dinars in a Bahrain bank, and a few days later Morillo ambles over to an ATM and withdraws pesos.

Filipinos like Morillo send more than 100 million such missives daily. Each 160-character message costs 1 peso (2 US cents) within the Philippines and 10 pesos internationally, making this possibly the cheapest place on earth to get hooked on texting. And it's only the calling party who pays. A typical cell phone costs the equivalent of $50; most people buy prepaid cards that, for $6, cover the cost of 300 domestic messages. I MISS YOU; SEND MONEY; DO YOUR HOMEWORK - it's how OFWs and their families remain families. Rosaria Reyes, the Filipina domestic helper killed by a suicide bombing in Israel last year, transmitted a message to her son the night before her death: MATULOG KA NA. Go to sleep already.

Then there are videophones. In the mountain-ringed town of San Pablo about two hours south of Manila, in the coastal city of Batangas, in Pangasinan to the north, in Rome and in Hong Kong, a nongovernmental organization called Atikha and a domestic workers group called Balikabayani have jointly opened centers for emailing, instant messaging, and communicating by videophone. "On a typical Sunday, hundreds of people come through here," says Imelda Laguindam, a Balikabayani organizer. She shows off a low-ceilinged, two-room office down a back alley in central Hong Kong. One room houses three Samsung computers on a single table. The other contains a JVC videophone. Laguindam explains that domestic helpers spend HK$1 (13 US cents) per minute for the computers and HK$7 per minute for the videophone, communicating with family members who simultaneously congregate in one of the three counterpart offices in the Philippines. On Sundays, when banks in Hong Kong and Rome are closed but domestic helpers typically have their only day off, workers come to the Balikabayani offices - which maintain reserve bank accounts for the purpose - to wire money home.


Vidasto Lantaca has been working in Dubai for two weeks when he is called into the head office of National Ready Mix. Already things have not gone as planned. Instead of a private room, he's sharing one with two other men, and he's been on call 24 hours a day. Now his employers are presenting him with a new contract, one that reduces his monthly pay from 5,000 dirhams to 2,500 dirhams - the result, they say, of deducting the cost of his food, travel, and housing.

Lantaca, who had been assured by his recruiter that those expenses would be provided as part of the job, is exasperated. "It wasn't just me," he explains later. "All the Philippine workers were called in and told they had to sign new contracts."

"We were all called in and told we had to sign new contracts," says a worker who refused. The deal is made clear: Sign, or be sent back to the Philippines.

He refuses to accept the agreement. Four days later, the deal is made clear: If he doesn't sign, he'll be sent back to the Philippines.

Lantaca phones his wife. Percy urges him to sign. "We owe too much money now," she says, referring to the $1,400 placement fee they'd borrowed to get Vidasto the job. He has no choice, she says softly, he must stay in Dubai for the two years they planned.


The irony of Family Day in the Philippine malls is not just that shopping has been elevated to a government-sponsored welcome celebration, but that psychotherapy serves as a party favor. The great, heartbreaking cost of the Philippines' economy is the splintering of millions of families, and no amount of futuristic global economics can disguise this. In the best of circumstances, those families that welcome remittances - to pay for food, college, a television set, or tin rather than thatch for a roof - are suffering in the absence of one or both parents. Mothers who work overseas - 63 percent of OFWs are women - usually leave their own families in the hands of relatives or older siblings. (Stay-at-home fathers are still uncommon in the Philippines.) Spouses are often separated for most of their married lives. Children live with the emptiness of losing one or both parents to distant parts of the planet. Familial affection and guidance are reduced to a stream of 60-character memos. "The social costs of overseas work," says Rosalinda Baldoz of the government's labor registry, "are marital breakup and dropout children who get into drugs or crime."

It gets worse, though. Aside from separating families, the overseas employment system is also rife with corruption. According to Baldoz, last year the POEA received 2,000 recruitment violation cases for such infractions as overcharging, sneaking workers out with faked visas, and sending them to jobs that never materialized. Even licensed recruiters perpetrate a scam known as contract substitution - whereby a government-sanctioned agreement is later replaced by an unapproved one detailing a lower-paying job. Often a new contract, written in a foreign language, is forced on the employee once she's in hock for her fees and far away from home.

Employment brokers argue that the government's working-conditions requirements make competing for job placements impossible. Overseas employers, they say, can hire workers from places like Vietnam or Malaysia for less money and less hassle. But other government critics say the regulations are already too weak. "Licenses are issued to agencies without much background checking," says Jean Enriquez, deputy director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women's Asia Pacific office, "and when they are revoked, the POEA reissues them to the same people under a different name."

Straddling the divide between "competitive pricing" and humane treatment, the government insists that it is cracking down on wrongdoers. "I just had in here a group of people to whom I read the riot act," says labor secretary Patricia Santo Tomas, who is imposing new rules that limit placement fees to one month's salary and triple the amount in escrow required to become a registered recruiter. "I want to be sure that, if anything goes wrong, there's money I can garnish so I can repatriate the person and pay back his salary."

Nevertheless, at the employment agency's headquarters, a semicircular, six-story building, a sign reads BEWARE OF FIXERS. This is the most energized spot in Metro Manila - not a disco, not a cockfight, but offices where aspiring OFWs fill out forms. Here, tales of ill-fated experiences abound. "She looked like a little girl," recalls Leah Carissa A. Yogyog, a media specialist with the workers welfare office. She's referring to a 22-year-old from Cagayan de Oro who was found by immigration bureaucrats at Ninoy Aquino Airport bruised, bleeding, and burned. She'd been a domestic helper in Singapore for six months, for which she was paid a total of $20, allowed to eat once a day, and beaten by her employer - who eventually got her a ticket home. "I once saw a woman whose ear was burned," Yogyog continues, "and one who'd been doused with hot water."

Of all the exploitation bred by the global labor trade, the most heinous is the abuse of women trapped in prostitution. Typically, victims come from the Philippine provinces. They are promised jobs by relatives or friends who represent a recruiter. They're told, for instance, they will get positions as cashiers or nightclub entertainers in Japan or Korea. Instead they might wind up in Malaysia or Nigeria, working the streets for a fraction of the wage they were promised.


Lantaca works for four more weeks in Dubai when he is once again called into the head office. This time he's told he will be sent back to the Philippines - that the company doesn't have enough work for him and that he isn't a good enough worker anyway. Two other Filipinos are told the same thing.

For the entire six weeks, Lantaca is paid $700. Of that, $420 goes to the recruiting agency to cover his fees and $280 is taken by his employer in exchange for food, transportation, and housing. Before he leaves Dubai, a friend gives him $135 to buy gifts for his family; he thinks about buying chocolates but figures his wife will be happier with the cash. In Manila, she pays for his taxi from the airport.

But Lantaca's story doesn't stop there. Right away, he's planning to set off again, to temp for a salary he can mostly send home. First, however, he returns to his government-licensed recruiter, seeking redress for his failed Dubai venture. After a few delays, he gets it. The recruiter will repay Lantaca $800 of his remaining $900 in placement fees, retaining $100 for paperwork.

So now he occupies himself around his two-story cement home, fixing some cabinets, spending time with the kids, plotting his future: Where to? Kuwait? Sudan? Saudi Arabia?

/\ This is a great read! Thanks for sharing it with us, although seeking employment abroad comes with a price, usually to the families left behind, it does have its own advantages. :)

- and to the one (i'm sorry I've forgotten your name but i'm sure we've talked before) who mentioned the sad story of that filipina who was badmouthing the philippines to that tourist? Thanks for sharing that. We need to be aware that these things really happen. And we need to stop them. Ironic because we're supposed to have hiya! Well that filipina was walang hiya. Dumb bitch. I'm glad your father stepped in on the conversation and saved the Philippines from her false words. When I was reading the first part of the story, I actually started hoping someone interrupted that woman. Say thank you to your father for me. :)


Hi ThisFire! That was me (ramvingar). You're very welcome. Thanks for your post too! :)

Migration contributes to inequality in RP--study

by JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO
OFW Journalism Consortium



FIGURES from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas show that remittances from January to July this year have increased by US$847.55 million over the same period last year.

For the said period, BSP figures revealed that US$4.263 billion in foreign remittances came to the formal banking system as compared to US$3.416 billion last year. On this basis, the BSP is forecasting that an all-time high of eight billion dollars in remittances will be achieved by the year's end, as reported last October 26 in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

However, while remittances have largely helped keep the Philippine economy afloat, a recent paper by a migration research expert from De La Salle University raises some alarming findings related to migration, poverty and inequality.
Migration's benefits don't go down to the poor?

In a faculty experts' media forum organized by DLSU's Marketing Communication Office (MCO) last November 7 in Makati City, Behavioral Science professor Stella Go said the economic benefits of international labor migration "have not trickled down to the poor and less developed regions in the country."

Go's preliminary analysis was contained in a paper titled "Migration, Poverty, and Inequality: The Case of the Philippines," which she presented at a conference organized by the Asia-Pacific Migration Research Network (APMRN) last September 24 to 26 on the Pacific island of Fiji.

She based her findings from the Family Income and Expenditures Surveys (FIES), the Surveys on Overseas Filipinos (SOF), conducted annually by the National Statistics Office (NSO), the official government statistics on remittances and migrant outflows from the Bangko Sentral and the migration-related agencies, and poverty statistics from the National Statistical Coordinating Board (NSCB).

Go, who is also president of the Philippine Migration Research Network (PMRN), said that the poorer segment of Philippine society "have been largely excluded from the opportunities provided by migration."

She based this on her finding that OFWs come from regions with the lowest poverty incidence, and these regions have the most number of migrant outflows such as the National Capital Region, Central Luzon, and Southern Tagalog.

In sharp contrast, Go added, the regions in Mindanao, which have high levels of poverty incidence, have the lowest proportion of OFWs. These include the conflict-ridden Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (the poorest region where the smallest proportion of migrant workers come from), Central Mindanao (region 12), Southern Mindanao (region 11), Northern Mindanao (region 10), and Western Mindanao (region 9).
Poverty incidence versus number of OFWs per region

The National Capital Region, according to the 1997 FIES, has 6.4 percent of its residents at or below the poverty threshold, and contributes 19.1 percent of the country's total OFWs.

The provinces of Luzon, whose six regions-excluding the NCR--have a 30.1 percent poverty incidence rate, contribute 53.2 percent of the country's total overseas workers. Migrant workers from Mindanao, the country's poorest geographical area with a 44.6 percent poverty incidence rate, however, only account for 12.3 percent of the country's total OFWs. Visayas, with a 38.2 percent poverty incidence rate, accounts for 15.4 percent of the total number of OFWs.

Southern Tagalog, with a 25.7 percent poverty incidence rate, ranks second nationwide in terms of OFWs' regional origins with 18.9 percent. OFWs from Ilocos, which has a 37.8 percent poverty incidence despite having a long history of labor migration to the US, comprise 12.6 percent of the national total.

OFWs from Central Luzon, with a 15.4 percent poverty incidence, account for 12 percent of the national total. ARMM, though it has the highest poverty incidence rate of 57.3 percent in the 1997 FIES, only accounts for 1.9 percent the country's total OFWs.

From the 1997 FIES, the Philippines has a 31.8 percent national poverty incidence, although 2001 figures from the NSCB show that the figure rose to 40 percent. Go did not include the 2001 poverty incidence figures in her paper.

Go notes in her paper that studies on migration and poverty and inequality are insufficient, with their common assumption "that poverty must have pushed the migrants out of their place or origin to search for better economic opportunities elsewhere."
Impacts on OFW, family, community vary accordingly

On how migration affects the OFW, his or her family, and community or region of origin, Go said the economic returns to labor migration vary across skills and country destinations "because foreign wages and placement costs also vary accordingly."

"On the whole, wages increase with skill level, with professionals receiving higher wages than domestic helpers; however, wages vary significantly within each skill category according to the country of destination."

"For instance, domestic helpers in Europe receive higher wages than those in the Middle East, while Hong Kong pays higher than Singapore and Malaysia. Computer programmers are paid five times more in the US than in Saudi Arabia while accountants in Singapore are paid three times more than those in American Samoa," Go wrote.

In her paper, Go, citing 1998 figures from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), showed that accountants in Singapore earn $1,650 as compared to $551 for OFW accountants in American Samoa. Nurses in the United Kingdom, now a prominent work destination, earn $1,984 as compared to the $406 for nurses working in Saudi Arabia.

For domestic workers, those in France earn $900, $600 in the UK, $476 in Hong Kong, $202 in Malaysia, and $200 in Saudi Arabia, a country where a recent labor arrangement between the country's Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Kingdom's Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs was made--affecting unskilled workers, with domestic workers included.

BSP deputy governor Amando Tetangco, quoting an Inquirer report, said the prospects of the rise of remittances are bright "with the expanded hiring of the United Kingdom in the medical field." Recent reports showed that local doctors or dentists undergo nursing training to qualify them for work in the UK as nurses.

On an annual basis, accountants who work abroad can earn P281,843 a year, compared to local accountants who earn P145,584. For domestic workers, OFWs earn P98,719 annually as compared to the P24,000 of the local domestic workers for an annual wage differential of P74,719.
Urban families benefit more from migration than rural families

A significant proportion of Filipino families has relied on remittances or "income from abroad" as the main source of income, Go noted. Citing the 1997 FIES, Go said that a total of 881,263 Filipino families, or 6.2 percent of the total number of families, derived their main source of income from remittances.

But the bigger part of that number who benefits from remittances comes from urban families. In the 1988, 1991, 1994 and 1997 FIES, urban families who cite income from abroad as their main source of income outnumber the rural families.

These include NCR and Central Luzon, Go said, with the exception of Ilocos, which has a long history of international labor migration to the US. Despite the region's high poverty incidence, which is pegged at 37.8 per cent, Go said FIES figures show that Ilocos "has reported the highest proportion of families relying on remittances as its main source of income." The region accounts for 12.6 percent of the country's total number of OFWs.

"The percentages of families at the lower end of the income groups receiving income from abroad tend to be higher in the urban areas than in the rural areas," Go said.

She added that families from the higher income groups "also receive larger proportions of income from abroad than the lower income groups." In marked contrast, Go added, the lower income groups derive the largest part of their income from domestic resources."
'The most disquieting aspect of international labor migration'

For this set of data, Go concluded that the "poorer segment of Philippine society has been largely excluded from the opportunities provided by migration."

"International migration," Go added, "appears to have contributed instead to the long existing problem of inequality in Philippine society. If this is so, it is perhaps the most disquieting aspect of international labor migration from the Philippines today."

Although Go said much research should to be done on migration and poverty and inequality to understand their links to each other. Migration "may fuel a simmering social volcano instead of douse it" in a country that is "fraught with social problems and economic difficulties."

For this purpose, the PMRN president said that serious attention must to be given to "channeling remittances into more productive investments to fuel economic development."

"The challenge is to manage the economic gains from international migration so that these can be more equitably shared by a much large number and cross-section of Philippine society."

Since 1999, the Philippines has received over US$6 billion in remittances--with all those passing through formal channels such as banks. Last year, the figure was US$6.235 billion--with US$5.124 billion from land-based OFWs and US$1.093 from the sea-based (the latter figure being the highest for the sector thus far).

BSP's remittance records showed that OFW remittances reached a high of US$7.367 billion in 1998. This figure is despite the perils brought by the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

Showing the macro-benefits of migration, from the period 1990 to 1999, Go said that remittances contributed an average of 20.3 percent to the country's export earnings and 5.2 percent of gross national product (GNP).

It should be noted that remittances are made directly to OFW families and beneficiaries, and as such, the national government does not receive any portion of OFW remittances.

OFW Journalism Consortium


Table 1: Remittance figures (from Go, 2002; Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas)
January to July
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2001
Total (in US$ million) 5,741,835 7,367,989 6,794,550 6,050,450 6,031,271 4,263,594 3,416,044
Land-based (in US$ million) 5,484,223 7,093,440 5,948,341 5,123,773 4,937,922 3,560,995 2,804,910
Sea-based (in US$ million) 257,612 274,549 846,209 926,677 1,093,349 702,599 611,134
Remittances as % of Export Earnings 1 22.8 percent 16.7 percent 19.4 percent Not available Not available
Remittances as % of Gross National Product (GNP) 2 6.6 percent 7.1 percent 8.7 percent Not available Not available

Remittances/OFW (US$)Total $7,679.4 $8,859.6 $8,117.5 $7,189.0 $7,194.7
Land-based $9,806.8 $11,112.3 $9,289.5 $7,964.8 $7,770.9
Sea-based $1,366.9 $1,420.3 $4,302.3 $4,672.5 $5,334.5
1 - From 1990 to 1999, the percentage of remittances to export earnings is 20.3 percent
2 - From 1990 to 1999, the percentage of remittances to GNP is 5.2 percent


Table 2: 1997 Distribution of OFWs and Poverty Incidence of Families by Region (Go, 2002)
Island Group / Region % Distribution of OFWs Rank Poverty Incidence of Families (%) Rank
Philippines 100.00 31.8
National Capital Region 19.1 1 6.4 15
Luzon 53.2 30.1
* Cordillera Autonomous Region 2.0 12 42.5 5
* Region 1: Ilocos 12.6 3 37.8 10
* Region 2: Cagayan Valley 5.0 6 32.1 12
* Region 3: Central Luzon 12.0 4 15.4 14
* Region 4: Southern Tagalog 18.9 2 25.7 13
* Region 5: Bicol 2.7 9 50.1 2
Visayas 15.4 38.2
* Region 6: Western Visayas 9.4 5 39.9 8
* Region 7: Central Visayas 4.2 7 34.4 11
* Region 8: Eastern Visayas 1.8 14 40.8 6
Mindanao 12.3 44.6
* Region 9: Western Mindanao 3.0 8 40.1 7
* Region 10: Northern Mindanao 1.3 15 47.0 4
* Region 11: Southern Mindanao 2.6 10 38.2 9
* Region 12: Central Mindanao 2.4 11 50.0 3
* Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao 1.9 13 57.3 1

I am sure most of us have heard of this witty girl, Patricia Evangelista and her winning speech about Filipino Diaspora last year.

Video of her winning speech.
http://www.globalpinoy.com/gpfeature/GPfeature-Jul04.php

BLOND AND BLUE EYES

When I was little, I wanted what many Filipino children all over the country wanted. I wanted to be blond, blue-eyed, and white.

I thought -- if I just wished hard enough and was good enough, I'd wake up on Christmas morning with snow outside my window and freckles across my nose!

More than four centuries under western domination does that to you. I have sixteen cousins. In a couple of years, there will just be five of us justify in the Philippines, the rest will have gone abroad in search of "greener pastures." It's not just an anomaly; it's a trend; the Filipino diaspora. Today, about eight million Filipinos are scattered around the world.

There are those who disapprove of Filipinos who choose to leave. I used to. Maybe this is a natural reaction of someone who was justify behind, smiling for family pictures that get emptier with each succeeding year. Desertion, I called it. My country is a land that has perpetually fought for the freedom to be itself. Our heroes offered their lives in the struggle against the Spanish, the Japanese, the Americans. To pack up and deny that identity is tantamount to spitting on that sacrifice.

Or is it? I don't think so, not anymore. True, there is no denying this phenomenon, aided by the fact that what was once the other side of the world is now a twelve-hour plane ride away. But this is a borderless world, where no individual can claim to be purely from where he is now. My mother is of Chinese descent, my father is a quarter Spanish, and I call myself a pure Filipino-a hybrid of sorts resulting from a combination of cultures.

Each square mile anywhere in the world is made up of people of different ethnicities, with national identities and individual personalities. Because of this, each square mile is already a microcosm of the world. In as much as this blessed spot that is England is the world, so is my neighborhood back home.

Seen this way, the Filipino Diaspora, or any sort of dispersal of populations, is not as ominous as so many claim. It must be understood. I come from a Third World country, one that is still trying mightily to get back on its feet after many years of dictatorship. But we shall make it, given more time. Especially now, when we have thousands of eager young minds who graduate from college every year. They have skills. They need jobs. We cannot absorb them all.

A borderless world presents a bigger opportunity, yet one that is not so much abandonment but an extension of identity. Even as we take, we give back. We are the 40,000 skilled nurses who support the UK's National Health Service. We are the quarter-of-a-million seafarers manning most of the world's commercial ships. We are your software engineers in Ireland, your construction workers in the Middle East, your doctors and caregivers in North America, and, your musical artists in London's West End.

Nationalism isn't bound by time or place. People from other nations migrate to create new nations, yet still remain essentially who they are. British society is itself an example of a multi-cultural nation, a melting pot of races, religions, arts and cultures. We are, indeed, in a borderless world!

Leaving sometimes isn't a matter of choice. It's coming back that is. The Hobbits of the shire traveled all over Middle-Earth, but they chose to come home, richer in every sense of the word. We call people like these balikbayans or the 'returnees' -- those who followed their dream, yet choose to return and share their mature talents and good fortune.

In a few years, I may take advantage of whatever opportunities come my way. But I will come home. A borderless world doesn't preclude the idea of a home. I'm a Filipino, and I'll always be one. It isn't about just geography; it isn't about boundaries. It's about giving back to the country that shaped me.

And that's going to be more important to me than seeing snow outside my windows on a bright Christmas morning.

Mabuhay and Thank you.

Nursing Shortage Gets Fill With Overseas Talent

BALTIMORE -- Local hospitals are searching in foreign countries for nurses to fill slots they need.

WBAL-TV 11 News I-Team reporter Deborah Weiner said Filipino nurses are filling Maryland's major hospitals to plug the hole left by the nagging nursing shortage. It is a critical labor development that at least 3 major Baltimore hospitals did not want to talk about.

Ivy Pacis is one of 64 Filipino nurses working at Hopkins' Bayview medical center. A public health nurse in Manila, she brought her family here last year. After taking 4 qualifying exams, Hopkins paid for her visa, put the family up in an apartment complex and generally helped them get settled.

In exchange, Ivy agreed to work for Hopkins for two years. The cost to bring ivy to Baltimore: ten times her salary back in Manila.

Ivy Pacis, nurse: "I was paid $1,000 a year. A thousand a year (in Manila), compared to (Baltimore), its nothing."

Many Filipino nurses send home a large portion of their paycheck to benefit their families and the struggling Philippine economy.

Weiner: "Why the Philippines in the first place? Well, nurses there are literally educated for export. Using American textbooks and bringing them here has helped make a difference in Maryland hospitals. The vacancy rate, which once peaked at more than 15 percent, has just hit a 5-year low to 9 percent."

The Maryland's Nurses Association, led by Kathryn Hall, welcomes the help.

Pacis: "The nurturing nature of Filipinos is basically a big factor why we are valued here."

The hospitals argue that more nurses means better care. But Dr. Art Kaplan, who runs the medical ethics department at the University of Pennsylvania, has concerns about foreign nurses in general.

Dr. Art Kaplan: "One of the biggest reasons for malpractice suits is people feel they weren't communicated with properly. When you have language barriers its just adds on to further problems."

WBAL-TV 11 News raised this issue with a group of Filipino nurses who are helping recruit even more health care workers to Maryland hospitals.

Vicki Navarro, Filipino Nurses Association: "We still have an accent, but we understand and we have also learned to clarify and verify, 'Is that what you're saying?' And those are the cues we give to the new nurses."

Weiner said one of the qualifying exams is written and spoken English.

What do American nursing students think of this trend? WBAL-TV talked to a group at the University of Maryland School of Nursing.

Weiner: "Did you initially wonder about their credentials?

Ingrid Halvorson, nursing student: "Yes, I did and I was shocked to hear some of them are actually physicians in their own country."

Why not train more nurses locally? Because many schools like Maryland don't have enough teachers.

Havorson: "There's a shortage of faculty now, so you can't get as many kids into schools. So American nurses are not going to meet the demand, so why not?"

Critics argue it's an expensive way to fix the problem and may not be a long-term solution.

Kaplan: "They are spending a lot of money and it absolutely comes from your pocket, my pocket, everybody else's pocket."

Katherine Hall: "It is money they would have spent in another way, but in this way, they are paying a highly qualified nurse that is going to stay for a while."

At Hopkins Bayview, none of the Filipino nurses hired over the past five years has returned to their home country. And more are on the way to hospitals all over the state.

'Respect maids or do without!'
By Eunice del Rosario

New moves are underway to protect Filipina housemaids, following talks between embassy officials and recruiters. Treat them properly, or don't hire them, is the message going out to Bahraini recruiters from the Philippines Embassy. Officials from its labour office met with Bahrain Recruiters Society (BRS) officials for five hours on Saturday.

Philippine authorities are also studying the situation here and may even consider banning Filipinas from working here as housemaids, if abuse persists. The talks in Bahrain centred around finding ways to ensure that employers stick to the standard contract for domestic staff.

"It is the same contract, but we are highlighting some of the issues and finding ways to tighten it," said labour attaché Alejandro Santos. "If the agencies and employers don't like to follow the rules then they shouldn't hire our workers. It's as simple as that. "It is about time we took this step. Our workers must be protected."

Banning the deployment of housemaids to Bahrain would be the worst-case scenario, but nevertheless it is possible, said officials. The Philippines banned housemaids from working in Saudi Arabia in the 1980s, which resulted in employers also putting a stop to the hiring of skilled Filipino workers. "The same thing might happen here, companies might stop hiring Filipino skilled workers," said Mr Santos. "But this study is still being carried out and we will see what happens."

The meeting was attended by a handful of BRS members, headed by chairman Ali Al Sho'ala. They agreed with certain criteria in the contracts, such as that maids should be regularly paid. However, the society complained that the minimum salary set by the Philippines Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) was too high. It was set at $300 (BD113) following a study conducted by the Philippine Department of Labour and Employment and the POEA.

"The society said that this was too much, considering that the minimum wage set by the POEA for the other GCC countries was $200 (about BD76)," said Mr Santos. "We know that there are housemaids in Bahrain that earn as little as BD50, which honestly they can earn in the Philippines working for families there."

The POEA is insisting on the $300 minimum, after telling the embassy that it should accept a reduction to $200 (BD75.6) "to be able to compete with other nationalities willing to accept much lower wages". "Our position in this matter remains the same," it said in a statement sent to the embassy.

The embassy urged the BRS to write the POEA directly if it wants to negotiate a lower minimum wage. The embassy also stressed to the BRS the fact that the Bahrain labour law of 1976 does not cover domestic helpers. "This means that they have no benefits, such as medical insurance," said Mr Santos.

"However, the BRS said that if an employer fails to pay the monthly wage of the worker, then he or she could stop working. "I haven't heard of that before but I think it is good news." It was also agreed in the meeting that housemaids must not be shared.

"We know of families who share one housemaid, transferring her from one house to the next," said Mr Santos. "This must stop. Housemaids must also be provided with at least two hours rest during the day and eight hours of sleep, this is in the contract.

"This means that there is a 14-hour work day for the housemaid. This is more than what a skilled worker does in one day!"

Other issues discussed included the following: the provision of dental and medical care to all housemaids, putting a stop to salary deduction and maltreatment and giving the workers the freedom to communicate with their agencies, embassy and relatives in the Philippines.

"It is also noted in the contract that when the employer violates any of the terms and conditions, such as failing to pay or deprive the worker of food and when the employer or any of his family members maltreats, beats, assaults, uses violence against the worker or sexually molests the worker, the employer or any member of his or her family will be charged in court," said Mr Santos.

Several more meetings are to be held in the future between the embassy and the BRS.

Number of Registered Philippine Citizens in Europe:

Italy 114,215
UK 102,000
Greece 65,000
Spain 40,000
France 37,131
Germany 27,929
Netherlands 14,500
Belgium 12,933
Switzerland 12,284
Ireland 8,000
Norway 6,519
Sweden 6,133
Denmark 4,500
Austria 3,900
Vatican 3,700
Portugal 3,200
Monaco 2,500
Luxembourg 1,400

Number of Registered Philippine Citizens in Asia Pacific:

Malaysia 390,679
Japan 256,000
Australia 220,595
Singapore 170,000
Hong Kong 154,762
Taiwan 110,000
South Korea 47,456
New Zealand 15,000
Indonesia 11,900
Thailand 9,931
Papua New Guinea 8,000
Palau 5,600
Macau 4,500
China 2,400
Cambodia 1,500

Number of Registered Philippine Citizens in Europe:

Italy 114,215
UK 102,000
Greece 65,000
Spain 40,000
France 37,131
Germany 27,929
Netherlands 14,500
Belgium 12,933
Switzerland 12,284
Ireland 8,000
Norway 6,519
Sweden 6,133
Denmark 4,500
Austria 3,900
Vatican 3,700
Portugal 3,200
Monaco 2,500
Luxembourg 1,400

That's a huge presence for such a small state. :colgate:

@Thunderflip,

What is the source of these figures?

Get the figures and double it. hehe.

surely understated. They're probably people who registered as an official ofw with the embassy. Some stats will be more reflective than others, specially countries with very strict guidelines on registration , for most other places, haha.

Re the bahraini contract thing, the problem there or anywhere is that there will always be a desparate girl from bicol, samar, surigao etc who is willing to do anything at all cost to earn for her family. This sense of responsiblity which is the source of our greatest strenght as a people IMO is also their source of their individual folly as they take anything even if could kill them!

Actually don't you find it funny and intriguing that people find it better to go to italy and greece than spain, where we have greater ties and we can easily migrate to ...legally (don't know if many people know this but one of our last privilidges as a former colony is that we are first priority in migrating, yes, you can easily move to majorca no problem... I want to move it move, I want to shake it shake it...)

Anyway just found it intriguing. I guess Italy is much richer country so the pay is more in euros, though it's not as cheap as when i went there, maybe they want to be close to papa ratzi . Greece is also funnyit's definitely not richer than spain , so why would there be so many people going there, they don't even speak english or spanish (kahit hirap naiintindiahan just substitute filipino words like inay .( hehe) or more accurately papa - although dito medyou sugar daddy yata meaning niyan). they don't even use latin script! Unless these are the seamen, but that doesn't really make sense as they're registration procedure is different and they're not in greece but at sea!

Greece??!! & Scandinavian countries??!! parang madami yata maciado... :)

Actually don't you find it funny and intriguing that people find it better to go to italy and greece than spain, where we have greater ties and we can easily migrate to ...legally

Siguro dahil mas maraming trabaho doon (usually as "Filipineskas"). Sigh. :(

@Thunderflip,

What is the source of these figures?

I got it from the GMA OFW Factbook of 2003

Siguro dahil mas maraming trabaho doon (usually as "Filipineskas"). Sigh. :(


Yes, that's why. More jobs available (it's not just Filipinos who go to work abroad) that need people to fill up, and most likely links are already established like friends are there and helped with arrangements, etc. By the way, someone mentioned about Italy. The money is greater now that they changed to euros, but the problem with some countries who changed to euros is that their original currency was not as high as the euro so that means things have turned expensive for its citizens as well as affecting tourism by less people visiting because of the expensive euro. Italy, Spain and Greece are some who are facing this.

If you add the non registered citizens, illegal residents and Filipinos who have aquired the citizenships of their adopted countries, these facts woulud actually be much higher. So, in Italy there are actually 200,000 Filipinos and 60,000 in Germany and much higher in other countries as well.

And I think Italy and Greece already had higher Filipino populations even before the euro came. In both countries, I've met people who been living there for mopre than 20 - 30 years of their lives.

Other Filipino Population Figures in Europe...

Turkey 1,900
Finland 700
Kazakhstan 520
Andorra 500
Iceland 500
Poland 90
Hungary 60
Czech Republic 40

Number of Registered Philippine Citizens in the Middle East and Africa

Saudi Arabia 940,900
UAE 195,000
Kuwait 60,030
Israel 52,500
Qatar 37,000
Bahrain 30,000
Lebanon 26,200
Jordan 19,000
Oman 19,000
Libya 7,020
Nigeria 5,000
Egypt 4,300
Syria 2,600
South Africa 1,800
Yemen 500

Other Filipino Population Figures in Europe...

Turkey 1,900
Finland 700
Kazakhstan 520
Andorra 500
Iceland 500
Poland 90
Hungary 60
Czech Republic 40

Number of Registered Philippine Citizens in the Middle East and Africa

Saudi Arabia 940,900
UAE 195,000
Kuwait 60,030
Israel 52,500
Qatar 37,000
Bahrain 30,000
Lebanon 26,200
Jordan 19,000
Oman 19,000
Libya 7,020
Nigeria 5,000
Egypt 4,300
Syria 2,600
South Africa 1,800
Yemen 500

Who would've thought that there'd be Pinoys even in far flung Iceland! Saudi Arabia's Pinoy population is nearing the one million mark, that's amazing to me! :colgate:

Thunderflip, do you have the figures for the Caribbean, Central and South America too? :)

Thunderflip, do you have the figures for the Caribbean, Central and South America too? :)

Of course!

But first, here are some other countries that I missed...

Cyprus 5,000
Chad 1,700
Iran 800
Algeria 659
Angola 550
Lesotho 420
Botswana 325
Mozambique 270
Kenya 255
Zambia 210
Ghana 180
Namibia 180
Russia 140
Uganda 90
Malta 75
Zimbabwe 70
Tunisia 65
Gabon 50

Number of Registered Philippine Citizens in the Americas

USA 2,500,400
Canada 380,200
Guam 45,600
Northern Marianas 16,400
Micronesia 1,500
Marshall Islands 350
Mexico 300
Honduras 225
Brazil 220
Guatemala 200
Costa Rica 130
Puetro Rico 120
Haiti 120
Venezuela 100
Argentina 80
Chile 80
Colombia 80
Peru 80
Ecuador 65
Uruguay 65
El Salvador 60
Aruba 60
Jamaica 60
Panama 60
Dominican Republic 40
Cuba 40
Bolivia 40
Belize 40

Number of Registered Philippine Citizens in the Americas

USA 2,500,400
Canada 380,200
Guam 45,600
Northern Marianas 16,400
Micronesia 1,500
Marshall Islands 350
Mexico 300
Honduras 225
Brazil 220
Guatemala 200
Costa Rica 130
Puetro Rico 120
Haiti 120
Venezuela 100
Argentina 80
Chile 80
Colombia 80
Peru 80
Ecuador 65
Uruguay 65
El Salvador 60
Aruba 60
Jamaica 60
Panama 60
Dominican Republic 40
Cuba 40
Bolivia 40
Belize 40

Haiti's numbers will rise with the deployment of 200 Philippine troops to that island nation. :)

Who would've thought that there'd be Pinoys even in far flung Iceland! Saudi Arabia's Pinoy population is nearing the one million mark, that amazing to me! :colgate:

Thunderflip, do you have the figures for the Caribbean, Central and South America too? :)

I'm more surprised with Kazakhstan and Andorra. What about Uzbekhistan, Siberia and other farflung areas? Filipinos are the modern nomads.

Saturday, July 30, 2005


FROM THE SIDELINES
By Alfredo G. Rosario
Coping with the rising demand
for Filipino workers



The country’s overseas employment program was launched in 1974 as a stopgap measure to ease a worsening unemployment rate. We didn’t realize that this will culminate in a labor explosion involving the deployment of some eight million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), or one-tenth of our population, in over 150 countries worldwide.

The program, initiated by the visionary labor secretary, Blas F. Ople, overturned the government’s “no brain drain” policy. It is paying off today in terms of the OFWs’ dollar remittances of $8 billion annually, which have underpinned the nation’s economy over the years, especially during times of financial crisis.

The deployment of our workers was initially sluggish. We were competing for labor contracts in the Middle East, principally with South Korea and Taiwan. But with the rise of their economies, South Korea and Taiwan left the field to our workers and those of some other developing countries, such as Indonesia, India and Bangladesh.

South Korea and Taiwan, now suffering from labor shortages, are employing Filipino workers to man their booming factories. They have become top destination points for OFWs in Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.

Labor-short countries, mostly in the Middle East, have been experiencing acute manpower problems in their industries, infrastructure development and health-care programs. This has given rise to massive recruitment campaigns for Filipino skilled and professional workers.

Saudi Arabia, for instance, has an immediate standing need this year for 5,000 nurses to address alone the Kingdom’s demand for health services and new hospitals. This is apart from the regular annual hiring of nurses by Saudi’s Hospital Operations Program.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, with which Fahad Al-Msalbeeh, employment attaché of the Saudi Royal Embassy, has made the hiring arrangements, is busy sourcing for nurses to be able to cope with the demand.

It has embarked on “strategic means” in looking for potential applicants. One of its strategies is to go on a “caravan registration” or on a swing of target locations, especially in the Visayas and Mindanao, using POEA composite teams.

The high demand for Filipino nurses by developed economies such as the United States, Canada, Australia and European nations has led to the chronic depletion of supply. Some hospitals have been witnessing crippled operations with their nursing personnel leaving for “greener pastures” abroad.

To attract applicants, the Saudi Ministry of Health has increased the salary offer for experienced nurses. It has offered the floor rate of SR2,250, or nearly $700, for those without experience. Fresh nursing graduates are also welcome to the hiring program.

Adding to the demand pressure is the US need also for nurses. United States President George W. Bush recently signed a law, making available some 50,000 employment-based visas for foreign nurses. These visas, unused from 2001 to 2004, were recalled by the US government to address the worsening labor shortage in its health-care program.

Japan will soon be competing for Filipino nurses to work in its hospitals. It is currently negotiating a direct-hiring program for health-care workers with the POEA. Late this year or early next year, the recruitment of nurses for Japan is expected to start.

The demand for Filipino-skilled workers is also rising in Singapore. In the next five years, the tiny city-state, which has become an economic powerhouse, will be in need of an estimated 53,000 workers, besides the 80,000 Filipino domestic helpers already there. About 60 percent will be recruited from the Philippines.

Last week, the heads of 35 leading employment agencies in Singapore came to Manila to discuss hiring procedures with a view to stopping illegal deployment. Many of the Filipino workers in Singapore were not processed by the POEA. They went to that country as tourists.

The delegation, led by Ang*land Seah, met with leaders of the local recruitment industry to discuss ways of streamlining the hiring system for Filipino workers. It proposed a new standard contract for Filipino maids. According to Seah, the economic environment of Singapore has become conducive to the entry of more foreign workers to work in two large casinos and industrial companies.

Seah and members of his delegation sought from the POEA the scuttling of the $5,000-performance bond imposed on their placement agencies as a requirement for prequa*li*fi*cation. The POEA, however, maintained that the bond is required to leverage cooperation from Singaporean agencies in the faithful implementation of work contracts.

Other countries that have served notice about their need for Filipino workers are Australia and Qatar. The labor shortage in Australia is felt acutely in its Northern Territory, particularly Darwin.

On the other hand, Qatar has embarked on one of the most ambitious development programs in the world today that can generate thousands of jobs for foreign workers. The program encompasses its oil and gas sector, infrastructure, non-oil and gas-related industry, education, health, tourism and even its cultural life.

OMG even in the remotest island in Indian Ocean there is still pinoys in Diego Garcia up to the poorest nation in Africa. Antarctica na lang yata and hindi pa napupuntahan ng pinoy.

Of course!

But first, here are some other countries that I missed...

Cyprus 5,000
Chad 1,700
Iran 800
Algeria 659
Angola 550
Lesotho 420
Botswana 325
Mozambique 270
Kenya 255
Zambia 210
Ghana 180
Namibia 180
Russia 140
Uganda 90
Malta 75
Zimbabwe 70
Tunisia 65
Gabon 50

Number of Registered Philippine Citizens in the Americas

USA 2,500,400
Canada 380,200
Guam 45,600
Northern Marianas 16,400
Micronesia 1,500
Marshall Islands 350
Mexico 300
Honduras 225
Brazil 220
Guatemala 200
Costa Rica 130
Puetro Rico 120
Haiti 120
Venezuela 100
Argentina 80
Chile 80
Colombia 80
Peru 80
Ecuador 65
Uruguay 65
El Salvador 60
Aruba 60
Jamaica 60
Panama 60
Dominican Republic 40
Cuba 40
Bolivia 40
Belize 40

if there are so few pinoys in south america, why do we have to maintain an embassy both in chile & argentina? & there only 300 in mexico???

It was mentioned in Nurses Weekly that nurses from the Philippines are more trained clinically than administrative (desk nurse) compared to their counterparts in the US and elsewhere. This mean a graduate of a nursing school in the Philipines can deliver a baby and clean up patients after surgery among other things. Also it mentioned on the article that children of these nurses are getting into nursing as well to continue the tradition.

According to World Health Organization, there are over 780,000 nurses of Philippine descent deployed overseas in as many as 116 countries and the trend continues so these numbers are already outdated.

if there are so few pinoys in south america, why do we have to maintain an embassy both in chile & argentina? & there only 300 in mexico???
Embassy's do more than monitor ofw's.

News just in today, 50 teachers from the Philippines arrived here in Las Vegas to fill in the shortage of about 500 teachers in the Las Vegas School Districts 2005-06 academic year. Las Vegas School District is one of the biggest and busiest in the United States.

It was mentioned in Nurses Weekly that nurses from the Philippines are more trained clinically than administrative (desk nurse) compared to their counterparts in the US and elsewhere. This mean a graduate of a nursing school in the Philipines can deliver a baby and clean up patients after surgery among other things. Also it mentioned on the article that children of these nurses are getting into nursing as well to continue the tradition.

According to World Health Organization, there are over 780,000 nurses of Philippine descent deployed overseas in as many as 116 countries and the trend continues so these numbers are already outdated.

Yes it's true, nurses from the Philippines are more advanced and skilled than nurses from the west. Philippines gets hands on experience and real training, while in america and Canada, it's more of theory.

Oh well to each his own. What important eh kalimutan nayang yabangan inggitan at magkaisa pinoy para umunlad at wala nang kailangang umalis pa ng pinas para lang sa kinabukasan ng kanilang anak. Let's just try to make Phils . a better place for the children. You have to admit there is a semblance of truth to some of the neg. things some pinoys say trash, pollution, traffic, crime it's just after you criticize hope you make it constructive criticism and contribute how you can make it a better place next time. Unfortunately sad and no thanks to our politicians who don't seem to care about their surroundings as long as they stay in their gated mansion enclaves . I think they're reying too much on OFW"S remittances. Imagine Without these OFW"s inflows of funds the economy would not grow at all , it would be stagnant. So what does that mean about the govt? and I'm not just talking about the current govt. past and present they all sucked. Why is it that only Pinoy politicians have the most mansions ,starting fr the top Erap, compared with their counterparts from around the world with richer countries.

Embassy's do more than monitor ofw's.


i know, but why didnt they put up in Brazil & Mexico instead, as these 2 are the most significant SA countries than say Santiago or Buenos Aires???

New IMF method boosts OFW remittances in 2004 by $3B to $11.6B
By Ted P. Torres
The Philippine Star 08/07/2005

Dollar remitttances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) reached a higher figure of $11.6 billion, instead of the earlier recorded $8.6 billion, in 2004, based on a new method of computation introduced by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The lower figure last year was due to the non-inclusion by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) of remittances that were coursed through the informal sector such as the padala and the door-to-door system, a monetary official explained.

Vicente Valdepenas, a member of the policy-making Monetary Board of the BSP, said that estimates of remittances not moving through the banking system is equivalent to 20 percent of total reported remittances, or in the vicinity of $3 billion last year.

"Following the fifth edition of the IMF Balance of Payments (BOP) manual, the BSP’s new computation shows total remittances reached $3.1 billion higher than that which was earlier reported in line with the international standard of recording OFW remittances set in the IMF manual," a report by the OFW Journalism Consortium said.

The OFW Journalism Consortium is a non-government organization working closely with OFWs domestically and internationally.

"That accounts for the bullish claims earlier made that remittances are forecast to reach over $14 billion in 2005," the group said.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) had forecast that foreign currency remittances from OFWs would hit $12 billion this year.

As of end-May this year, remittances expanded to $4 billion, almost 20 percent higher than the $3.3 billion level recorded in the same period in 2004.

There are an estimated eight million legitimate OFWs working or residing abroad as of end-2004, based on government reports. Reports from the World Bank indicate that the Philippines is the third largest source of OFW earnings, after China and Mexico.

Due to pressure from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the IMF, the new computation broke away from the tradition of recording only those remittances that passes through banks.

Valdepenas said government has formed a task force to finalize the new system, reconcile the previous data, and make new reports.

The BSP has classified OFWs into sea-based, land-based performing artists (working on six-month contracts), and land-based workers considered non-resident "since they generally have a two-year employment contract."

Remittances from sea-based workers and the land-based workers performing artists fall under compensation income in the current account, while remittances of other land-based workers, as well as the gifts and donations from migrant Filipinos, fall under the current transfers item.

The BSP previously reported remittances as migrants’ gift and donations entirely separate from the remittances to migrants’ families. The latest data on the latter (called workers remittances) was in 2003 amounting to $218 million, the report said.

BSP acts to improve OFW remittance services
By Donnabelle L. Gatdula
The Philippine Star 08/07/2005

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will implement a number of initiatives to address issues confronting overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), particularly bank remittance services.

Monetary Board (MB) member Vicente Valdepeñas said in an OFW Journalism Consortium forum that the BSP’s initiatives would aim to improve the magnitude of remittances being channeled via banks through the reduction of the cost of remittance services, improvement of quality and variety of remittance services available to clients, and increased access to banks by the remitters.

The MB is the policy-setting body of the BSP.

Valdepeñas said the BSP is continuously in discussion with banks, through the Association of Bank Remitting Officers Inc. (ABROI), to identify and evaluate measures to reduce costs and increase the volume of OFW remittances.

"One way of enhancing banks’ ability to bring down the cost of these remittances is by expanding the operations of their overseas offices and thus optimize operational costs," he said.

The monetary official said in line with this, "we are preparing proposals for foreign regulatory authorities to allow Philippine banks abroad to remotely open bank accounts for OFWs."

He said the BSP is also discussing ways for greater domestic interconnectivity in the financial system.

According to Valdepeñas, mechanisms to enhance the interconnection of players such as credit cooperatives, rural banks and the postal bank, with the rest of the financial system can extend the accessibility of financial services, including remittances, to a wider area with an expanded geophysical reach.

The BSP is also encouraging creativity among banks in providing avenues for investments by OFWs. "Banks can tap OFWs as market for such products as the unit investment trust funds (UITFs)," he noted.

The monetary authority pointed out that there are a number of banks that have actually put up their OFW-oriented UITF investments.

"We want the banks to help our OFWs set aside some of their income for investments in financial products or investments directly in small or micro enterprises," Valdepenas said.

Banks, for their part, have also initiated marketing schemes to improve their respective OFW remittance services, which include incentives such as low maintaining balance, low service charge or free insurance.

Some banks have even participated in providing electronic money transfer services through mobile phones.

The BSP, through the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), has worked with other government bodies to complete the major requirements of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) which led to the removal of the Philippines early this year from the list of non-cooperative countries in the fight against money laundering.

"The delisting is a key factor in enhancing the speed of remittance and in reducing the cost of transactions of Philippine banks and remittance agents will no longer be subjected to more rigorous and costly scrutiny by foreign financial institutions," Valdepenas said.

If the politicians stop fighting and harness all these OFW's inflow of funds It can really do wonders. Instead of always investing all the money pouring in into their mistresses' mansions where it is a dead end and investing it on improving infrastructure ,not the substandard kind so they can pocket the difference. And on education for the citizens where it will have A multiplier effect. Then OFW's children will not have to go abroad and suffer the same fate .

Asian Nurses Anchor an Industry
News Feature, Gloria Tierney, Asia, Aug 21, 2005

The face of nursing is changing significantly in San Diego and elsewhere in Southern California.

According to a survey by NurseWeek earlier this year, 15 percent of registered nurses in San Diego are Asian or Pacific Islander (API) while APIs amount to 12 percent of the total population.

At Kaiser, the ratio is double that. Of 1,565 nurses working for Kaiser Permanente in San Diego, a third, or 528, are Asian, according to Kaiser spokesperson Sylvia Wallace.

And at UCSD Medical Center, where Crystal Hsaio works, the majority of nurses on her floor are Asian or Pacific Islander.

"When people see an Asian face they feel more comfortable," said nurse Hsiao, a native of Taiwan, adding that having someone available to translate for a patient can be critical. So is awareness of cultural differences. For example, some nationalities believe that washing a mother and baby after birth can be harmful to both by changing the temperature of the body and thereby altering the chi or flow of energy which, in turn, prevents elimination of toxins. Nurses need to know how to deal with a variety of cultural views such as that.

"Even if we are not the same in nationality, we are more open-minded about cultural differences," Hsaio said.

While the nationwide average of Asian Pacific Islander nurses, according to the NurseWeek survey, is still only 4 percent but increasing, Southern California has become a magnet for nurses from Pacific Rim countries.

While fewer and fewer Americans are enrolled in nursing, more and more nurses are emigrating or being recruited from countries such as India, Taiwan, China, and even Korea. The largest source, however, remains the Philippines.

Training as a nurse in the Philippines and coming to work in America is a tradition that began in the 1970s and 1980s, according to Ben Macapugay, spokesperson for Paradise Valley Hospital in Southeast San Diego.

Quality of labor and quality of training is another factor. The Philippines is known to produce more nursing graduates and have more nursing schools than any other country in the world - 186 with the combined ability to graduate 20,000 nurses a year, according to Dr. Jaim Z. Galvez-Tan of the University of the Philippines in Manila.

Supply also dictates salary. In the Philippines, a nurse can expect to earn between $150 and $250 a month. In the United States, where demand is greater, salaries range from $3,000 to 4,000 and often come with signing bonuses, according to Galvez-Tan.

Coming from a poor country makes coming to the United States an easy choice to make, especially when many people in the Philippines already have family here.

"People prefer places like San Diego, where they already have relatives," said John Pasamonte, a recruiter for International Nurses Solutions, one of many companies recruiting foreign nurses for U.S hospitals.

Patt Mareschal, lead nurse at Fallbrook Hospital's Medical Surgical Unit, who has spent 30 years in the profession, sees an even greater shift.

For one, nurses have to work more effectively with fewer resources, caring for sicker patients for shorter periods of time. Their responsibilities extend well past a patient's general health and often include sociological and psychological issues, such as domestic violence or mental illness, according to Mareschal.

In addition, today's nurses are older; the average age is 46. And they are increasingly male - 6 percent nationwide.

Despite the economic advantages, becoming a nurse in the United States isn't all that easy. No matter how well trained, foreign nurses must pass the NCLEX (National Council for Licensure Examination) and must demonstrate a proficiency in English. Still, the number of nurses passing the NCLEX exam rose to 16,490 in 2003, nearly double what it was in 2001, according to NurseWeek. Many believe a large part of that is the level of education supplied by such institutions as UCSD and United Education Institute of San Diego and El Cajon, which offers, in addition to nursing, training for medical assistants, pharmacy technicians and dental assistants.

For a hospital, the attraction of Asian and Pacific Islander nurses is two-fold: one cultural, one economic. "There is no question that cultural diversity is important, said Wallace. "At Kaiser we work hard to provide faces and cultures that reflect the community at large."

Culture aside, there is a critical need for skilled nurses, period.

"The nursing crisis is grave and only growing worse. Nationwide, there are130,000 nursing vacancies, a deficit that is expected to double in the next five years. By 2012 it will be 1.1 million," said Pasamonte.

Here in this country, nursing school enrollments have dropped 16 percent in the last five years because of other opportunities opening up, according to Mareschal. "There are new avenues for women now. We no longer have to go the teaching, nursing route," she said.

Meanwhile, those trained as nurses don't always stay in the profession. Many leave in their 20s and 30s to raise families or to pursue other careers. Others go on to related careers such as nurse practitioners or physician assistants.

For their part, the nursing schools are working hard to respond to the crisis, but it has not been easy. "We can't get educated students fast enough," said Dottie Crummy, head of the nursing program at Point Loma Nazarene University. "All the nursing programs in the city are filled to more than capacity. This year we took in an extra five students. Last year we took in 10, and we still had to turn away qualified students."

While the vast majority of students in nursing programs are native born, a high percentage are Asian a sharp change from past years. "The majority of our students were white Anglo-Saxon Protestants," said Crummy. "Now, Filipino/Pacific Islanders are our largest ethnic group, followed by Asians, then Hispanic." Many of the Filipinos, she added, are the children and nieces of the nurses who came here to practice their profession 20 or 30 years ago.

Michelle Capati, a nursing student at Grossmont College is one of them. When asked why she wants to be a nurse, her answer is simple: "My Mom." Capati's mother has been a nurse for more than 20 years, logging 12-hour shifts seven days a week. But she wouldn't have it any other way, her daughter said.

Hard work or the capacity for hard work may be another reason Asians and Pacific Islanders are swelling the nursing ranks.

"The Philippines is a third world country. People there are used to stress and hardship, Pasamonte said, adding that "Asians are also known for their compassion."

Mareschal agrees: "They work hard and are generous, caring people."

FROM THE SIDELINES: Japan to South Korea
By Alfredo G. Rosario Thursday, August 25, 2005

SOUTH KOREA is turning out to be the new haven for Filipino entertainers whose easy entry to Japan has been restricted by a change in its immigration rules.

Hundreds, if not thousands of Filipino workers, mostly female entertainers, were reported to have left for South Korea without proper documentation.

Filipino entertainers, estimated at 3,000 to 4,000, are working in the periphery of the more than 50 US military bases in various places in South Korea, said the new migrant newspaper, the Pinoy Overseas Express, in its most recent issue.

How these workers were able to leave for Korea without proper work contracts was attributed to the flourishing “escorting” racket at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Their exits were facilitated by unscrupulous immigration personnel for a fee of P15,000 each.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) is aware of this form of human trafficking and has sought the help of the South Korean Embassy in Manila in a move to stanch the continuing outflow of workers to its country.

POEA Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz has requested the South Korean Embassy not to issue employment-based visas to Korean-bound Filipino entertainers without presenting the POEA’s exit clearance papers.

Baldoz, in a letter to the immigration attaché in the South Korean embassy, offered to provide its database of workers for Korea as a validation mechanism for their exit clearances to be presented to the embassy.

“Your electronic access in real time to the names and exit clearance number of all Filipino workers processed by the POEA for Korea will enable our office to control the existing illegal recruitment of overseas performing artists to Korea,” said Baldoz in her letter.

Under an existing government-to-government arrangement, or the “employment permit system,” all workers for South Korea have to be hired directly through the POEA.

Before this agreement, the Korean government repatriated thousands of illegal Filipino workers in that country under an amnesty program, with the assurance that they would be given priority to return to their jobs.

Last year the POEA was given a quota of 6,000 workers to fill, but it was able to deploy more than 2,000 workers because of initial operational difficulties. For the first three months this year, it was able to deploy 2,600 workers.

The employment permit system has virtually closed the Korean labor market to private fee-charging recruitment agencies, and has been described as “very slow” by leaders of the local recruitment industry.

They claimed that Korea has an urgent need for more workers in its factories but pointed out that the present direct hiring system is too slow and inefficient to meet Korea’s manpower requirements. They call the EPS a “cartelized system.”

The shift of employment venue of Filipino entertainers from Japan to Korea is attributed to two major factors—the virtual closure of the Japanese labor market to this type of workers and the growing demand for them in Korea.

Thousands of Filipino entertainers, or overseas performing artists, had entered Japan under a previous system of securing their entry visas. Under this system, government certification of their supposed proficiency for the kind of work they were applying for was a sufficient requirement for obtaining such visas.

But several months ago, the Japanese government passed a ministerial ordinance amending its immigration law pertaining to the entry of foreign entertainers to Japan. The change abolished the government certification system.

The new law now requires entertainers to have at least two years of job experience outside Japan or a two-year formal course in a particular entertainer’s job.

Thousands of Filipino entertainers have been blocked from going to Japan under the new immigration law. Filipino recruiters, who had been making money hand over fist by sending entertainers to Japan, lost a lucrative market.

Thousands of families have been deprived of a potential income in the tens of millions of dollars from the salaries of entertainers who otherwise would have made it to Japan to work in its entertainment industry. The government, too, lost a rich source of revenue from this once flourishing recruitment business.

Representations have been made by the Philippine government and leaders of the recruitment industry with the Japanese government for the repeal of the ministerial ordinance or at least for a two-year moratorium in its implementation, but to no avail.

It is feared that when Japan implements its threatened massive drive to clear the country of its illegal foreign workers, thousands of overstaying Filipino entertainers may be caught and deported to the Philippines. This is a problem that will hit us between the eyes.

hey everyone! im 17 and i live in sydney australia but i miss the philippines so much even though i go there often... it always changes and i find it so vibrant and exciting over there... im going there again in december for a month. sydney is pretty good to. so where are all the filos living overseas???

scarborough, ontario, canada.

I used to live in the North York Area in Toronto. I now live in NJ-NYC.

I've lived in Jersey, Kentucky, California and currently residing in Vegas.



Pearl of the Orient Seas - The Philippines (http://community.webshots.com/user/jbkayaker12)

hey everyone! im 17 and i live in sydney australia but i miss the philippines so much even though i go there often... it always changes and i find it so vibrant and exciting over there... im going there again in december for a month. sydney is pretty good to. so where are all the filos living overseas???


hi neighboor...im just 20mins drive from you hehe.. :)

Lakewood, California

ahhh syracuse, ny; richmond, va: chicago, il & schaumburg<---chicagoes 'burbs

Alameda, California

i have a question, why do so many filipinos leave their coutnry and settle some where else? i mean you can find filipinos in almost every country in the world.

Minneapolis, MN, USA

i have a question, why do so many filipinos leave their coutnry and settle some where else? i mean you can find filipinos in almost every country in the world.
too many educated and competition in pnas, we oughta share it w/ the rest of the world :lol:

Foster City, California - about 20 miles south of and about 10 degrees (F) warmer than San Francisco.

hi neighboor...im just 20mins drive from you hehe.. :)
really where abouts u live?

really where abouts u live?

your in near or around Penrith diba?...same here..i remember coz u asked me that a while ago... :)

yeh i live in penrith in st clair area. cool so where u live? i really miss philz but! someday i would like to own a apartment or condo there in makati

I lived Chicago, but i am have returned to the Philippines. I don't know how long i'll be here for, but i'll stay for as long as I can afford? Living in the Pinas has been an anthropoligical adventure. I've never used the tabo until now, hehehehehehe. Sorry, to much information.

Schaumburg huh? the only thing good about schaumburg is IKEA. The rest just wreaks of suburban sprawl. Ghastly.

@thewreckoning88: didn't you mention before that you are an upcoming model-actor in the Philippines who is based in Australia? If you don't mind, can you please post your picture in the Photo Album? We have a lot of good-looking dudes and dudettes here in Pinas forum.

^^ n the biggest mall in 5 states, woodfield mall. yeah i know u probably will say gurnee. i thought it was gurnee too but actually its woodfield. theyre building another ikea in south side closed to dupage county, thats still chicago if u wanna know. mas marami ngang nakatirang pnoi d2 keysa chicago but i wont bash chgo because my parents has a house in there n im going back to uic or csu

Hey dancethingy how do you find living in the Phils. once again? Do you like it more than you hate it. How about the politics, people and customs. How easy was it for you to adjust. Have any insights? would you mind sharing it.

Hi Marites, I don't know if you've seen some of my posts, but politics here in the Philippines have paralyzed me. I'm very politically active in Chicago and the rest of Illinois. I'm a progressive democrat if you're wondering. I worked hard to get Kerry into office and his loss was very painful for me, but i accepted it despite knowing the Republicans prevented many minorities from getting to the voting booth. I think that responsible leadership from within is more responsible than "taking it to the streets."
I support the current administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, but I do disagree with plenty of social issues her administration supports. I'm a Chicago guy, our motto in Chicago is "Dream big, make no small plans." We also live to work and get things done, so the lack of progress here in the country frustrates me to death. It's obvious that WE ARE SO CAPABLE. One day, trust me, it WILL HAPPEN, we will take off and progress will be rapid. We can not be held down forever, because there is no such thing as forever.

Culture wise, it's been very interesting. I've adjusted very well and I DO love it more than I hate it. I hardly ever hate anything, plus i don't hate things, i dislike things. Hate is such cruel word. I've discovered that people here just LOVE MALLS. It's amazing how people here just gravitate to malls. It's crazy. The food here is great, much better than US, but so unhealthy. My cravings for Dinuguan and Sisig will kill me one day.
I also don't get the Mestizo and Moreno thing. I guess people here can be prejudice too. I don't get why lighter skinned people are elevated to a more stately status than darker people. You see it everywhere, in commercials and billboards. Is it because dark people have Malay blood? This bothers me! I'm very light skinned and all, so naturally i want to be darker.
I'm also shocked at the materialistic attitude here, i mean it is a Catholic country isn't it. People take too much value on which schools they go too, which malls they hang out at, or just what they wear (I guess its the same with any country, especially in the US). I really don't like how people have to settle for "less" in terms of education due to lower socioeconomic status. It makes me appreciate the US public school system despite all its vagrancies and imperfections. Maybe someday our country will appreciate and implement a formal public school system reminiscent of that in Europe or Japan and present the people of our country with a level playing field.

One last thing. I've been all over Asia and Pinas has the HOTTEST GUYS. I lurve my Pinoys. My friends from Chicago accuse me of coming here just to find a Pinoy boyfriend. No, gay Pinoys in Chicago don't satisfy me. They have a white-pinoy inferiority complex and have white worship. Personally i don't get how white dudes all of the sudden became much better than Pinoys. I like em' yummy, so i like my Pinoys. :)

!!!

Oops! Sorry wrong thread!

Their works should be published for the public to appreciate!

Oops!!!

Tigidig14, so there are more Pinoys in Schaumburg now? Really, i thought Skokie held that title. I actually live in Skokie, but consider it Chicago. Skokie, with its oh so close proximity to the city and its famous "skokie swift" makes it just another Chicago neighborhood. I think SKokie still holds the title.

How many Filipino stores are there in Schaumburg? I want to visit, i love visiting Pinoy stores just for kicks. Have you been to Pinas lately? I thought i could get everything Pinoy at a Pinoy/Pinay owned grocery store there, but when I got here I realized how much we're missing out on. It's a crime i tell you.

Boybaha, that was a good read. I really liked Second Prize: Aurelio Agcaoili, "Metaphor Man and Migrant, I"

It's a very melancholy essay though. It reaches into the insights of many that have left the Philippines. It's weird though, he left during the Marcos days, but reading the essay makes you think that he could have departed the country as recently as today, until he got to Irag and 9/11 and all. It comes to show that conditions then are almost similar as to what they are now. Regime change hasn't brought to the people what it was supposed to bring. How sad. But the latest developments about junking the impeachment case against Arroyo IS a sign of political maturity. For once we remained in the covet of the democratic process. It will work in our favor despite the sour taste the result of the impeachment leaves on those who want her gone.

How many Filipino stores are there in Schaumburg? I want to visit, i love visiting Pinoy stores just for kicks. Have you been to Pinas lately? I thought i could get everything Pinoy at a Pinoy/Pinay owned grocery store there, but when I got here I realized how much we're missing out on. It's a crime i tell you.

i know theres 2 stores one in golf N one by milwaukee. naaah i dont go there that much, my bro goes there but only to get some ingredients besides that, we usually just go to mexican's produce. they have more pnoi's stuff than regular pnois stores. im going there this december if everything goes well w/my plan. i went over there last january '04 only for 6 days, emergency for lolo. well, i dont think im missing anything at all. my family can cook per say. (payabangan pa nga eh) n, it seems like there's more pnoi in this side because u know the mall n those agencies that does home for agent, cna, n nurses.

also here in sydney australia.. though a bit far from chatswood and penrith, i live near hornsby. :)

I'm here in Pinas till maybe next year. I bet you get a lot of weird stares here don't you. When i first got here, i got a lot of looks, made me uncomfortable cause i like being ignored. My whole aura screamed of "tourist." So how's the traffic around IKEA? the only reason i never went there as much was because of traffic. Now that they are building a second on the southside, maybe that can cut down on the traffic up there.

I saw your pic and for me you look Pinoy.
Are you studying in the Phil. right now? And if you have the last say, where would you wanna stay?

Ahhhh very hard question.

Honestly, i'm in love with the city of Chicago. Everyone who hails from that city becomes infected with a very very special brand of civic pride. It's very unusual for an American city to have such pride in their city, but Chicago has just that. People there are proud of what the city has to offer, its architecture, history, culture, etc... The people there feel like they own Chicago, so they are very proud of it. I've been sucked into that culture of civic pride.

However, I love pinas and the culture. I'm sure there's a place here in the Philippines where I belong. Makati seems to be good, but i also like subic. Then again i haven't been to Cebu or Davao. I'm still discovering my place in the motherland. What i love about being here is that I don't feel marginalized in terms of being a minority, even though i'm gay and all.

Truth is, i don't know where i belong yet. Sometimes i feel like Chicago is home, then i feel Pinas is home, and weirdly enough sometimes i feel Toronto or London is home. Gosh i don't know. All i know is i want to be happy and i want the rest of my family to be happy with me.

hey guys do u think i look pinoy. many people think i dont but i was born there and can speak fluent tagalog.
www.myspace.com/losemybreath88
take a look at me
also if u have myspace add me

Yup, you look Pinoy.

Ahhhh very hard question.

Honestly, i'm in love with the city of Chicago. Everyone who hails from that city becomes infected with a very very special brand of civic pride. It's very unusual for an American city to have such pride in their city, but Chicago has just that. People there are proud of what the city has to offer, its architecture, history, culture, etc... The people there feel like they own Chicago, so they are very proud of it. I've been sucked into that culture of civic pride.

However, I love pinas and the culture. I'm sure there's a place here in the Philippines where I belong. Makati seems to be good, but i also like subic. Then again i haven't been to Cebu or Davao. I'm still discovering my place in the motherland. What i love about being here is that I don't feel marginalized in terms of being a minority, even though i'm gay and all.

Truth is, i don't know where i belong yet. Sometimes i feel like Chicago is home, then i feel Pinas is home, and weirdly enough sometimes i feel Toronto or London is home. Gosh i don't know. All i know is i want to be happy and i want the rest of my family to be happy with me.

Well, there are factors to consider. Financial, lifestyle, family, lovelife..
Work for a while in the US, then come back to Phil. with your savings. :)

hey guys do u think i look pinoy. many people think i dont but i was born there and can speak fluent tagalog.
www.myspace.com/losemybreath88
take a look at me
also if u have myspace add me

You have shades on how can we honestly tell? :)

actually JB, the shades is what gave it away for me. So Pinoy.

Boybaha, that was a good read. I really liked Second Prize: Aurelio Agcaoili, "Metaphor Man and Migrant, I"

It's a very melancholy essay though. It reaches into the insights of many that have left the Philippines. It's weird though, he left during the Marcos days, but reading the essay makes you think that he could have departed the country as recently as today, until he got to Irag and 9/11 and all. It comes to show that conditions then are almost similar as to what they are now. Regime change hasn't brought to the people what it was supposed to bring. How sad. But the latest developments about junking the impeachment case against Arroyo IS a sign of political maturity. For once we remained in the covet of the democratic process. It will work in our favor despite the sour taste the result of the impeachment leaves on those who want her gone.

@dancethingy, how long have you been away from Pinas? Say, 5 or 8 years? Are you a US citizen or a greencard holder? Have you been in Seattle? If not, you should visit the place if only to feel at home. Sorry for the flurry of questions, but I like your insights and rationale. I find you interesting, he, he, he.

Hahahahahaha @ dancethingy! Better keep my mouth or thoughts shut before I get into trouble. :)

lol thanks guys :)

I have always thought you were a guy. I assume boybaha is a guy.

Currently: Orlando, Florida.

Used to live in: Bangkok, Singapore and Hinsdale, Illinois (a western suburb of Chicago).

Hinsdale! (shudders). One of them Bush loving suburbs that Chicagoans fear to go to. Anyways, i'm sure Singapore was great.

How was Bangkok by the way?

^^ Bangkok was great! I enjoyed my stay there, although I was still a kid when I lived there back in the early 1980s, a lot more going on compared to sterile and sedate Singapore.

Hey don't hate on Hinsdale! It's a very nice place to grow up and raise kids despite its political slant. I have other relatives in Chicagoland, my mom's side of the family are mainly in Hinsdale, Wesmont and Clarendon Hills. My dad's relatives are mostly in Wheeling and in Chicago (in and around Pulaski).

Hinsdale, (shudders once more).

i'm kidding, don't be offended please.

^^ Not offended one bit! I knew you were kidding, just wanted to put it out there that Hinsdale isn't that bad and that it's one great place to settle, to have and raise a family. Dancethingy (sorry, but your real name eludes me at the moment), did you mention that you're from Skokie? I think I have a relative living there, but that branch of the family tree is far removed from the main trunk that I don't even know them at all! :lol:

It's Ben. Yes i reside in Skokie. Skokie though is considered just another Chicago neighborhood. Skokie is a great example of multicultural American. There are 129 different languages being spoken on by different households throughout the town. Amazing. If there's a Filipino town, it'd be in Skokie.

I've been to Skokie once, you're right it can be another "Little Manila" or "Pinoy Town" because there are indeed a lot of Filipinos residing and Pinoy-owned businesses there. Very much a melting pot of cultures, a far cry from Hinsdale where it's overwhelmingly white, upper middle class to upper class range, with rich brats zooming around in their luxury cars and SUVs. On the other hand there are also small enclaves of Filipinos, Thais and Koreans in Hinsdale.

See that's my thing about the FAR suburbs, there is lack of diversity in terms of ethnicity and socioeconomic backgrounds. I want to expose my children to the world. Chicago is a nice place to do just that.

my mom's side of the family are mainly in Hinsdale, Wesmont and Clarendon Hills. My dad's relatives are mostly in Wheeling and in Chicago (in and around Pulaski).

my mom, a nurse, surprising ba (i think one out of two pnois is nurse) lol. o ye she visits clarendon hills, 3x a week. sometimes i drive her over there to visit her clients just to take a blood pressure n what not. hinsdale, i always hear that place where is that anyway, closed to what town. pulaski is very long it goes all the way to southside unless ur talking about pulaski n lawrence, then that's the korean town also home of some ghetto pnois. i hang out w/ them once, my older bro is ghetto but he calm down now. unfortunately his friends was getting into bank fraudaulent or crystal meth <---thats what mostly pnoi criminal offense here. :uh:

^^ i didnt know i made my 500 post, :righton:.
See that's my thing about the FAR suburbs, there is lack of diversity in terms of ethnicity and socioeconomic backgrounds. I want to expose my children to the world. Chicago is a nice place to do just that.

i dont wanna put u down but ur always talking about chicago, and u lived in skokie. its far from chicago. chicago school consists of big amount of black n hispanic. i went to school, when my family just got here, where half of class were black. i had some bad expression of chicagoes school especially public. i wudnt want my kids to go to chicago's school. unless its gordon tech where i graduated :lol:

my mom, a nurse, surprising ba (i think one out of two pnois is nurse) lol. o ye she visits clarendon hills, 3x a week. sometimes i drive her over there to visit her clients just to take a blood pressure n what not. hinsdale, i always hear that place where is that anyway, closed to what town. pulaski is very long it goes all the way to southside unless ur talking about pulaski n lawrence, then that's the korean town also home of some ghetto pnois. i hang out w/ them once, my older bro is ghetto but he calm down now. unfortunately his friends was getting into bank fraudaulent or crystal meth <---thats what mostly pnoi criminal offense here. :uh:

The main arteries that passes through Hinsdale is I-294 and Ogden Avenue, it also straddles the county line between Cook and DuPage. If you take Metra from Union Station in downtown Chicago to the western suburbs, take the train that terminates in Naperville and you'll pass through Hinsdale's town center. My other relatives (dad's side) that lives on Pulaski are located near Midway Airport.

same if u go w/ 88 south

who lives in daa T.DOOTTT.. :D lol

Tigidig, through the yellow line i'm 7 minutes away from Chicago. I work in Chicago (3 jobs) and went to school there, so i spent more time in the city than at home. The magnet schools in Chicago are great and there are a slew of high schools, especially on the north side, that have blown away the competition against other city schools and suburban schools. Surprisingly enough, most of these successful city schools have a huge Asian peer population. I also have to make a case for the great schools at Lincoln park and the Latin school of Chicago. The latin school of Chicago is a great school for children learning to be multilingual.

During my community nursing rotation i had to go to different schools for health teaching sessions. The schools i attended on the Northside were very professional and some disastrous.

And yeah, my mom is a nurse too. R u studying to be a nurse tigidig?

Its so disheartening to hear what some Filipino youths in the States are getting into. For pinoy youths to committ to a life of crime and disobedience is a greater sin for them than most, because they don't know how lucky they are to have the privilidge to be raised in America. Right now there are millions of children in our country and abroad hoping, praying, and wanting to be in their position. God knows that there are children in this country that would know far better on how to take advantage of their situation than those committing criminal acts in Chicago. GOOD FOR YOU TIGIDIG that you've stayed out of trouble. I can see your probably mom's favorite.

Chicago has a reputation of being cold windy and extreme weather.

That's actually the great thing about CHicago. The weather weeds out all the people who don't really have the heart to live there. Thus, most people there love the city because if they didn't, the weather would have killed them long ago

Also, chicago summers are SOOOOOOOOO Beautiful. Everyone should experience the good ole dog days of Summer in Chi-town. We only get summer three months out of the year, so we don't waste a single minute.

Hey Kiretoce, is Singapore really that sterile? Is it boring there? Lot's of cute guys?

I also heard the summer is soooo hot. extreme ends. yup I probably wouldn't survive there.

Singapore's weather is very similar to the Philippines. No big surprise as they're both in Southeast Asia. I thoroughly enjoyed Singapore when I visited. It's such a beautiful, modern city with an exciting nightlife that is not at all sterile.

I love Chicago. It's such a beautiful city, but I could not live there.

I'm more of a New Yorker (because I actually am). If there's one city in the world I'm in love with, it's New York City.

Singapore is nice but alittle boring. Not much to do there. No natural attractions everything manmade.

I would fly back to Singapore in a heartbeat. I'm a big fan. Their cultural centers are amazing, their CBD is really something else and their food is simply awe-inspiring. There's so much to do in Singapore... They are a model among nations in Asia.

I remember feeling extremely relaxed and happy, sitting underneath the OUB Center (I think that's what it was called) by the banks of the Singapore River at twilight feeling that moment of calm when the city switches from the frantic bustle of the daytime into the energetic release of the nighttime. I love those moments. Those are the times that I always enjoy in any city I go to (I sometimes get it sitting on a bench on the second floor of Greenbelt IV just at the moment when the Ayala Ave towers start turning their lights on, or perhaps sitting in Bryant Park behind the New York Public Library at around 6PM when you feel the city start to come alive for the night, or maybe sitting down on a hill in Dolores Park in San Francisco as you watch the evening fog envelope downtown... ah the city and the twilight).

I really miss being in a big city.

I love Chicago. It's such a beautiful city, but I could not live there.

I'm more of a New Yorker (because I actually am). If there's one city in the world I'm in love with, it's New York City.

yeah u can, admit it chgo is better than NY

Sorry bud. New York is the uber-city. :) Chicagoans just can't get it into their heads. Maybe because it's too much city for them. I'm kidding-- I love Chicago... it's just no New York... But it's ok you know... I can't get Los Angeles in my head. I just don't get Los Angeles.

Actually if i were to live in another city in the US, it would be San Francisco. But these three cities (Chi-town, New York and San Fran) are so wonderful. In no other city in the US do I sense as much civic pride as I do in these three cities, as if each citizen revels in every step they take down their respective cities' sidewalks...)

Me, New York pulses in my blood. I live for evenings in front of the Lincoln Center in the Summer while a salsa band plays, or snowy winters walking down a quiet West Village street at 2AM, or summers sitting in the Brooklyn Botanical Garden as I watch elderly folk do tai chi, or autumn walks in Riverside Park, or a post-party gyro sandwich at my favorite street-vendor's cart, or a quiet spring day reading on the Coney Island boardwalk before the summer crowds start coming, or just walking aimlessly around Brooklyn Heights, or... New York hotdogs which totally outclass Chicago hotdogs that need all that unecessary stuff on them to make them taste ok (same with pizzas)... I can go on and on and on...

Gosh I miss New York. I miss the spirit of The City so much it hurts... Being here in California, I miss how much more real the people in New York seem to me. Here in Santa Cruz, people have such complexes about being nice. You have to be nice and you have to wear it on your sleeve. If you show any bit of indifference (which I often am-- indifferent --sometimes I just don't feel the need to express anything to people around me) they take it as aggression and get all defensive. Touchy-feely Santa Cruz...

Hey Kiretoce, is Singapore really that sterile? Is it boring there? Lot's of cute guys?

By "sterile," I mean that there wasn't that much to do or see in the city, and this was when I was living there in the 1980s. I haven't been back to Singapore close to 20 years now, I'm sure that the city has learned to loosen up and let her hair down and party 'til you drop. I want to take a "sentimental journey" to Singapore someday and visit my old haunts like Serangoon Road, Orchard Road, Jurong and Ang Mo Kio. As to your query about cute guys, I'm the wrong person to ask since I don't swing that way ( :lol: ), but one thing I do remember that Singapore's fashion scene during the 1980s was a wee bit behind the times back then, when I was there, the Pinay maids were more "en vogue" than their employers. :colgate: I also remembered former PM Lee Kuan Yew gave a speech for the National Day celebrations and he wore a short-sleeved barong-like shirt tucked into his trousers! Now that's what I call a major fashion faux pas! :)

But in general, I found Singapore to be a safe, clean and courteous place. As kid I can safely ride the public transportation (this was pre-MRT days) all around the city state all by myself. The food was a delight, you can choose from so many local and regional cuisines and all will not disappoint. Shopping was a fun activity all the time, Orchard Road and People's Park are my favorites. Since Singapore has little or no natural resources, it made it's mark on the world map as a center for business, and the result as well all know now is that it's a modern, efficient and smoothly run nation that other countries in the region are striving to emulate.

Sorry bud. New York is the uber-city. :) Chicagoans just can't get it into their heads. Maybe because it's too much city for them. I'm kidding-- I love Chicago... it's just no New York... But it's ok you know... I can't get Los Angeles in my head. I just don't get Los Angeles.

Actually if i were to live in another city in the US, it would be San Francisco. But these three cities (Chi-town, New York and San Fran) are so wonderful. In no other city in the US do I sense as much civic pride as I do in these three cities, as if each citizen revels in every step they take down their respective cities' sidewalks...)

Me, New York pulses in my blood. I live for evenings in front of the Lincoln Center in the Summer while a salsa band plays, or snowy winters walking down a quiet West Village street at 2AM, or summers sitting in the Brooklyn Botanical Garden as I watch elderly folk do tai chi, or autumn walks in Riverside Park, or a post-party gyro sandwich at my favorite street-vendor's cart, or a quiet spring day reading on the Coney Island boardwalk before the summer crowds start coming, or just walking aimlessly around Brooklyn Heights, or... New York hotdogs which totally outclass Chicago hotdogs that need all that unecessary stuff on them to make them taste ok (same with pizzas)... I can go on and on and on...

Gosh I miss New York. I miss the spirit of The City so much it hurts... Being here in California, I miss how much more real the people in New York seem to me. Here in Santa Cruz, people have such complexes about being nice. You have to be nice and you have to wear it on your sleeve. If you show any bit of indifference (which I often am-- indifferent --sometimes I just don't feel the need to express anything to people around me) they take it as aggression and get all defensive. Touchy-feely Santa Cruz...

I agree that NYC claims the title of "uber-city" in the US, if not the world even! I haven't had the chance to visit the city but I want to go there just to experience the vibe of the city.

As for Chicago, I love that city because it's neither like NY or LA. It's not as gritty and hard-edged as NY, and not as laid-back as LA. It has a big city feel to it with small town charms, the suburbs of Chicago aren't called cities and/or towns, they're called "villages," and each has it's own "downtown" area.

BTW, I love San Francisco too! I guess it's true what that song says: "I Left My Heart In San Francisco."

I agree that NYC is Chicago on steroids. NYC is on its own leaque, but so is Chicago. I thought. I've lived in NYC, for 2 years. I attest that Chicago is the most Beautiful city in the WORLD. :), quite a statement huh?

Boybaha, i thought you were gonna start a NYC vs Chicago fight with me, i was getting ready to put on my fighting gear. It would've been ugly. Anyways, u don't seem like the kind to fight. Each city to its own, a presence incomparable to each other. Everyone has to experience it.

Boy, have you visited our new Millenium Park? :)

I guess it's time for me to go visit Chicago and San Francisco to have a look-see. I haven't been to either. :)

i have to say that sydney is also a great city

I agree that NYC is Chicago on steroids. NYC is on its own leaque, but so is Chicago. I thought. I've lived in NYC, for 2 years. I attest that Chicago is the most Beautiful city in the WORLD. :), quite a statement huh?

Boybaha, i thought you were gonna start a NYC vs Chicago fight with me, i was getting ready to put on my fighting gear. It would've been ugly. Anyways, u don't seem like the kind to fight. Each city to its own, a presence incomparable to each other. Everyone has to experience it.

Boy, have you visited our new Millenium Park? :)

:) Well I wouldn't say that NYC is Chicago on steroids... I COULD say that Chicago is a stunted New York, but that's not right either. New York's New York and Chicago's Chicago... But I maintain that New York is more beautiful-- though that stuff is all subjective.

In my day I would've engaged with anybody in a NY vs. anything battle but nowadays I think city vs. city is really dumb, especially if you're dealing with cities like SF, Chicago and NY.

Been to the Millenium Park and I find it spectacular and modern.

Guys what is "uber city". I am a genuine 'promdi' and I don't really like big cities. I find cities very interesting to explore for few days but not to live in. I can't cope with the hustle and bustle of city life especially being on the underground during rush hours. I lived in Hong Kong for three years and with that experience, city life put me off. Going to London is the same. The only parts of London I like so much are the parks and the museums. Although, I would love to go and visit San Francisco, again. San Francisco is more mellow with the pace of life (I think) compared to other cities like New York and Los Angeles. I don't like LA much as the disparity between the poor and the rich is so pronounced.

I prefer the country side and the slow pace of life, where there is still a sense of community (in moderation) and plenty of space to wander around without bumping into anybody. Very soon, we are moving to America, and fortunately it will be in Hawaii - where there is plenty of space (a bit ironic for a small island) and where Filipino foods are fresh and in abundance. I definitely can't live in any big city. Being truthful, I don't even know much about Manila and I will definitely be lost in Manila. When I was still living in the Philippines, a trip to Manila will only be for compulsary trips.

Filipino workers have edge in seeking work abroad — PEZA

The Philippine Star 09/11/2005

Iligan City — The Filipino worker is in a better position to get employed abroad because he or she has several qualities which foreign employers admire and like, according to the Director General of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.

Lilia De Lima, director general of the PEZA, who was here recently to meet local officials, said the Pinoy worker possesses an edge over other foreign nationals who are seeking employment abroad for many reasons apart from his being a hard worker.

First, she said that Filipinos are very loyal to their bosses or employers, a trait which is ingrained in most Filipinos.

Second, Filipino workers are highly literate, can speak the English language fluently and therefore are very fast learners.

These traits are among the qualities that foreign employers like and admire and are looking for in prospective workers.

"Since Filipino workers possess these qualities and have better attitudes toward working in a foreign land, they have an edge over other foreign nationals," De Lima said.

At least an estimated 3,000 Filipinos leave the country everyday to seek employment abroad," according to recent reports.

The PEZA chief was invited by local officials headed by Iligan city mayor Lawrence Cruz, the Sangguniang Panlungsod City Council and the business community here to look into the viability of establishing an economic zone in this southern industrial city. — Lino de la Cruz

^^^^^^^^Our culture which is a blending of east and west made that possible.

im coming to philippine in december and staying there for a month... finally after 3yrs not being to go there... wat should i see and do... first on my list is shop of course and spend time wit family, so far on our list is, baguio and boracay and obviously in manila etc... im excited to go back for christmas and new year there because theres nothing like a philippine christmas and new year celebration. you start to miss it, although i live in sydney and many people also enjoy celebrations here.

^^ Me too. I'm spending the holidays in the Philippines. I want to catch up with friends and visit old haunts. Check out these malls these guys have been talking about. Go to several places out of town, etc. If I can squeeze all these activities in, in a 3-week period.

Oh my gosh, Christmas in Bora, aaawwww, bora. I miss Bora. :(
Take me with you. Go to greenhills for knockoffs (them be really damn good knock offs). Go to Glorietta-greenbelt for shopping and a nice time overall, that is if Binay aren't letting protesters storm the freakin city.
Tagaytay is very nice too.

Which country worldwide has the most number of OFWs?

THE GLOBAL PINOY: New Orleans, A haven for Filipinos
By Greg B. Macabenta Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Those who regard the travails of New Orleans with a degree of detachment should know that Filipinos in America have an emotional bond with that city that goes back farther in time than the American colonization of the Philippines.

This is a fact that my editorial team and I are stressing in the October issue of Filipinas, the only nationally circulated glossy Filipino magazine in the US, which I recently purchased from Mona Lisa Yuchengco.

Since 1991, due to an initiative of the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS), Filipino American History Month has been celebrated in October. It was on this month in 1587 that the first landfall of Filipinos in what is now the United States was recorded. The galleon Nuestra Señora de Esperanza weighed anchor at Morro Bay in Northern California with several Luzonians among the crew.

For this reason, we had planned the focus on New Orleans in the October issue of Filipinas. This was well before anyone knew that Hurricane Katrina would wreak havoc on the Deep South.

One enduring bond that Filipinos in America have with New Orleans goes back to the early 1900s.

In those days, when restaurants in California carried signs that read, “No dogs and Filipinos allowed,” and Pinoys who walked down the streets of Los Angeles were liable to be beaten up by policemen simply because of the color of their skin, New Orleans was a haven, an enlightened place where people of varying colors lived and loved. In this Frenchiest of American cities, people of mixed race, including quadroons and mulattos, peacefully coexisted with whites.

Because of this, hundreds of paisanos, as the young Filipino immigrants in America called each other, relocated to New Orleans from the West Coast, in a migration that paralleled that of the Manila Men of Saint Malo.

And there we have another bond.

In 1883 the journalist Lafcadio Hearn came upon a settlement of Malays near Lake Pontchartrain—the same lake that breached the levees and inundated New Orleans. Hearn wrote about Saint Malo in Harper’s Weekly, reckoning that it had been built half a century earlier. The first Filipino settlement on the US mainland.

In 1933 historian Carlos Quirino visited New Orleans and came upon Hearn’s article. He wrote about it for the Graphic in Manila.

In 1984 I chanced upon the article while going through the archives of the US embassy on Roxas Boulevard. Fascinated, I contacted the historian and asked him to write an updated piece for a magazine that I was then planning to put out.

That project never took off and the article of Quirino languished in my files. But in September this year, I suggested to the Filipinas editorial team that the article would make a fitting tribute to New Orleans and to Filipino American History Month. We decided that it should finally see print in the October issue—21 years after it had been written.

Another bond that Filipinos have with The Big Easy is the fact that it was the place that Felipe Madriaga, a sailor from the Visayas, chose to call home. Madriaga, who had married an Irish girl whom he had met on the boat of which he was a crewman, raised his family in New Orleans—nine generations ago. Longer than any surviving Filipino clan in America.

I interviewed the family in the late 1980s for a special report for Manila Manila, a magazine-type show on KTSF Channel 26 in San Francisco. Marina Espina, librarian of the University of New Orleans and past president of the FANHS, arranged the meeting with fourth-generation Lilian Martinez Burtanog and her brood of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Among them was Lilian’s grandchild, Rhonda Richoux Fox.

The old lady, then in her 80s, would pass away not long after the interview, leaving me with, quite possibly, the only existing footage of her and her clan on videotape.

In a remarkable coincidence, Rhonda had submitted an article about her fabled family and we had decided to feature it in the October issue. The submission was made almost two decades after I had interviewed the family and over a month before Hurricane Katrina.

These coincidences make the October issue of Filipinas special. But more than that, they underscore the special place that New Orleans has in the lives of Filipinos in America, the earliest global Pinoys.

This was a fact that we were going to celebrate in the magazine, not knowing that Katrina would cast a pall on our plans. In this regard, I could not help make this comment in my editorial in Filipinas:

“Ironically, it seems so much in the character of the city where The Saints Go Marching In, that what should be a happy occasion is accompanied by a dirge.”

Filipinotown Searching for Its Center: Leaders are trying to lure Filipino Americans back to a historic neighborhood by building a sense of community.
By Wendy Lee, Los Angeles Times September 13, 2005

Signs at the edge of downtown mark the cultural home of Los Angeles' largest Asian group. But little else of their presence is apparent.

Historic Filipinotown won the designation three years ago after a decades-long battle, with hopes that the blue sign would lead to the rebirth of the community. But Filipinos living in scattered locales, including West Covina and Carson, have found little reason to drive into the working-class neighborhood of car repair shops and mini-marts.

Once a cultural nexus bustling with community events, the 2.1-square-mile area is now host to weed-filled lots and defaced storefronts with locked gates and barred windows.

A lone trumpet plays a few bars from the song of the Mexican Hat Dance, breaking the neighborhood's short-lived silence on a Sunday afternoon, only to be drowned out by roaring buses billowing clouds of exhaust. Elderly Filipinos lug grocery bags as they walk slowly across the uneven pavement, passing small stores with signs in Spanish, Chinese and Korean. It's easy to miss what's Filipino in the area.

Historic Filipinotown, some business owners and residents say, remains mired in the same problems that have been plaguing it for the last decade: declining economic activity and dwindling community unity. Perhaps most significant, it remains as nearly invisible to the outside community as it ever was. Filipinos make up less than 15% of the area's 40,000 residents, according to the district's 2002 study; 65% are Latino.

"It will always be historic until Filipinos begin to flex their muscles and work together and actually develop the area," said Joseph Bernardo, field deputy for Councilman Eric Garcetti, whose district covers Historic Filipinotown. Without direct community action, Bernardo said, "it will always remain a historic tribute. It won't become like a vibrant ethnic enclave like a Chinatown or Koreatown."

Still, community leaders and activists said they are slowly buying vacant properties so that Filipino Americans can reclaim and develop the community. They plan to build affordable housing, mostly for seniors, and to offer more cultural activities including spoken word and musical performances to lure Filipinos living in Southern California.

The largest concentration of Filipino Americans in Greater Los Angeles is in Carson, where they account for 18% of the population, according to the 2000 Census. The city of Los Angeles has the most Filipino Americans, 101,062 in 2000, with concentrations in Eagle Rock and Studio City. Other centers include Cerritos, where Filipinos make up 12% of the population; West Covina, 9%; Buena Park, 6%; and Long Beach, 4%.

But rather than shopping in Historic Filipinotown, Filipino Americans in the San Gabriel Valley and other areas say they prefer to go to suburban malls in West Covina that have large Filipino-owned supermarkets and restaurants.

Michelle Nadala, who works at Manila Gifts in an open-air mall in West Covina, waved her arm toward the stores brimming with religious items, Filipino music and seashell decorations. "This is the best place to call Filipinotown," she said.

Some Filipino Americans, including 23-year-old Patrick Manabat of Roland Heights, weren't aware Historic Filipinotown exists. Manabat is used to getting his Filipino meals, like noodle dish pancit and spicy beef dish kari-kari, in West Covina, at one of South Azusa Avenue's plazas.

"Instead of going there [Historic Filipinotown], I go someplace else," he said.

Reversing the lack of interest was the goal of community leaders, who won the official Filipinotown designation three years ago after a 20-year battle for Filipinos to be recognized as a community and for their historical contributions to Los Angeles.

Unlike other Asian immigrant groups, Filipino Americans did not gather in large numbers in ethnic enclaves like Chinatown or Koreatown because they already spoke English well. In the Philippines, colonized by the United States in 1898, English is taught in schools along with Tagalog, the country's official language.

Filipino Americans have been living in Historic Filipinotown since the 1920s, when the Filipino Christian Church was built on North Union Avenue, said Teresita Dery, librarian at the Filipino American Library, a nonprofit organization seeking to preserve cultural heritage.

In the 1980s, community organizations began to push for signs to designate the area as Filipino, but there were disagreements among disparate groups on the area's size or name, said Joel Jacinto, executive director of Search to Involve Pilipino Americans, a nonprofit group dedicated to the area's economic development and to providing community health services and programs.

Jacinto said Garcetti, who was running against Mike Woo for the 13th District City Council seat in 2001, approached the groups and asked what they wanted. Their primary request was for the historic designation, which Garcetti included in his platform. He also pledged to hire Filipinos as staffers and push for justice for Filipino World War II veterans. In return for those promises, Filipino Americans voted in significant numbers for Garcetti, Jacinto said.

Garcetti won the election, and a year later the blue signs went up, marking the area bounded by the Hollywood Freeway on the north, Beverly Boulevard on the south, Hoover Street on the west and Glendale Boulevard on the east.

But since then, some residents and business owners said efforts to revitalize the area into a cultural home have stalled. Old foam cups, sticky ice cream wrappers and spoiled food litter the streets. Historic Filipinotown's third-year designation anniversary passed in August with no official communitywide event.

"In order for Historic Filipinotown to develop, it's going to take the participation of very many different sectors of our community working together, and that in [itself] is our own greatest challenge and opportunity," Jacinto said. "[It's] definitely possible that it's out there for us, as long as we're able to work collaboratively together. That's the rub."

Part of the push targets senior citizens who live in the area and those who community leaders hope will move there. Jacinto's group, Search to Involve Pilipino Americans, has built two projects, with a total of 92 units, for low- to moderate-income families and is planning 162 more, about 80 of which will be senior housing.

Leaders also want to make the area visually distinct. A $2.1-million Historic Filipinotown Pavilion at Beverly Boulevard and Union Avenue will showcase a new pocket park next to the Filipino American Mural, the nation's largest mural focusing on the ethnic group.

For now, the mural remains locked behind a fence, its description tagged and decayed.

Filipino crosswalk designs, based on traditional weave patterns, have been placed in three intersections. Other plans include streetlight banners and purple orchid trees, familiar sights in the Philippines, Bernardo said. So far, 25 orchid trees have been planted on Temple Street, with 75 to 100 more coming in the next year or so, he added.

There are also preliminary plans from various community groups for a statue of Jose Rizal, a writer and Philippine national hero who was executed in 1896. Garcetti's office is planning a memorial in Lake Street Park for Filipino veterans of World War II, Bernardo said.

Two recently opened art spaces — Tribal Cafe and Remy's on Temple — showcasing Philippine artwork have attracted some suburban Filipinos to the area, as has a community art show in June organized by the Assn. for the Advancement of Filipino American Arts and Culture.

"It takes a long time, but someone has got to do it," said Joselyn Geaga-Rosenthal, owner of Remy's. Unlike Koreatown, Historic Filipinotown does not have streets that allow for a good mixture of businesses to prosper, said Ken Klein, head of USC's East Asian Library. The main corridors of Historic Filipinotown, including Beverly Boulevard, have "lots of small businesses that Filipinos could develop, little grocery stores, fast food places…. But there's no real center and no real opportunity for major kinds of investments," Klein said.

But Filipino American community activists are still optimistic. Already the designation has given Filipino Americans more political bite, as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa visited the area during his campaign.

"We don't want to be known as the longest community sign in the city of Los Angeles," said James Santa Maria, a Filipino community activist. "We want it to mean something, and we want to make sure it endures."

im coming to philippine in december and staying there for a month... finally after 3yrs not being to go there... wat should i see and do... first on my list is shop of course and spend time wit family, so far on our list is, baguio and boracay and obviously in manila etc... im excited to go back for christmas and new year there because theres nothing like a philippine christmas and new year celebration. you start to miss it, although i live in sydney and many people also enjoy celebrations here.

Don't miss out on artsy, bohemian Malate and laid back Baywalk.

I think America has the most OFWs, with nurses and all

According to some statistics I got from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration webpage, Saudi Arabia has the most OFWs.

In 2003, Saudi Arabia had 166,011 OFWs (number of hires and rehires).
In comparison, the United States had 3,666 OFWs (number of hires and rehires).

This isn't the total number of OFWs, but the total number of contracts signed. If we're asking about total number of overseas Filipino emmigrants (not just OFWs) then you're right... The USA would have the most. Over 70% of Filipino emmigrants are in the United States.

Statistics from http://www.poea.gov.ph

Other noteworthy numbers:
2003 hires and rehires
Kuwait: 26,225
United Arab Emirates: 49,164
Hong Kong: 84,633
Japan: 62,539
Singapore: 24,737
Taiwan: 45,186
Turkmenistan: 2
Italy: 12,175
United Kingdom: 13,598
Canada: 4,006
Nigeria: 1,472
Chad: 1,895
Algeria: 1,076

I'm curious about the African numbers. I was surprised to see so many Filipinos working as OFWs in African countries but I realized that for tax reasons, many shipping companies register their ships in African countries and ships are considered the territory of the country they are registered in. So technically, if your ship is registered in Nigeria, then you are in the country of Nigeria while you are at sea. I'm thinking that the number of Filipinos in African countries are actually seamen or part of the merchant marine.

Singapore is nice but alittle boring. Not much to do there. No natural attractions everything manmade.

I would fly back to Singapore in a heartbeat. I'm a big fan. Their cultural centers are amazing, their CBD is really something else and their food is simply awe-inspiring. There's so much to do in Singapore... They are a model among nations in Asia.

I remember feeling extremely relaxed and happy, sitting underneath the OUB Center (I think that's what it was called) by the banks of the Singapore River at twilight feeling that moment of calm when the city switches from the frantic bustle of the daytime into the energetic release of the nighttime. I love those moments. Those are the times that I always enjoy in any city I go to (I sometimes get it sitting on a bench on the second floor of Greenbelt IV just at the moment when the Ayala Ave towers start turning their lights on, or perhaps sitting in Bryant Park behind the New York Public Library at around 6PM when you feel the city start to come alive for the night, or maybe sitting down on a hill in Dolores Park in San Francisco as you watch the evening fog envelope downtown... ah the city and the twilight).

I really miss being in a big city.

i actually graduated in a Singapore-based school here in MLA and there's an opportunity for me to work in Sing anytime next year. I actually like the idea of working there someday or probably establish my future family??! naah! i'm too young for that stuff hehe. My options are: Live and work in the U.S. most likely in L.A.; Singapore; U.K. (i got a Cambridge diploma) or stay here in the Phils nlang. i'm twenty and it has always been a challenge for me to live alone. but i kinda like to stay here in philippines and not go somewhere else coz iL dreadfully miss my friends and the shopping malls here. haha.

seriously, is it really a good idea to go abroad? coz there's a good number of opportunites blocking my eyesight hehe. unfortunately i never had the chance to take a vacation / trip outside the country though i've been working with Americans for a year now. but i'd be more comfortable moving to an Asian country like Singapore. its the place where highly skilled IT people live. oh well, :D watchyathink? or any better place to move?

^^ It all depends on how you view your lot in life is, if you feel that your life is stagnating and not going anywhere in the Philippines, then maybe your best bet is to look overseas for employment opportunities. But if you're perfectly happy where you are right now, then stay and make the best out of it. Someone wise told me this once: "Find a job you really enjoy, and you'll never work again." Sadly, personally speaking, I'm still looking for that!

IMHO, walang kasing sarap mamuhay sa Pilipinas.

Hey Rusty, Kiretoce's advise is very very good. But whether you decide to stay or leave, make sure that you don't forget to help your country, when I go back to the states, i'll make sure to make Pinas more of a priority than before I came here.

i actually graduated in a Singapore-based school here in MLA and there's an opportunity for me to work in Sing anytime next year. I actually like the idea of working there someday or probably establish my future family??! naah! i'm too young for that stuff hehe. My options are: Live and work in the U.S. most likely in L.A.; Singapore; U.K. (i got a Cambridge diploma) or stay here in the Phils nlang. i'm twenty and it has always been a challenge for me to live alone. but i kinda like to stay here in philippines and not go somewhere else coz iL dreadfully miss my friends and the shopping malls here. haha.

seriously, is it really a good idea to go abroad? coz there's a good number of opportunites blocking my eyesight hehe. unfortunately i never had the chance to take a vacation / trip outside the country though i've been working with Americans for a year now. but i'd be more comfortable moving to an Asian country like Singapore. its the place where highly skilled IT people live. oh well, :D watchyathink? or any better place to move?
I would opt for Singapore. It's close enough to the Phils. that if you ever get homesick it's so easy to return. Thankgod for Air Asia. Why don't you try working and living outside the Phils. for a while to get a different perspective. Youre still young enough that you have plenty of opportunities to pursue . ANd don't forget after you've broaden your horizon come back to the Phils. and share your new knowledge,skills , perpective to your less fortunate kababayans.

that's very true kiretoce..

ako, i have been working for over 10 years now.. after college.. i went straight to this company i'm working now.. i've had some opportunities to go abroad.. 7 years ago.. I was very close on signing this deal with a singaporean company.. the only problem back then was.. i had a family to leave behind.. so i choose to stay.. 5 years ago.. another opportunity came.. this time sa US.. i turned it down again.. i've been so attached with my boss here.. he's based abroad.. and he treats me as his son na.. although age wise.. he's like my grandfather na.. hehehe.. he's done so many things for me and my family... he's given me so much trust.. that the only way to pay him back is that i've been very loyal to him all these years..

majority of my friends are now based abroad.. singapore, canada, australia, US.. all of them are saying that it's time to pack up and go abroad na rin.. sabi ko naman.. i'm still doing ok here.. siguro pag talagang hirap na hirap na at pag sumala na kami sa pagkain.. baka isipin ko na rin talagang mag abroad.. pero for me now.. i think mas masarap pa rin manirahan dito sa Pinas.. mahirap lang talaga ang buhay....

^^ It all depends on how you view your lot in life is, if you feel that your life is stagnating and not going anywhere in the Philippines, then maybe your best bet is to look overseas for employment opportunities. But if you're perfectly happy where you are right now, then stay and make the best out of it. Someone wise told me this once: "Find a job you really enjoy, and you'll never work again." Sadly, personally speaking, I'm still looking for that!

^^ wow, thanks a lot for all your insights guys! i know, sure is a tough decision to make whether to stay here or go somewhere else. there are just too much stuff to leave behind should i decide to go abroad. right now i really dont feel the need to go out just to earn more but hey, it always sounds exciting if given the chance. Find a job you really enjoy, and you'll never work again. sweet! hope i can find it soon!

Why don't you try working and living outside the Phils. for a while to get a different perspective. Youre still young enough that you have plenty of opportunities to pursue. And don't forget after you've broaden your horizon come back to the Phils. and share your new knowledge, skills, perpective to your less fortunate kababayans.

exactly! it's earning new skills and helping our countrymen at the same time :D i like that idea :)

Rusty, i was taken to America when I was seven, and for 15 years i saw the Philippines only through the stories of family and newspapers. It is very difficult for our generation, we are generation .5ers as we sweetly call ourselves in the US, to find "our place." I grew up in America and have assimilated to the "American Way," but my Filipino roots will always make me feel like a foreigner to my adopted country. When I came here to Pinas, i felt so American and felt so, well, foreign. It seems as if our generation is stuck in space, balancing a life in between two countries and two cultures.

Luckily for you, when you go abroad, you know that you still have a place to belong to. You know you can come back and just fit right in. It's a great feeling. If you feel like exploring the world, do it while you're young and make sure to have a steamy fling while you're at it. :)

I don't know if you'll feel the same way i do once you decide to go abroad, but i want to tell you that at some point you will encounter prejudice, especially in Caucasian regions. I advise that you do your best and keep your head up. Filipino success abroad can be partly attributed to our silent confidence; humble nature; and our ability to look past the prejudice of others.

^^ You have great insights culled from experience, Ben.

Yeah, quite sad about that prejudice discrimination. but still you are lucky than most of us here in Philippines in most aspects dude :D IMO :)

i definitely do not let it escape me that i am a very lucky person. In Chicago i never said a mini prayer b4 eating, now i do it a little more than not doing it at all. After being here a couple of months, i better be damn thankful for what i'm about to eat.

^^ from thy bounty through christ our lord, amen. ay kabisado ko pa. we stop doing that, dont know Y

Moving here to the US fifteen years ago gave me a severe case of "culture shock," my first few months here was depressing as hell! I cried a lot because I missed what I left behind in the Philippines; my way of life, my friends, my relatives and most everything else! There are days wherein I would wake up in the morning and be totally disoriented with my surroundings, thinking that I still was in Manila, then reality slaps me back to the present and I realize that I'm in a foreign country. My first winter didn't help either, it was so eerily quiet and cold, a far cry from the boisterous revelry of the streets filled with people enjoying the Christmas season. But as time went by, I became less depressed and have begun to make a new life here. Met new friends in college, that helped greatly and slowly I've acclimated to being an American. Now I wonder when I go back to the Philippines, would I miss my Americanized lifestyle, or would old buried habits return from the past and make me feel like I've never left the Philippines at all?

Ha... I had such a cliche immigration story. I was 10 when I moved to NY. Prior to moving, my conception of the United States was Sesame Street. I really did think that New York would look like the Sesame Street set, where kids would wear their overalls and sit on apartment building steps. Our first neighborhood was Elmhurst, Queens, which is one of the most international neighborhoods in the country. I think a National Geographic magazine article said that over 90 nationalities were represented in the small neighborhood. Anyway, we arrived at JFK Airport in NY and then half an hour later, I was on the street in Elmhurst playing baseball with my neighbors from Peru, Colombia, Korea and China. This was around the time when they still sold firecrackers in NYC and we moved a month before July 4th (US Independence Day). Over the next few days I was pretty much a NYC kid, playing baseball and lighting firecrackers in front of our apartment. Talk about a cliche immigration story. It was almost like my Sesame Street fantasy.

I don't think I was ever culture shocked when I moved here. To be honest, I was more culture shocked when I moved back to the Philippines for my one year of practicum work in 1999.

Yeah, quite sad about that prejudice discrimination. but still you are lucky than most of us here in Philippines in most aspects dude :D IMO :)
I think whenever you move to a foreign land you will encounter prejudice and discrimination. But don't let that stop you from fulfilling your dreams and goals. You will always have the haters specially when you're trying to better yourself. Our OFW workers are very vulnerable to this. That's why we must make conditions in the PHils. as good as possible so as leaving is not really a necessity but a choice.

Sometimes i feel like Pinas is going through a visceral world of hurt. Crying out for her people to come back and help and urging them to go abroad to help the people still left.

^^ How visually poetic.

^^ It all depends on how you view your lot in life is, if you feel that your life is stagnating and not going anywhere in the Philippines, then maybe your best bet is to look overseas for employment opportunities. But if you're perfectly happy where you are right now, then stay and make the best out of it. Someone wise told me this once: "Find a job you really enjoy, and you'll never work again." Sadly, personally speaking, I'm still looking for that!

Nobody knows it but me...

Sometimes i feel like Pinas is going through a visceral world of hurt. Crying out for her people to come back and help and urging them to go abroad to help the people still left.
I feel your pain brother.... aaahh sis pala.:lol:

for me... Im currently in Sydney...but where ever i end up soon im not sure yet....i'd love to see places...mainly in Asia..not just Japan...when i bought a condo in Phils ...although i say its for investment...well yeh ...but really i just did it as part of lifestyle i wanna live....which is convinience/travel/exploring/and a bit of freedom...im trying to establish business so that i dont have to be in an office...when you have your business...you have more freedom and you can manage your time more....my aim with these is hopefully free me up a bit and travel around asia...Japan first offcoures...then singapore...what i like in most Asian cities even to us in Manila is i reckon nightlife for one is better....wayyyyyyyy better...more alive...more vibrant...here in Sydney im always at Chinatown....one of my favorite in the city...

I feel your pain brother.... aaahh sis pala.:lol:

oooooooh sis daw o, hipoin mo nga yung kaliwang tenga :lol:

you guys at nite time maybe we can meet up somewhere round the clubs and go party hopping.. yay till dawn and have breakky at jolibee! so excited only 11wks to go. ive taken your advice on looking at some locations to visit whilst there. cya all soon.

313 Filipinos find proof of Japanese ancestry
The Asahi Shimbun 09/19/2005

MANILA -- More than three hundred Filipinos here have finally been given proof of the Japanese ancestry that they long have claimed.

A new report handed to the Japanese embassy by a local association of Filipinos of Japanese descent used family registration documents to identify 313 Filipinos as having Japanese fathers.

No such proof was available for around 800 others.

Among the local communities of Japanese descendants living in the Philippines, it is a common dream to one day be able to live and work in Japan.

Yet many have never had any documents to prove their heritage.

The new report makes it much easier for the confirmed 313 and their descendants to land visas to settle and work in Japan, according to the Foreign Ministry.

As for the 800 who were not so lucky, the association has asked the Japanese embassy to keep the investigation alive. Embassy officials said they are considering the request.

Japanese emigration to the Philippines began over a century ago.

After the Imperial Japanese Army was defeated in World War II, many Japanese were stranded here, and family members were separated from each other by death or repatriation. An estimated 10,000 second- and third-generation Japanese live in the Philippines.

In 1995, under pressure from these emigrants and their descendants, the Japanese government and various nonprofit organizations began basic efforts to document and identify their ancestry.

This year, for the first time, the Japanese government kicked off a full-fledged, specific investigation. They entrusted the task to the local association of Filipinos of Japanese descent.

The association looked into the heritage of about 1,100 second-generation Japanese immigrants.

They used family registration, marriage and birth certificates, among other information, to confirm whether claimants' fathers were from Japan.

For a taste of home, Filipinos gather at 'Little Manila'
By Kim Yoon-mi 2005.09.16

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/img_dir/2005/09/16/200509160004.jpg
Filipino workers gather at a Sunday market in Hyehwa-dong, Seoul

For the hundreds of Filipinos who flock to a small corner of Seoul on Sundays, home doesn't seem so far away. Stacks of curry powder, shrimp stir fry sauce, instant noodles, shampoo, CDs - all from the Philippines - can be seen on the Hyehwa Rotary.

"Annyeonghaseyo," says a Filipino truck owner to Korean passers-by. "I've been in Korea for a year and I love living here." She also offers a slice of Filipino pudding, made of grated cassava roots, which tastes like sweet potatoes.

A healthy-looking Filipino man takes out boxes of frozen tilapia fish from his truck and sets up for the day. "Tilapia tastes softer than other fish," he says. He also sells dried fish and fermented salty fish.

Most of the Filipinos at the market are migrant workers, often exhausted and stressed out from frequent nightshifts. Speaking in their language, Tagalog, they meet like-minded Filipino friends, hang out, and join the mass at the nearby Hyewha-dong Catholic Church.

Hernandez, 39, who sells international phone cards and a handful of second-hand mobile phones says he rarely sees Koreans at this Sunday market. "They are all Filipinos. Few other foreigners and Koreans come here on Sundays."

Another vendor lures passers-by with "turon," fried spring rolls stuffed with banana. The vendor peels off the banana skin and wraps the banana with dough, dips it in brown sugar and fries it.

"Isn't it fun? Mmm. This is quite sweet," says a Korean man to his family as he tastes the turon. "I live around here, so I come here often. There are many interesting foods on Sundays here. This market used to be a small one but has grown little by little and now it's big."

The intriguing Filipino delicacies do not stop there. Steamed duck eggs are available for Filipinos who long for a taste of home. Some visitors' foreheads wrinkle up at the scene but the seller brags that they are good for joints and stamina.

Across from the vending trucks, Filipino women sit on the street and sell vegetables such as bitter melon, sweet potato stalks, spinach, and long beans.

As more and more Filipino products fill up the street, the space gets crowded. Then, harsh yelling is heard from a couple of crackdown staff from the local Jongno District Office who are trying to secure enough space on the pedestrian street. "If you don't cooperate with us, you can't sell these here. Do you understand?" says the man to the vendors whose boxes of fish and vegetables seemed to get in the way of pedestrians. Filipino sellers put their boxes back on their trucks and the market regains its vigor as if nothing had happened.

When the clock strikes 1:30 p.m., crowds of Filipinos go into Hyewha-dong Cathlic Church which holds a mass in Tagalog as well as in English. "As over 80 percent of Filipinos are Roman Catholics, thousands of Filipinos in Korea come to the mass here. I've been here over seven years," says Wilma, 43, who works as a maid during the week and helps the proceedings of the mass on Sundays.

Many Filipinos spare no effort and time in joining the mass every Sunday. Factory coworkers, Herman and Maria, make a four-hour journey from Icheon in Gyeonggi Province. "It is the only mass in Tagalog - we have no other choice. But we like being in here," they say.

Even though crowds of Filipinos nearly block the entrance of the church where the Filipino market starts, Korean churchgoers do not seem to feel uncomfortable about it. "I think it's good to offer mass to Filipinos because they have rights to their religion and their culture. If we were in their shoes, we would want to do the same in a foreign land," says a Korean church member Yoo Myeong-ja, 50.

Many Filipinos in Korea carry on with their exhausting lives but put all their worries and troubles before God and forget them in this "little Manila."

To get to the church, take Subway Line No. 4 to Hyehwa Station. Come out of Exit No. 1 and walk toward the end of the street. The market is formed along the Hyewha Rotary, from Dongseong High School to the entrance of Hyehwa-dong Catholic Church.

^^ Dadagdag pa dyan yung future "suplings" ni Someguy and Japanese/Korean ladylove/crush. :colgate:

Ganun na rin kay Mango (if he is not careful with his "emotional" girl who keeps all the mementos, receipt and tickets with personal notes of their dates.) :)

^^Ehem, ehem. There are more undocumented Japinos. There is an agency along Taft which provides assistance like tracing the japanese father's whereabouts to seek recognition and financial help.

With the declining birth rate in Japan, maybe its a good idea to recognize people with Japanese blood for citizenship not only in the Phil but in other countries as well. The Nikkeijins (half japanese) of Davao and Brazil are enjoying this privelege and some job ads would specify this qualification.

Hi everyone! I posted much much earlier in this thread before that I was going back home to Manila and start a business. I think that was around the time that all the political turmoil started (or slightly before that). Anyway, just an update. I've decided to stay put here in LA for now. I was offered a good job with much better pay and honestly, I chickened out with all the things happening over there. Got scared about the possibility na baka walang mangyari sa akin kapag bumalik ako. It was a really hard decision to make. I miss my family so much and of course miss the Phils. Lab ko siya e. But for now I think this decision is what is best for my future.

darn another potential investor down the drain.

Ramvingar, you can still invest without being here.

OR

Go to UNICEF philippines website and donate. I was a volunteer of UNICEF and can attest that it is a good organization. Very good.

Hi everyone! I posted much much earlier in this thread before that I was going back home to Manila and start a business. I think that was around the time that all the political turmoil started (or slightly before that). Anyway, just an update. I've decided to stay put here in LA for now. I was offered a good job with much better pay and honestly, I chickened out with all the things happening over there. Got scared about the possibility na baka walang mangyari sa akin kapag bumalik ako. It was a really hard decision to make. I miss my family so much and of course miss the Phils. Lab ko siya e. But for now I think this decision is what is best for my future.

@Ramvingar: I think that is a good decision for now. Allow things to stabilize first in Pinas and then when they are making headway with the economic programs and there is more political stability, then you can reassess and go back. As they say, you can invest your earnings here to your family business there. So all is well.

Singapore is nice but alittle boring. Not much to do there. No natural attractions everything manmade.
i like singapore..........too clean & peaceful.

Why don't we have something like that in the US. There are crap loads of pinoys/pinays there.

Ramvingar, you can still invest without being here.

OR

Go to UNICEF philippines website and donate. I was a volunteer of UNICEF and can attest that it is a good organization. Very good.

thanks for the advise dancethingy. actually, i already sent some money to invest in a business that my youngest bro wants to put up.

UNICEF is also a good idea. It never would have even crossed my mind. thanks for the info again. i will definitely make a donation.

@Ramvingar: I think that is a good decision for now. Allow things to stabilize first in Pinas and then when they are making headway with the economic programs and there is more political stability, then you can reassess and go back. As they say, you can invest your earnings here to your family business there. So all is well.

yup! that is exactly what i plan to do. you know the funny thing? i've spoke to a lot of Pinoys here lately who are in the same predicament and pare pareho tayo ng mga iniisip. cool!

^ I think because here in the US, we have rather permanent Filipino communities. THink Daly City, CA, Jersey City, NJ, Woodside, NY, etc. I have a feeling that most of the Filipinos in Seoul are OFWs and are not property owners or store owners, so the "Little Manila" thing is probably like a weekend street fair kind of thing.

Here in the US, we can actually go to a Filipino store or a Filipino restaurant any day of the week.

Okay, this article isn't really about Pinoys, but of the plight of the Vietnamese boat people living in the Philippines, awaiting their arrival in the United States.

================================================================


229 Vietnamese refugees leave for the United States
By Anjo Perez and Louie Perez

NINOY AQUINO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT — The dream of 229 Vietnamese refugees to settle in the United States came true yesterday when they finally boarded an aircraft that will take them to Los Angeles, California, United States.

Of the thousands of Vietnamese who paddled their way to the Philippines to flee communist rule in their homeland Vietnam, 229 refugees boarded a chartered Boeing 757 jet that left this airport at 11 a.m. yesterday.

The group is the first batch of the remaining 1,855 "stateless citizens" that have lived in camps established by the United Nations in Bataan and Palawan 16 years ago.

After a long wait, the US government, through the intercession of the Philippine government and the International Organization for Migration, agreed to give the state-less citizens refugee status in America.

Most of the refugees who left yesterday have relatives in the US, and under an agreement reached with the Philippine government in April, 2004, the US immigration will approve their status as "lawful permanent residents." In five years, they will be eligible for American citizenship.

However, those who married Filipinos during their stay here are no longer eligible to go to the US.

Meanwhile, those who are still eligible will be leaving for the US within six months.

The Philippine government waived the R550 airport terminal fee for all the 229 refugees and the immigration fees for overstaying in the country.

The group was sent off by IOM representative Patrick Corcoran.

The IOM, based in Switzerland, assisted in the medical screening, travel arrangements, and other administrative requirements of the refugees who were approved by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services office.

Here's another article about the "stateless" Vietnamese citizens in the Philippines.

================================================================


US-bound boat people will miss 'Eat Bulaga'
By Volt Contreras Inquirer News Service Sept 26, 2005

LY HONG HAI says he will surely miss the native dish sinigang, variety shows like "Eat Bulaga!" and everything that made his life bearable despite being a "stateless" person in the only Southeast Asian country that didn't turn away boat people like him.

Together with his wife Nga and two small children, Ly belongs to the first batch of 229 Vietnamese who are flying to Los Angeles today thanks to a humanitarian accord between the United States and the Philippines that grants US resettlement to the last remaining asylum seekers from Vietnamese communist rule.

Their chartered flight leaves the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at around 11 a.m. They were initially scheduled to have left at 2:45 a.m. but the flight was postponed due to Hurricane Rita.

The April 2004 agreement is expected to benefit an estimated 1,600 Vietnamese in the next six months and is deemed the closing chapter in the saga of the boat people who had sought refuge in the Philippines by the tens of thousands since 1975.

They once lived in camps run by the United Nations in the town of Morong in Bataan province and in Puerto Princesa City in Palawan province. In 1989, the international community meeting in Geneva decided that those fleeing Vietnam were "economic migrants" and not refugees, or people fleeing a well-founded fear of persecution.

When the shelters closed down in 1996, the Vietnamese dispersed throughout the country, vulnerable as they lacked legal papers that would allow them to work or study.

A majority of the boat people eked out a living in the underground economy as street or market vendors, blending with the populace without losing their identity. (Those who stayed and formed a village in Palawan, in fact, still hold gatherings for the Tet or Lunar New Year festivities, singing the national anthem of the now non-existent South Vietnam).

Their children faced difficulties enrolling in schools; those who got admitted were either eventually kicked out or could not apply for jobs after graduation. They survived the system generally through accommodation by local authorities. But all that seems behind them now, especially for the Lys.

The Inquirer saw them and their other US-bound compatriots on Saturday in a cramped office in Baclaran which had a free legal assistance desk for the Vietnamese.


Noodle house left behind

On the eve of the new life awaiting his family, 39-year-old Ly made sure his parting message to his host country bore no trace of their past hardships. "Maraming salamat po," he said in halting Filipino.

Through an interpreter, Ly said he got nothing but "kindness from the government and the Filipino people" from his years confined in a camp to his struggling days as a peddler of footwear, clothes, perfume and underwear in the streets of Puerto Princesa.

Ly had operated a Vietnamese chao long noodle house in the provincial capital since the late '90s. He owned the business but, due to his stateless status, had the license issued in the name of a Filipino friend.

He conceded that "in any society" aliens like him were vulnerable to abuse and unpleasant encounters with the locals. "Minsan may mga loko talaga (Sometimes there are really rascals)," he smiled.

But when urged to recall specific incidents, he said there was no need to talk about them as these were "too petty compared to the warmth and hospitality I received from the Filipinos."

Fresh out of high school, Ly got on a motorized fishing boat with 154 others mostly from the Vietnam city of Phu Yen in August 1989. They spent five days at sea and made their supply of rice and drinking water last by rationing them in "bottle caps." Their boat finally found friendly waters off the shores of Batangas province.

Asked why he had dared to leave his homeland and his entire family behind, Ly said he wanted to "escape from the communist government" under which there were "no human rights."

His Chinese-blooded family particularly suffered discrimination, he said. Their family-owned soap factory was confiscated by the state and the children were barred from attending university.


Forced labor

"I miss my family so much, but I have to do it [flee] for my own life," he added. "They sent my mother into forced labor," recalled Dang Thi Lot, 38, another asylum seeker set to leave for LA, sharing the reasons she braved the waves of the South China Sea in May 1989.

She said the communist government was also harsh on her family because her father used to serve with the defeated South Vietnamese army.

Dang sailed off also from Phu Yen on a boat shared by 31 people. They were "rescued" 12 days later by Filipino fishermen off Subic Bay. Her family also was housed in the Palawan camp and moved to Pasay City after the facility closed down.


Filipino friends

She had since been a market vendor in Alabang, Muntinlupa, selling footwear and clothes.

Like Ly, she said "thank you" to the government and the Filipinos, especially those who "helped me with my Tagalog and helped me find my way around the city as well as find contacts for my business."

The LA trip made the day particularly busy for Australian-Vietnamese lawyer Trinh Hoi, whose Baclaran office had been the go-to place for the boat people following up on their resettlement cases.

"The fact that they chose to be stateless persons here living in legal limbo speaks volumes about the situation in Vietnam," said Trinh, who heads the Manila office of the Vietnamese Community in Australia.

With a staff of Vietnamese volunteers from here and Australia, Trinh has been in and out of the Philippines in the last eight years, providing free legal aid to the asylum seekers.


Going against the tide

"The Philippines is the only country in Southeast Asia that did not force the asylum seekers back to where they were being persecuted. You went against the international tide at the time," Trinh said.

In February 1996, the administration of President Fidel Ramos launched a "forced flight" that sent 84 rejected asylum seekers back to Vietnam. But the move was discontinued after that first trip because of pressure from non-government organizations and the Catholic Church, the lawyer recalled.

But not everyone in the VCA office was in a light, farewell mood. Trinh said he was still working on over 70 cases of Vietnamese who were "denied" US resettlement just because they had married Filipinos.

Such is the case of Ngo Din Hun Ngan, 30, a longtime peddler of fabrics, shoes, hair clips and other dry goods in Olongapo City, where he wed Pilar Colorado, 33. They now have two children.

"Of course I want to go to America," said the brooding Ngo, who landed in the Philippines at age 15 on a vessel carrying 44 passengers from Nha Trang. "Now, I don't know where else to go."

"Can't we ask the US to review our case? Our marriage should not be a reason to be excluded. It's not our fault," his wife Pilar pleaded.

Under the April 2004 agreement, Trinh said, the Philippines is supposed to "make best efforts" to offer permanent residency to remaining Vietnamese, like Ngo, whom the United States would not take in.

"But that still doesn't mean anything to them until now," he said, urging the government, particularly the Department of Justice and Congress, to address the predicament of "human lives stuck in the twilight zone of bureaucracy and laws."

:cry: ^^ pang maalaala mo kaya vibes

Well this will become an interesting footnote in our history. Good Luck to them all.

Help wanted: Filipinos answering looming staff shortage
By Yoshihiro Ogino, The Asahi Shimbun 10/10/2005

It seemed a dream come true, a way for Filipinos to gain employment in Japan without having to wait tables or work factory lines.

But when Tokyo promised in the free trade agreement (FTA) it signed with Manila last year to allow Philippine nationals to work in Japan's growing and understaffed nursing care sector, it also stipulated they undertake several years of study.

For many Filipinos already living here, that was a tall order, physically and financially.

Enter Avance Corp., a job placement company based in Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture.

In January, Avance set up a roughly three-month course designed to train Filipinos as "home helpers," a basic nursing care qualification regulated by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

Takaharu Hayashi, president of Avance, says after recognizing the large number of women from the Philippines in Japan with permanent visas or spouse visas, their limited job opportunities and their strong desire to gain work, the course seemed like a win-win idea-even without factoring in the expected staffing shortage.

While not as specialized as the tertiary-based certified care worker required by the FTA deal, the qualification comes in three levels, the second of which is generally required for employment at welfare facilities.

A Filipina waitress living in Nagoya with her young daughter is one of 19 women, all in their 30s and 40s, enrolled in Avance's second three-month course.

Twice a week, the woman in her 30s travels to the city center to attend lectures on general nursing care practices and Japan's welfare system. In total, she must attend 130 hours of lectures and practical training to gain the Level Two qualification.

The 98,000-yen course fee, she says, is money well spent.

Having first come to Japan 15 years ago on an entertainment visa, she subsequently married a customer of the pub she worked in. The marriage, however, ended in divorce and now she is keen to find a job that will both free up her evenings to spend with her daughter and take her well into the future.

"Even if I grow old, I can continue to work as a helper," she says. "Because there are many elderly people in Japan, I believe this is a good opportunity for me."

Her classmate, a 34-year-old from Kuwana in Mie Prefecture, has taken leave from her job in a food factory to undergo the training.

"Although many companies are going under, I think that welfare facilities will be all right," she says.

Because most of them have been in Japan a long time, Hayashi says there are few language problems.

Efforts are made, however, to teach the women specialized kanji related to nursing. These include the Chinese characters for "position change" and "taking a bath," which are needed to fill in daily patient reports.

As far as employment prospects once the women have gained their certificate, interest is growing, with seven of the 20 Filipino women on the first course now working in a special care facility for the elderly in Nagoya's Nakamura Ward. Four of them have been offered permanent contracts.

While Hayashi says some facilities are reluctant to employ foreigners, he believes that will change.

"With many elderly people not familiar with foreigners, there are many facilities that are hesitant (about employing non-Japanese helpers). However, at those facilities which have, our students have developed a reputation for being sympathetic and kind," he said.

Meanwhile, the number of Filipino women wanting to take the course is growing. The third course has just begun in Nagoya and another has started in Ichinomiya.

He sees Filipinos in a much better light (than we do)
By Margie Quimpo-Espino Inquirer News Service Oct. 02, 2005

MOST view the exodus of Filipinos to foreign lands negatively, as it shows they have given up hope in their own country. One executive however, (and a foreigner at that) looks at it from a more inspiring perspective.

New Standard Chartered Bank chief executive Eugene Ellis says the 80,000 or so Filipinos who leave the Philippines every year to work abroad prove that Filipinos are good workers and are in demand all over the world.

"You don't see that many British leaving their country to work abroad, do you?" he quips.

Although people really leave because of the lack of opportunities here, taking Ellis' perspective does sound and feel better. And he puts action behind his words.

Having seen the quality of Filipino workers for himself even before he took up his post in Manila, Ellis wants to make the Philippines a center of training for Standard Chartered managers.

"Why not bring the world to the Philippines and make the Philippines a center of excellence within the bank?" Ellis points out. "You have excellent training facilities here like AIM (Asian Institute of Management); you have a great training staff here, some of whom went out to conduct training abroad; you have cheap but world class hotels and the service is fantastic; your organizing capability amazes me."

Why he cares for the Philippines stems from a mix of experiences.

As someone who paved the way for 'nonwhites' in the corporate ladder of the bank over three decades ago, Ellis knows how it is to be underestimated, as he feels Filipinos are.

To Ellis, the overseas Filipino workers represent "feeding the world with a trickle of gold but the mother lode is sitting here in the Philippines. We have to mine this for the benefit of the Philippines."


Beginnings

Some 33 years ago, he left his native India and sought a better life in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.

He walked into the office of Standard Chartered and handed his application to a British accountant who did not even look at him.

He just simply told him that the bank had no openings for clerks.

Ellis' reply was: "I am applying as an officer."

Only then did the accountant look up and asked, "What makes you think you can be an officer?"

Ellis simply handed in his resume and left. By the time he got home, the phone was ringing and the accountant asked him to come back for an interview.

He got the job. And the British accountant became his mentor and friend for 15 years.


Banking start

Prior to going to UAE, Ellis worked for The State Bank of India where his father also worked.

He was assigned in the mail department where he delivered documents and letters, reading everything that passed through his hands and acquiring banking knowledge along the way.

While with the State Bank, he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Commerce and Economics via a distance learning program from the University of Delhi.

Ellis had finished high school at 15 and was not qualified to go to University where the minimum acceptance age was 16.

At that time, he was in love with cars and worked as a mechanic.

He soon realized that working in cars was different from riding them.

He quit and joined The State Bank. Ellis knew, however, that his growth in the bank would be stymied because his father was still there.

Many of the officials still looked at him as the little boy who would often visit his father.

When he was due to become an officer, he had to take a post in a village for him to be promoted.

At that time, Ellis was already married, to Maria, a designer and Catholic like him who also pursued her college degree while working. They decided it was time to "go west" as many were doing.

He boarded a plane, leaving Maria who was heavy with their first child.

Once he got accepted in Standard Chartered in 1975, Ellis was sent to London for training. There, he was taught among other things to acquire an "international accent," a way of speaking English without a distinct accent indicating nationality.

While there, he took advantage of the quality tailors in the British capital and had several suits made.

He was excited at the prospect of wearing them when he went back to the Middle East as the first non-British officer of the bank.

But the suits stayed in their hangers for months. On his first day back from training, he was told to come in working clothes.


Work in a ceiling

Confused but obedient, he donned his "working clothes" and was told to sort the bank's records of 20 years.

The documents were mixed with pigeon poop.

"After a few despondent days, I started reading," Ellis says. He finished filing and sorting everything in three months and gained more knowledge about the bank than any other employee.

It was smooth sailing then for Ellis who said he never left because the bank kept promoting him.

After 11 years in Dubai he and Maria decided to move, as the children needed a better environment for their education.

At that time, schooling in the area was limited. Although the bank gave them choices—Britain, United States, Canada—they decided on Australia because Maria had relatives there.

By this time, Ellis had earned a reputation as the bank's fair-haired boy, then being the only non-British member of top management.

When he left Dubai, he was treasurer.

A few days after he started working in Australia he called Maria, who was left in Dubai to pack and transport everything, to tell her to stop what she was doing as he was going back.

It turned out that Ellis was assigned to a post seven notches lower than his last with a salary that was "pathetic."

But having been there before, Ellis took the job.

"I fought hard to prove myself 200 percent. I would ask questions about the way things were being done. I would give suggestions," he says.

Three months later, the bank's head of Treasury apologized profusely and wrote a letter to Australia's managing director telling him they had made a mistake.

Ellis was immediately promoted three to four levels higher.

He stayed in Australia for six years. He bought a home and acquired citizenship along the way. He was moved to Singapore for four years and then sent back to Australia. This time as CEO.

In 2004, he heard about the Philippine post and volunteered for the job.

"They were shocked," he says of management's reaction.

It is not his first time in the country. He was here the day after Aquino was assassinated when everything was quiet. He had such a good time that he extended his stay in the country to a week.

Ellis admits he loves Filipinos. When he was in Singapore, his wife dabbled in the fashion business and they had two Filipina maids whom she taught to sew and cut.

The skills displayed by the two amazed Eugene and Maria.

The Philippine post may be Ellis' last. But it is here where he want to be remembered as having done the most.

"Everybody has an ego. I want to be remembered as having contributed to a people and a country. We can use the culture of the Philippines for the betterment of the bank.

"You are sitting on the mother lode," he says.

Early Pinoys in US came from Ilocos
By Frank Cimatu Inquirer News Service Oct 11, 2005

THE PATRIARCH of the New Orleans Pinoys, the first Filipinos to settle in mainland United States, may not be a "Manilaman" but an Ilocano.

"Manilamen" or "Filipino Cajuns" were the terms used for Filipino crewmembers of a Manila galleon in the 1760s who escaped and settled in the bayous in what is now New Orleans. These Filipinos were regarded as the first Asians to immigrate in continental US.

Marina Espina, a trustee of the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) and a former associate librarian of the Earl K. Long Library of the University of New Orleans, was the first to bring to the fore this unknown history.

Unfortunately, the documents on Espina's research on the Manilamen were destroyed by floods caused by Hurricane Katrina that devastated New Orleans last month.

But interest on the "Manilamen" has been revived.

Nestor Palugod Enriquez, also a trustee of the FANHS, said the New Orleans Pinoys came from another route.

"The Madriaga line and the later immigrants, however, were seafarers from the passenger ship in the Atlantic. The route from Liverpool to New Orleans started with the slave ship from Africa and reached its peak with the big Irish immigration. It charted the meeting of Felipe and Bridgett," he said.

"Felipe" and "Bridgett" were Felipe Madriaga and Bridgett Nugent, whom Enriquez described as the "first recorded Filipino-American generation."

The arrival of the Madriagas and company came around 1840. These were the men who made the Manila village.

"By the late 19th century, people from the Philippines were sometimes known as 'Manilamen.' I reviewed British census from that era and we were listed as from 'Manila,'" Enriquez said.

"The Manila village of New Orleans was not named as such because the men were from Manila. Most of the New Orleans pioneers were actually Visayan," he said.

But he had reason to believe that Felipe Madriaga was an Ilocano.

Enriquez sent an old photo of the Madriagas and written on its back was a passage that said Felipe was from the Ilocos.

Lawyer Rodel Rodis, also a FANHS member, had this to say about the Madriagas: "Felipe Madriaga was born in 1803 in the Philippines and was a seaman in Europe when he met and fell in love with an Irish passenger on a ship bound for America. Madriaga and Bridgett Nugent were married some time in the 1850s and settled in New Orleans where they opened a Filipino restaurant, which catered to the Spanish West Indian and Filipino sailors who would dock in New Orleans."

"His three daughters married Filipino sailors, one of whom, Baltic Borabod from Bohol, later became an overseer at a Louisiana plantation. Another Filipino son-in-law from Capiz later became captain of his own fishing fleet," Rodis said.

Although they were able to buy plots in St. Vincent Parish Cemetery in New Orleans, the Madriaga couple was buried in a nearby parish (barangays are known as parishes in New Orleans).

Enriquez said the cemetery was hit by a storm and many of the coffins, including probably those of the couple, were washed into the river and out to the sea.

He said the Madriagas, now in its eighth generation, did not bear a son so there was no one who carried the family surname.

The Madriagas' photo showed the elderly Madriagas and the second and third generations. One of the grandchildren was Rosie Borabod, the great grandmother of Rhonda Burtanog Fox, who held the original of the photo.

Fox, a sixth generation Madriaga, worked for the St. Bernard Parish School and was evacuated from New Orleans to Northern Louisiana, Enriquez said.

Fox, who describes herself as "the last flower child" in her blog (web log), has this to say about her heritage:

"In my mother's family, our male ancestors were Filipino seamen who found their way to Louisiana, liked it, and settled here. They left the sea, but they didn't leave the water. Our progenitor, Felipe Madriaga, was a mariner from Ilocos, North of the Philippines who fell in love with an Irish girl named Bridgett Nugent. She was a passenger, coming with her family to America, and he was a crewman on the ship."

"[Bridgett] was just a teenager, and [Felipe] was more than 10 years older, but I'm told he was a handsome and charming man, and she fell in love [with him]. On arrival at the Port of New Orleans, she informed her parents that she would not be going on to New York with them, and they left, distraught, never to speak to her again," Fox said.

"I have become my mother and her mother and her mother's mother, the daughters of seafarers and fishermen, who, in the absence of men, determined their fates for themselves."

^ I think because here in the US, we have rather permanent Filipino communities. THink Daly City, CA, Jersey City, NJ, Woodside, NY, etc. I have a feeling that most of the Filipinos in Seoul are OFWs and are not property owners or store owners, so the "Little Manila" thing is probably like a weekend street fair kind of thing.

Here in the US, we can actually go to a Filipino store or a Filipino restaurant any day of the week.

same here in toronto. you have lots of filipino stores, restos, video bars, etc. you want sinigang, you have all the ingredients. you want chicharon for your palabok? you have it, all crushed to make it easier for you. you miss those shows back home? sure, just subscribe to tfc or just drop by some pinoy video bar.

the thing is, can't seem to find restos serving kinilaw (raw fish salad). hehehe, that will one good reason to go home for a well-deserved (well-reasoned?) vacation.:)

also, you have lots of asian groceries here for your hard to find ingredients, and they're cheap too.

^ I think because here in the US, we have rather permanent Filipino communities. THink Daly City, CA, Jersey City, NJ, Woodside, NY, etc. I have a feeling that most of the Filipinos in Seoul are OFWs and are not property owners or store owners, so the "Little Manila" thing is probably like a weekend street fair kind of thing.

Here in the US, we can actually go to a Filipino store or a Filipino restaurant any day of the week.


yeh.......i think so too...im saying this coz i saw a short documentary on this sbs or maybe abc asia-pacific.

Hi everyone, I currently live here in Dallas, I used to live in Hawaii, NJ and NC and finally settled here in TX. I miss Pinas soo much, I am finally going on January after so long. First stop would be definitely jollibee, miss ko na yung spaghetti nila, then andoks lechong manok and liempo. My gosh it is really overwhelming. Hopefully i'll get to meet some forumers when i get there :)

schedule na natin yan!!

where are you staying ba pag nandito sa pinas? dito lang ba sa manila?

Hi everyone, I currently live here in Dallas, I used to live in Hawaii, NJ and NC and finally settled here in TX. I miss Pinas soo much, I am finally going on January after so long. First stop would be definitely jollibee, miss ko na yung spaghetti nila, then andoks lechong manok and liempo. My gosh it is really overwhelming. Hopefully i'll get to meet some forumers when i get there :)

schedule na natin yan!!

where are you staying ba pag nandito sa pinas? dito lang ba sa manila?

naks naman ang bilis mong sumagot Dvorak!hehehe. Well we will mainly stay sa manila, pero baka magpunta kami ng Plantation bay but not sure yet. I also have a balikbayan friend and she wants to go to a male strip club :naughty: cge magkita-kita tayo para gumimik, atleast we have a guide. :)

tama yan islandhoney......sa manila sila Dvorak guide mo then sa plantation bay (cebu yata 2) ako ang guide mo.......hehehehe

teka male strip club.. ehhh di ko yata type yann.. hehehehe

pero gimik.. sure.. kahit sa cebu pwede kitang samahan..

naks naman ang bilis mong sumagot Dvorak!hehehe. Well we will mainly stay sa manila, pero baka magpunta kami ng Plantation bay but not sure yet. I also have a balikbayan friend and she wants to go to a male strip club :naughty: cge magkita-kita tayo para gumimik, atleast we have a guide. :)

tama yan islandhoney......sa manila sila Dvorak guide mo then sa plantation bay (cebu yata 2) ako ang guide mo.......hehehehe

no problem basta ba mangli-libre kayo ayos yan! :cheers:

teka.. sino ba ang may dala nang dollars?? dapat yun manlilibre.. kasi kami.. pesos lang dito.. heheheh

no problem basta ba mangli-libre kayo ayos yan! :cheers:

teka.. sino ba ang may dala nang dollars?? dapat yun manlilibre.. kasi kami.. pesos lang dito.. heheheh

well and bisita and ine-entertaine diba. Alam mo nanam sa dami ng balik bayan boxes, baka wa ng matira so dollares. Mga Pinoy talaga nangunguna sa pagdating s libre. hahahaha!

hehehe mukhang e-cancell ko ang pagiging guide nito.....

sure yun lang pala eh.. pwede naman maglakad na lang tayo sa baywalk.. free naman yun.. hehehe

well and bisita and ine-entertaine diba. Alam mo nanam sa dami ng balik bayan boxes, baka wa ng matira so dollares. Mga Pinoy talaga nangunguna sa pagdating s libre. hahahaha!

Hello, I live in Melbourne, Australia. I came here with my family in 1982. Originally from Sta. Cruz, Manila.

^^ G'Day! What's it like there in Melbourne? Is there a huge Pinoy community where you're at? :colgate:

Gov't scouts for new job markets abroad
Ronnel W. Domingo Inquirer News Service Oct. 20, 2005

The Government is looking at new and emerging job markets overseas in an effort to compensate for the potential loss of 55,000 jobs in Japan due to stricter rules affecting Filipino performance artists, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said.

The POEA said it was pursuing new and additional opportunities to create 65,000 jobs and to attain its target of helping secure a million jobs overseas a year for Filipino workers.

It said the efforts were focused on Israel for caregivers, and tourism and construction workers; Macau for casino and hotel workers; Singapore and China for teachers; and Australia, Norway, Trinidad and Tobago, and South Africa for healthcare workers.

Opportunities also abound in Turks and Caicos Islands for construction workers; Cayman Islands for restaurant workers; Bahamas for medical and skilled workers; United Kingdom for social workers and physical and occupational therapists; Iran for skilled workers; and Kazakhstan for technical and professional workers in the oil, energy and construction sectors, the POEA said

POEA Deputy Administrator Carmelita Dimzon told reporters that the new hires in 2004 consisted of workers in services, professional and technical jobs, production, clerical work, sales, agriculture, and those hired for administrative and managerial positions.

Dimzon said 284,912 new hires were deployed last year, on top of the 648,676 workers returning to jobs abroad.

She said Filipinos continued to be competitive in technical competence, English proficiency, Western-oriented education and training, their caring attitude, and adaptability to a multicultural environment.

However, she noted some of the weaknesses of overseas Filipino workers: declining proficiency in English, declining quality of education and training, and are quick to go to third parties such as the courts to settle disputes with employers.

The Department of Labor and Employment meanwhile said at least 350 foreign employers from transnational companies in Taiwan, Australia, the Middle East, Japan, the Caribbean, Europe and North America would visit next month to meet with licensed recruitment agencies.

A hiring conference called "First International Labor Opportunities Forum" will be held Nov. 8-11 at the Philippine International Convention Center.

i stumbled across some articles on the daily herald (chicago) on the philippines. most of it is about immigration and the tangentialities regarding the said phenomenon. there is also a focus on urban planning and help that people from chicago give to the philippines. i think it's a good read. rather long but a good read.

http://www.dailyherald.com/special/philippines/index.asp

^^ Xandro, great find! Thanks for sharing.

^^ Yeah! That was a great read! :okay:

more like a book. paints a pretty bad picture of the philippines.

kamusta ang men's gallery sa city?? buhay pa ba??

Hello, I live in Melbourne, Australia. I came here with my family in 1982. Originally from Sta. Cruz, Manila.

^^ G'Day! What's it like there in Melbourne? Is there a huge Pinoy community where you're at? :colgate:

ey u guys evacuated yet, is wilma passing through MICKEY MOUSE turf

i dont know bout melbourne... but here in sydney there is a large filipino population and its great to see that we are opening our sari sari stores in westfields...!

ey u guys evacuated yet, is wilma passing through MICKEY MOUSE turf

No we didn't evacuate....the hurricane made landfall around 6:00am today in Naples and will exit the state later this afternoon/evening around West Palm Beach/Fort Lauderdale.

All we are getting are heavy rain bands, gusty winds, and tornado watches/warnings advisories. Hurricane Wilma's path will miss Orlando by about 200 miles, so we're still at a safe distance.

i have this friend, si ate .... she worked as a dh sa singapore noon. decided to apply as a caregiver sa canada. the thing is, she was adviced by the agency who handled her application to include her family meaning she is single. so tweng tweng, fast forward, naging canadian citizen na sya, she tried to sponsor her family. bad news, she got denied dahil falsification of public documents, etc. she appealed, same thing. she was downhearted dahil walang pag-asang madala nya ang pamilya nya dito sa canada. her son had to apply as a caregiver para lang makapunta dito sa canada.

moral lesson of the story, declare everbody in your family kahit wala kayong planong dalhin kagad ang inyong pamilya when applying as an immigrant or anything, and best of all, answer truthfully dahil some embassies do random checks.

more like a book. paints a pretty bad picture of the philippines.

You know what, I didn't really get to sift through the pages.

What a great read. I don't usually read the daily herald because of their conservative slant, but they have good journalistic integrity. They did endorse Kerry this past election.

All i have to say is WOW!

Thank you so much for posting that Daily Herald special edition

Reading it was so entrancing. I especially found the section on World War II Veterans very touching and enlightening. The article shines a sad light on the suffering our Lolos went through during that murderous war. Such stories aren't being shared today in Philippine mainstream society. It's as if the people just forgot what happened. That's quite unfortunate because people here will never know how our ancestors suffered for the survival of our country. Their blood gave us a future and that should never be forgotten.

People here are so congenially verbalizing the "wala ng pagasa ang bansa na to" attitude. Maybe, once they discover the hardships our ancestors experienced, they will realize the extent of disrespect they are inflicting our World War 2 veterans.

So many stories, so many sacrifices, and they are disappearing so rapidly. I'm heartbroken. If there was only a way for us to collect the memories of those who are alive right now, we can still tell people the stories. Is there any national pride (true national pride, not the empty shallow pride of politicians) left in this country to bring these stories to the doorstep of every Filipino. I'll take a World War 2 Filipino movie over some Hero Angeles/Sandara Park flick ANYTIME.

My grandfather survived the Bataan march. He's 89 now. I've asked him about it, but now i have to do more interviewing.

This section is also especially worthy. It connotes the links between Chicago and the Philippines. Manila can be Chicago, all we have to do is THINK BIG, be ambitious. What do we have to lose????

Burnham's vision links Chicago with the Philippines
Stories by Mike Comerford
Photographs by Mark Welsh
Daily Herald Staff
Fourth of five parts

Swan boats sitting on the Burnham Park lagoon in Baguio City might remind Chicagoans of the Lincoln Park lagoon. Chicago architect Daniel Burnham laid out plans for Chicago, Baguio and Manila.
Fiestas and lavish dinners were prepared for the Chicago architects everywhere they went that January of 1905.

The elite of the Philippines toasted and queried world-renowned architect Daniel Burnham and fellow designer Pierce Anderson about their plans for Manila and a proposed summer capital in the "Baguio meadow," in the cool mountains of northern Luzon.

A century later, the meadow at Baguio has become a bustling city. Manila's famous promenade along its bay, along with parks, government buildings and waterways, still resonates Burnham's original plans — and the architect's bust stands prominently at the city center, dubbed Burnham Park.

"It's really a fascinating and little-known aspect of his career," said Sally Chapell, an architectural historian in Chicago and professor emeritus at DePaul University. "He was thinking about Chicago years before (he published his Chicago Plan in 1909). He may have had Lake Shore Drive in mind when he was looking at Manila Bay."

After his success with the "White City" of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, Burnham showed that planning could create cities that were visually stunning as well as functional. Thus was born the movement known as "City Beautiful."

As an early representative of the movement, Manila shares some layout elements found in Chicago. Burnham left Manila's Spanish fortress and inner city substantially intact but also planned grand boulevards, parks, waterways and public buildings outside the fortress.

Likewise, Lake Shore Drive and Grant Park were created for Lake Michigan views. Museums, such as the Field Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry, were built near the shoreline.

Baguio and Manila were devastated in World War II, obliterating much of Burnham's work. Nevertheless, the basic layouts remain from the plans he shared at those dinners in 1905.

"Manila," Burnham wrote at the time, "may rightly hope to become the adequate expression of the destiny of the Filipino people as well as an enduring witness to the efficient services of America in the Philippine Islands."

- WOW, history is so moving and so visceral, yet so many find it insanely boring. Manila and the Philippines is so rich of it too.

@ bustero, i don't think it necessarily paints a bad picture about our country. It shows the challenges, the complexities, and the resilience of our country. It shows how far we've come and how far we have to go. Its a fairly balanced special report. It is neither apocalyptic or overly optimistic.

It paints a picture of the real "truth." Our politicians don't know this truth, as long as they can drive around the country with tinted windows and erect ugle grey walls around their compounds they will remain ignorant to the truth of the Filipino.

Also here is a link to NYT article about the effect of the brain drain on developing nations. Although it mentions the Philippines in hindsight, it also shows that our experience is not isolated in the global community

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/international/25brain.html?ei=5094&en=378db2de6cd3dc9e&hp=&ex=1130212800&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1130205912-3wUPqUmUTsAtIK0zVGtQxg (http://http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/international/25brain.html?ei=5094&en=378db2de6cd3dc9e&hp=&ex=1130212800&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1130205912-3wUPqUmUTsAtIK0zVGtQxg)

Here's a very good paragraph from the article

Professor Kapur likened a skilled immigrant's getting a visa to work in a rich country to winning a lottery, because the income gains from moving are so great. Whatever the approach, he said, the benefits to the few who are lucky enough to leave need to be weighed against the costs to their countrymen left behind.

san mateo, ca here.

No we didn't evacuate....the hurricane made landfall around 6:00am today in Naples and will exit the state later this afternoon/evening around West Palm Beach/Fort Lauderdale.

All we are getting are heavy rain bands, gusty winds, and tornado watches/warnings advisories. Hurricane Wilma's path will miss Orlando by about 200 miles, so we're still at a safe distance.

glad your safe! i don't think i'm used to lightning and thunder anymore. it is so rare here in southern california we had one of those rare thunderstorms last week and i actually got scared. we even had hail. and it's raining again right now. strange weather we've been having.

^now only that araw ng patay is also coming

san mateo, ca here.

Hey... add another to the list of Bay Area SSC forumers!

The Governor of Hawaii and her entourage are scheduling an official visit to the Philippines in January; this is supposedly significant in that she plans to include this activity as her endorsement of the centennial of Filipino immigration to the Hawaiian Islands. I had been considering joining the tour, since it's been opened to anyone willing to shell out USD 3000+ for a six-day jaunt (airfares and hotel only). The only crappy thing for me is that the itinerary focuses heavily on the north (La Union, Vigan, Sinait and Laoag) as well as a reception with Bongbong. Totally no relevance for one whose 1) roots lie in Bikol, Malabon, and the Visayas; and 2) political leanings run opposite to the Marcos clan! That's what happens in a place like Hawaii where the bulk of the recent masses of pinoy immigrants hail from the Ilokos. Oh well--better to spend the $3K on my own tour of places I'd want to see and to forego an official invite to Malacanang. Its' so strange being a minority within a minority!

^maitim ka ba

tigs, la ka bang pasok tomorrow? isn't it like 2 am where you are now? wala lang. i personally like sleeping e and i really need 8 hours on a weeknight. bilib ako sa mga taong kayang matulog ng late and magising ng maaga. well, it's 12 na, need to wake up at 8. see? eight hours talaga. :) g'nyt all!