24-hour hotline numbers for OFW families
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), in cooperation with SMART Communications, has made available a 24-hour Libreng Tawag for families of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who may wish to talk directly to their relatives in Libya.
Starting 9:00 this Saturday, families of OFWs can go to the south wing lobby of the DFA Main Building in Pasay City to avail of the Libreng Tawag joint public service program, according to its press release.
A crisis management center has also been set-up with 24-hour hotline numbers (834-4580, 834-3245, 834-3240, and 834-4646) at the DFA for families of OFWs who may want to get information about the conditions of their relatives in Libya.
The DFA is on a full relocation and repatriation mode in view of the escalating violence and widespread insecurity in Libya, the statement said.
It is also fully committed to ensuring the safety and welfare of the Filipino nationals in Libya, it further assured.
DFA bans travel to Libya, Bahrain and Yemen
Amid political turmoil in Libya, Bahrain and Yemen, Filipinos are advised to postpone their travels to said countries until the security situation have stabilized, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said today.
The DFA issued this advisory light of protest actions taking place in those countries.
The Philippine Embassies in Tripoli, Manama and Riyadh reported earlier that they are in heightened alert and assured that Filipinos in those countries are safe. DFA officials said they are also in constant contact with them. The Embassies have also established 24-hour crisis monitoring teams. The Embassy in Riyadh covers Yemen.
As of June 2010, there are around 31,000 Filipinos in Bahrain, while 1,400 are in Yemen and around 26,000 are in Libya.
The Embassies have also advised Filipinos to be alert when in public places or on major roads and to stay well away from large crowds and demonstrations.
The Embassy in Tripoli communicated with the human resources manager of SNC Lavelin Company on the situation of some 1,800 Filipino construction workers at an airport construction site in Benghazi city, and was informed that the Filipinos there are safe within the work site which has its own security complement. The worksite is some 19 kilometers from central Benghazi, where the protests are taking place.
According to SNC Lavelin, the Filipinos have accommodations and ample food and water.
The Embassy added that the Thai, Indonesian, Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi embassies—which also have sizable populations in Libya—have not announced any evacuation at this time. It is also on heightened alert.
In Libya, clashes between protesters and security forces snowballed on Sunday in the northeastern cities. News reports confirmed 173 deaths.
The Embassy in Riyadh said that it communicated with members of the Filipino community in Yemen, who informed them that the Filipinos in the country are relatively safe, and that malls and all transportation facilities are working normally.
In Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh offered to oversee a dialogue between the ruling party and the opposition to defuse the stand-off with protesters.
Meanwhile, the Embassy in Manama has issued an advisory to Filipinos in Bahrain to remain calm and avoid joining or going in places of protest actions. It has also provided a telephone hotline.
Protest actions continued to cool down in Bahrain Sunday as opposition groups working to present protesters’ demands met to coordinate a response to the government’s call for dialogue.
I salute you, General (by Jaime B. Veneracion)
It takes courage to endure the pain
Of a sword piercing the heart
According to the bushido of a true soldier
People had asked why to the heart
and not through the head?
With the head, it’s over in seconds,
With the heart , blood spurts,
Then drips slowly and have time
To say, mom, “I am sorry.”
This final act restored your honor!
And that of your family?
But then, would people forget
48 travels abroad in less than a decade
Or mansions here and over there?
Would it not be right, tell them, return all
If there is still shame left?
Why not live like hermits in Montserrat?
Rather than blame those who allegedly
Tarnished your good name.
(8 February 2011)
Pagpapatiwakal
Sapagkat di karaniwang tao si Angelo,
Madla’y nakatuon sa naputol na kwento
Ng katiwalian, kahihiyan o kabayanihan.
Ano ang totoo sa lahat nang ito?
Sapagkat di karaniwang tao si Angelo,
Di maisiksik sa loob ng dyaryo,
O pasadahan ng TV, Internet o radyo
Ang kasaysayan niyang alam ng publiko.
Ano kaya kung siya’y simpleng Pedro?
Walang magtatanong sa hampaslupa
Kung bakit piniling magpakamatay;
Walang pakialam ang balana
Sa pagpapatiwakal ni Gondina,
Ni walang magtataka sa pagtalon
ni Perpekto mula sa gondola.
Oo, hindi sila magtatanong.
Alam ng lahat kung paano
Umatake sa utak ang lipas-gutom,
O paano kumurot sa puso’t damdamin
Ang pagmamahal na hindi sinuklian.
Alam ng lahat kung gaano kasakit
Mawalan ng pag-asa’t trabaho,
O malulong sa masamang bisyo
Pagkat karaniwan lamang ito
Sa mahihirap o simpleng tao.
Pero kakaiba sa kanila itong si Angelo.
Dinatnan niya’t kinunsinti ang katiwalian
At piniling baunin ang lahat sa hukay.
Deaths in the military
Deaths in the military – that of a general, young navy officers, and a foot soldier – reveal of a systemic corruption from the high echelons down to the battlefield in the military. Their lost lives point to an organized crime that is happening inside and outside the military.
While these deaths devastated the immediate families , presence of an unknown organized entity in many levels sends shivers up my spine. Exposing, covering up or cleansing the military system of that well-entrenched organized brotherhood aka mafia, as my military friends termed, may cause one his own life. It is either you speak up and die, or you keep it to yourself and die of “hiya” we Filipinos know to the core.
Philip Andrew Pestano, a 23-year old navy officer who graduated from the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), allegedly killed himself on 27 September 1995. He was found lying motionless perpendicular to his bed with a .45 caliber gun between his feet. Investigators found a suicide note on the table inside his room.
He was engaged to be married . He will never commit suicide, his parents testified. His mistahs (PMA batch 1994) said the penmanship in the suicide note was not his.
The young military man serving as a logistics officer had been a witness to illegal logging and drug trafficking while onboard the military ship where he was assigned. In a complaint his parents filed at the United Nations in 2007, it is said the ship’s commander allowed the ferrying of more than 14,000 board feet of logs even without legal authorization. Pestano objected to the loading of the illegal cargos.
Military officers Zosimo Villanueva and Alvin Parone who also knew of the illegal logging and drug trafficking were also murdered a week after Pestano died. Both had tipped Pestano of “the concealed bulk of illegal drugs in the more than 20 sacks of rice cargoes aboard the ship.”
PO3 Fidel Tagaytay, the radio operator assigned the day Pestano died, had also been missing. His wife testified her husband knew many things about Pestano’s death because he was the duty operator at that time.
In 2000, then would-be Sergeant Samuel Esguerra of the 42nd Infantry Brigade was demoted back to being a Corporal and was forcibly assigned to Bicol where two young men killed him in self-defense allegedly. He was under the government’s Witness Protection Program he sought after revealing that his officer and fellow soldiers gunned down a helpless businesswoman accused of being a member of the New People’s Army in Quezon. The Commission on Human Rights and the Court found the officer and soldiers guilty of murder and robbery.
Esguerra testified that his officer and fellow soldiers divided the loot among themselves after killing the businesswoman. He also knew of the guns and bullets the soldiers sell to private citizens and NPA members who are their relatives and friends when their monthly pays and allowances are delayed.
Hope we all learn from the recent death of former Defense Secretary General Angelo Reyes.
54 distressed OFWs arrive from Jeddah
Some 54 distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who were among those who camped beside the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) last night.
The Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (DFA-OUMWA) that the repatriated group consisted of 54 Filipinos who were part of many distressed migrant workers from the Khandara overpass area that the Saudi immigration police took into custody on 2-3 February 2011.
Many of the repatriated OFWs suffered maltreatment from their previous employers or had experiences of contractual substitution and non-payment of salaries, according to the DFA press release.
The Consulate, together with the Filipino community, provided food and basic necessities to the OFWs while they were in Jeddah waiting for their exit visas, the DFA noted.
Representatives from the DFA-OUMWA and from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration extended assistance to the repatriates at the airport, the press release claimed.
The Consulate made representations with the Saudi authorities for the issuance of the repatriates’ exit visas, the DFA further said.
OFWs arrive from Egypt
Amid continued political upheaval in Egypt, the first batch of 26 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who availed of the voluntary repatriation program of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Philippine Embassy in Cairo arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport yesterday.
The repatriates—14 females, 10 minors and two men–are composed of Filipino scholars from the Al Azhar University and their families, three nurses from the Dar Al Fouad Hospital and household service workers.
The Embassy received assistance from the International Organization Migration (IOM) office in Cairo in securing arrangements for the Filipino repatriates. The Filipino community organizations also actively assisted in the arrangements, according to the DFA press statement.
A second batch of Filipino repatriates will depart Cairo on Tuesday and will arrive in Manila on Wednesday as part of the voluntary repatriation program.
In an earlier report of Charge d’Affaires Eduardo Pablo Maglaya, most Filipino community members consider the Filipinos relatively safe in their residences and neighborhoods, and are hopeful that the current political impasse will be resolved soon.
There are now steady supplies of food and water in Cairo. Banks have reopened, and people can withdraw money from automated teller machines, DFA assured.
In the Embassy’s assessment, there is no need for mandatory evacuation of Filipino community members at this time. There have likewise been no reports of Filipinos attacked or injured in the ongoing protest actions, the DFA press statement further said.
Filipino community members, however, who feel that their safety is at risk can avail of the Embassy’s voluntary repatriation program. The Embassy continues to reiterate to the Filipino community the government’s willingness to provide the said assistance, the statement likewise assured.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Jr., Overseas Workers Welfare Administration Administrator Carmelita Dimzon, International Orgnanization for Migration-Philippines Chief of Mission Ovais Sarmad, and representatives from the DFA-Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs, Office of the Vice President, OWWA and IOM welcomed the first batch of returning OFWs at the airport.
(photo by Benjamin Remo, DFA-PISU)
EDSA and a Premature Baby
by Edicio Dela Torre
Immediately after my release from prison in 1986, I was often asked to share my reflections about what happened, and how I appreciated what happened.
Of course I was personally quite positive about EDSA, since I got released from prison with fellow political prisoners much earlier than we had expected. But as activists of the national democratic movement, we also knew that the “restoration of democracy” was not quite the democracy that we had struggled for.
In fact, many activists could not relate to the popular euphoria about EDSA and its aftermath.
It was not just a matter of the “left” being marginalized in the run up to the snap elections (partly through its own fault). They were also reacting to deliberate efforts by many of the hegemonic “yellows” to exclude the “reds” from claiming their fair share of credit for putting an end to an authoritarian regime.
For my part, I did not hesitate to express my appreciation for what EDSA represented. But how to do it in a way that acknowledged its limitations?
I don’t really recall from where I drew the image that helped capture the feelings that EDSA evoked among us – a premature baby.
The democracy that EDSA ushered in was like a premature baby. It came sooner than we expected. It was smaller than what we wanted.
But it was a baby, our baby. We should celebrate its coming, and take care that it survives and develops fully.
So who are the parents of this premature baby?
The most uncontested parent is “people power” symbolized by the millions on the streets. Cory Aquino is another universally acknowledged parent.
But there were many other claimants, proof of the saying that “success has a thousand parents.” Some church leaders were quick to claim their share of credit. A few even did it at the expense of people power, since they sought to attribute what happened to “prayer power.” Other claimants were the military and government leaders whose foiled attempt at a coup and appeal for protection triggered the outpouring of popular protest that filled EDSA.
I didn’t find much problem in conceding the right of the various parental claimants. Unlike a biological baby, a political baby is the product of multiple and diverse parenthood.
The problem that worried me was the refusal (or inability?) of many in the revolutionary movement to claim our share of parenthood. Those who could not and did not identify with the premature baby tended to emphasize its limitations, and didn’t feel responsible to help it survive and develop.
And yet, people power is not limited to those who came together in EDSA. To switch metaphors, while the crest of the waves of protest was dominantly yellow, the deeper currents were colored red, representing both the blood of martyrs and their partisanship for the poor.
In fact, people power has more colors than yellow and red. People power should include all the colors of the rainbow.
Some years later, on August 20, 1990, Girlie gave birth to our daughter Ayen, who had to be placed in an incubator because she was two weeks premature. To announce the happy news to friends, we chose the language about EDSA:She came sooner than we expected. She is slightly smaller than we wanted. But we are happy that she has come. She is our baby. We love her and we will take care of her.
DFA sets Egypt hotline number
A 24-hour hotline number for relatives of Filipinos in Egypt who would like to inquire about their relatives has been set up at the DFA-Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (DFA-OUMWA). Hotline number is 834-4580.
In a press conference hastily called to answer queries about the overseas Filipino workers’ (OFWs) safety in Egypt, Undersecretary Esteban Conejos assured that the DFA has mobilized its offices in Manila and is closely monitoring developments with other government agencies.
A civil uprising against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who came to power in 1981 has already been causing violence in Cairo for one week. Clashes between Egyptian protesters and military deteriorated to lootings, prisoners escaping from jail and street fights.
The Philippine Embassy is conducting a phone brigade, calling Filipino community members to check on their condition and to know their whereabouts. The Embassy hotline was also distributed to them should they feel that they are at risk and needed to be moved out, Conejos said.
Philippine Charge d’Affaires Eduardo Pablo Maglaya reported to Secretary Romulo that the current situation on the ground has not changed, and there has been no reports of any attacks targeting foreigners. “There is no imminent danger to the lives of Filipinos there,” the DFA press statement assured.
The Embassy reiterated its advise to the Filipino community to stay indoors, steer clear of public places—especially sites of mass protest—and avoid involvement in political actions
The DFA likewise issued a travel advisory that urges Filipinos who have plans to proceed to Egypt to postpone their visit “until the security situation has stabilized.”
The Philippine Embassy in Cairo meets the leaders of the Filipino community today to confirm their safety and fine-tune their contingency plan, including relocation centers, a review of prepared routes, and other logistical aspects in case the situation worsen and would necessitate an evacuation, according to Conejos.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo also instructed DFA-OUMWA Special Assistant Enrico Fos to implement the contingency measures it has put in place for the Filipino community in aid of the Philippine Embassy in Egypt. Consul General Ezzedin Tago, an Arabic-speaking career foreign service officer of Filipino and Egyptian lineage, is proceeding to Cairo from his current station in Riyadh. Special Envoy Roy Cimatu will also proceed to Egypt after the conclusion of his mission in another country in the region.
At the press conference, the DFA affirmed the availability of P25 million as standby emergency fund for the Egypt crisis. Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) representatives at the meeting also committed their agencies to set aside additional emergency standby funds.
As provided under Republic Act 8042 or the Migrant Workers Act (as amended by RA 10022), there is a P100-million emergency repatriation fund administered by OWWA that can be used for the crisis, Conejos stated.
Earlier, the Philippine Government called on all parties in Egypt to maintain calm and exercise restraint. It has likewise expressed the hope that the level of violence will not escalate and for an early resolution of this crisis.