By Jerry E. Esplanada
Philippine Daily Inquirer
12:39 am | Sunday, October 2nd, 2011
The more than 8.5 million overseas Filipinos
scattered all over the globe should be proud of themselves for being a
“positive force,” if not “masters of the universe,” in their host
countries, according to balikbayan philanthropist, civic leader and
lawyer Loida Nicolas-Lewis.
“We are good ballroom dancers. We love to share our Filipino food:
delicious lumpia and chicken adobo. We love to sing pop hits with the
karaoke microphone in our hand,” she said.
Even more, they extend a helping hand to their relatives and friends back in the Philippines
by paying the tuition for their schooling, sending money for a baptism
or wedding, for hospitalization or a funeral, “even lending money which
we know will not be paid to a relative or a close friend,” she said.
But Filipinos in the diaspora need to do more, said Lewis,
chairperson of the US Pinoys for Good Governance (USP4GG), in a speech
at the just-concluded “Global Summit: Diaspora to Development” at the
Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).
They could help in the development of their homeland, she said.
“We cannot ignore the abject poverty of nearly 30 million Filipinos,
their lack of adequate housing, education, nutrition and other basic
human needs,” she said.
This will involve more than just writing a check, she said.
“We Filipinos seem to have a special something that enables us to go
beyond the job description, do something sympathetic and compassionate,
something natural in us,” said Lewis.
“Either in word or in action, whether in the executive suite as a CEO
or as a babysitter in a private home, our being Filipino enables us to
anticipate and to feel what the other person in the office or home is
feeling. And we would be able to respond positively or to react
humanely,” said Lewis who is also an educator, author and motivational
speaker.
According to Lewis, Filipinos invariably get along with every ethnic
group in the office, without discrimination. A Filipino office worker
becomes the favored one “because of our affable and generous
personality.”
She believes this character trait springs from Filipinos’ deep-seated
spirituality, their deep faith “in God’s grace and that nothing can
separate us from the love of God.”
“This also explains why we take leadership in our communities. Our
contemplation or our intimacy with God brings us to action. We are
masters of the universe in that sense,” said Lewis.
“We should come up with positive and practical solutions that we
ourselves would do and actualize with the cooperation of the government.
Let us be creative, innovative and resolute. We can bring the change we
want to see in our Inang Bayan,” said Lewis.
The USP4GG is one of the summit convenors, along with the Commission
on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), headed by Lewis’ younger sister, Imelda
Nicolas; the National Federation of Filipino-American Associations; and
YouLead, or Youth Leaders in the Diaspora.
Answer to Aquino’s call
According to Lewis, her group joined the summit to answer the CFO’s call to help President Aquino bring about the alleviation of poverty in the Philippines.
“Before the May 2010 elections, our main goal was to help the Noynoy Aquino-Mar
Roxas tandem win that year’s polls… Today, we’re rooting not just for
Noynoy but also the entire Filipino nation,” she said.
Lewis said the USP4GG “still strongly believes in President Aquino’s
slogan, ‘Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap’ (no corruption, no
poverty). We are convinced that he will be true to his promises. We
remain committed to President Noynoy.”
“Our group prefers to be something like a watchdog organization, do
oversight. We plan to write him, e-mail him and make suggestions that we
believe will help him make the Philippines a better place,” she said.
The USP4GG has been cited by the CFO for its “firm belief and
conviction that Filipinos in America can play an important role and make
a difference in the lives of Filipinos in the Philippines and all over
the world through strong advocacy of good government.”
As to how the USP4GG would assess the first 15 months of the Aquino administration, Lewis observed “it is doing very well. President Aquino is not perfect. Of course, nobody’s perfect.”
“To his critics and faultfinders, I say, during the previous
administration, where were your voices. He’s trying to do his best, so
stop all the faultfinding,” she said.
Lewis vowed she would “definitely be a balikbayan on a regular basis.”
She comes to the Philippines every two months because of Lewis College, the school she set up in her Sorsogon hometown.
She bought a school called Annunciation College some 10 years ago and renamed it Lewis College.
“We now have around 1,000 students, from preschool all the way to
college. And we’re winning various accolades and honors. Lewis College
is now the champion in the entire Bicol for computer programming. In the
province, we used to be kulelat (perennial losers) in basketball. Now
we’re the champion. We also won in the regional of the Miss Bicolandia
(beauty pageant),” she said.
Paying back
According to Lewis, her family’s involvement in Lewis College is “just one way of paying back.”
“Sorsogon is one of the country’s poorest provinces. And one of the
ways, if not the only way to get out of poverty is education,” she said.
Of the 300-plus tertiary students in Lewis College, “about 100 are on
a full scholarship. Add to that the fact that in Sorsogon, we have the
lowest tuition,” she said.
“We must never forget that there’s a time to pay back for all the blessings that we’ve gotten in life,” Lewis said.
“Whatever the reason we left the Philippines to seek our livelihood
abroad, or to follow the dictates of our heart, we are always connected
to our motherland by our family, our culture, our history and our
faith,” she said.
http://bit.ly/quNHvC
Sunday, October 02, 2011
Former OFW finds his niche as techno-preneur
By Myrna Rodriguez Co
Philippine Daily Inquirer
12:09 am | Sunday, October 2nd, 2011
Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), especially those working as engineers, technicians and skilled workers, are among the best candidates for entrepreneurship of the innovative type.
In the first place, OFWs manifest their enterprising, risk-taking and hardworking ways by the very act of leaving the comfort of home to try out their luck in a foreign country and a strange culture with no assurance of success.
If they get employed in multinationals, Pinoy engineers and technicians, already skilled at the outset, will likely get their teeth ground on higher technology and applications. They are likely to use cutting-edge tools, equipment and processes.
When they come back here and get re-assimilated, many would be eager to transfer the technology they picked up abroad.
Combine a daring, risk-taking disposition with technical education and experience, blend in business acumen and finally whip in the big bucks earned abroad and we have in an OFW a “recipe” for successful techno-preneurship.
OFW stint
Gamaliel “Jimmy” Itao, president of Industrial Controls Corporation (ICC) is one such techno-preneur. ICC is the first programmable logic control (PLC) systems house in the Philippines, specializing in factory automation and instrumentation projects.
Jimmy finished electrical engineering at the University of San Carlos, Cebu City and passed the Professional Electrical Engineer (PEE) board exam in 1982. As a young engineer, he handled training courses in Factory Automation at the UP Institute for Small-Scale Industries (UP ISSI), after taking specialized studies in UP ISSI and Japan.
Jimmy was happy enough teaching production managers, engineers and technicians to apply automation to modernize local industries when overseas work opportunity beckoned in 1984.
“I was starting a family then; I had a young daughter and I wanted a bigger family and so I thought of looking for greener pastures. Besides as an engineer, I wanted to practice proactively what I have been teaching for years.”
Jimmy worked as an instrumentation engineer at Honeywell Saudi Petrochemical Corporation in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. His wife, the former Girlie Caluya, followed shortly to work as a nurse at the general hospital in Taif, also in Saudi Arabia.
Jubail and Taif were 1000 miles apart. The couple saw each other only once in their four-year stay and their exchange of communication focused very much on the month-old daughter they left behind in the Philippines.
Saudi Arabia was a totally different country with an Arab and Islamic culture. It was a vast expanse of sand and desert where one seldom saw green.
“You can’t practice your Christian religion there. You can’t seek comfort from social drinking. Nor from female companionship,” Jimmy smiles ruefully as he recalls.
He whiled the time away writing letters and waiting for return mails. “Remember, this was the time of snail mail. Cell phones were years away. So were Internet connections. YM, Facebook, Skype—all these were unheard of.”
Despite the hardship, adjustments and long separation, Jimmy never regretted his stint as an OFW. “A trade off,” he calls it. Being away from the family strengthened him psychologically and spiritually. “Absence enhances the love that binds. You realize how important family is,” he quips.
He finds it hard to quantify the benefits from his experience of working in the Middle East. His employer Honeywell was a conglomerate of seven plants which processed black gold into ethylene products for industrial uses. His work assignments in Honeywell involved highly technical work. Starting as an instrumentation technician, he later got involved in more technical aspects of operation, enabling him to hone his craft as a hands-on electrical engineer.
Starting the business
When he came back to the Philippines in 1987, Jimmy went back to teaching factory automation at the UP ISSI. This time around, he taught with more confidence, having acquired solid industrial practice.
Meanwhile, several companies sought him out as an automation and instrumentation consultant. The engagements gave him a glimpse of the world outside employment.
When he finally decided to strike it out on his own, he did not need too big a start-up capital, Jimmy remembers. He began with P32,000 and two staff: a partner and himself.
He was living then in Sikatuna Bliss in Quezon City. In the same building, he found a vacant unit on the fourth floor which became ICC’s first office. The 55-sq.m space was unimpressive.
“So unimpressive that when a Japanese representative of a firm interested to subcontract work to us visited, he never got in touch with us again after seeing our office which we very reluctantly showed him, on his insistence.”
The Technology Business Incubation (TBI) project of the University of the Philippines and the Department of Science and Technology was heaven-sent for Jimmy and his company. The TBI nurtured and “incubated” small, technology-based companies with lower-than-market lease rates; common facilities like conference rooms, a trunkline and state-of-the art equipment; industrial counseling from UP ISSI and DOST; and market exposure via DOST exhibits. “Having a UP address alone gave our company prestige,” Jimmy thinks.
Like in most TBIs, a lessee-company is expected to “graduate” after a three-year incubation. By the time Jimmy’s ICC graduated in 2000, he was ready to relocate to a commercial area and start being a fully independent techno-preneur.
Two units of office space on the 9th floor of Mega Plaza Building at Ortigas Center, Pasig City have been ICC’s headquarters for the past 11 years. It has also a small branch office at the UP ISSI Building in Diliman, Quezon City.
ICC’s range of factory automation and instrumentation services includes: free product selection and specification, turnkey projects on industrial automation and instrumentation systems and systems integration; commissioning and startup; maintenance contracting, troubleshooting and repair and in-house training. Among its clients are San Miguel Corporation, Universal Robina Corporation, Alaska Corporation, and Wyeth Philippines, to name a few.
ICC is a distributor of many product lines such as programmable logic controller, programmable terminal, frequency inverter, PLC networking, control components sensors, switches, relays, timers, counters, and power supply.
The brands ICC carries are well-known: Omron, Siemens, Ametex, Yaskawa, Mitsubishi, IDTECH, Hakko, Intellution.
Testimonial to the growth and market credibility the company has risen to: ICC has spun off its training activities in 2005 to form another company, Mechatronics Technologies Corporation (MTC) which is now a Tesda-accredited training and assessment center for the professional upgrading of OFWs in the electromechanical engineering field. This is required for them to renew their Owwa cards as well as to qualify for promotion in their employment abroad.
Meanwhile, ICC has kept its ties with UP ISSI in the joint conduct of training programs on Scada and productivity systems like Kaizen, total maintenance management, and Just in Time.
In 15 years, not only has ICC graduated from being a company in need of incubation, it has also made the transition from small to medium level of enterprise, having breached the 200-employee size. ICC recently celebrated its 22nd anniversary and is enjoying steady growth in product sales and contracts in engineering and maintenance projects.
Start small, think big, work hard, pray harder
Jimmy agrees that OFWs in the engineering field have strong potential to make it as entrepreneurs. In the Original Equipment Manufacturers Association of the Philippines (OEMAP) where he belongs and once served as president, he reckons that about half of the members have OFW background.
His advice to OFWs who aspire to technopreneurship “Start small, think big, work hard!”
Small is a good way to begin, he says, because it gives you a lot of room to grow. And there’s less risk.
Opportunities in the industry are limitless, so watch out for them, he adds. This is how one grows.
He warns against resting on one’s laurels. “Rather, continue to work hard.”
Study what the industry needs, he advises OFWs looking for their niche. “Use your base competence. Look for a partner if you are afraid to risk your resources.”
Above all, seek help from the Almighty Lord, Jimmy concludes. “As He said ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.’”
For more entrepreneurial success stories, starting and improving a business features, management tips and advice for troubled businessmen, check out the Small Enterprise Research and Development Foundation (Serdef) website at www.serdef.org.
http://bit.ly/q4Mmeh
Philippine Daily Inquirer
12:09 am | Sunday, October 2nd, 2011
Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), especially those working as engineers, technicians and skilled workers, are among the best candidates for entrepreneurship of the innovative type.
In the first place, OFWs manifest their enterprising, risk-taking and hardworking ways by the very act of leaving the comfort of home to try out their luck in a foreign country and a strange culture with no assurance of success.
If they get employed in multinationals, Pinoy engineers and technicians, already skilled at the outset, will likely get their teeth ground on higher technology and applications. They are likely to use cutting-edge tools, equipment and processes.
When they come back here and get re-assimilated, many would be eager to transfer the technology they picked up abroad.
Combine a daring, risk-taking disposition with technical education and experience, blend in business acumen and finally whip in the big bucks earned abroad and we have in an OFW a “recipe” for successful techno-preneurship.
OFW stint
Gamaliel “Jimmy” Itao, president of Industrial Controls Corporation (ICC) is one such techno-preneur. ICC is the first programmable logic control (PLC) systems house in the Philippines, specializing in factory automation and instrumentation projects.
Jimmy finished electrical engineering at the University of San Carlos, Cebu City and passed the Professional Electrical Engineer (PEE) board exam in 1982. As a young engineer, he handled training courses in Factory Automation at the UP Institute for Small-Scale Industries (UP ISSI), after taking specialized studies in UP ISSI and Japan.
Jimmy was happy enough teaching production managers, engineers and technicians to apply automation to modernize local industries when overseas work opportunity beckoned in 1984.
“I was starting a family then; I had a young daughter and I wanted a bigger family and so I thought of looking for greener pastures. Besides as an engineer, I wanted to practice proactively what I have been teaching for years.”
Jimmy worked as an instrumentation engineer at Honeywell Saudi Petrochemical Corporation in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. His wife, the former Girlie Caluya, followed shortly to work as a nurse at the general hospital in Taif, also in Saudi Arabia.
Jubail and Taif were 1000 miles apart. The couple saw each other only once in their four-year stay and their exchange of communication focused very much on the month-old daughter they left behind in the Philippines.
Saudi Arabia was a totally different country with an Arab and Islamic culture. It was a vast expanse of sand and desert where one seldom saw green.
“You can’t practice your Christian religion there. You can’t seek comfort from social drinking. Nor from female companionship,” Jimmy smiles ruefully as he recalls.
He whiled the time away writing letters and waiting for return mails. “Remember, this was the time of snail mail. Cell phones were years away. So were Internet connections. YM, Facebook, Skype—all these were unheard of.”
Despite the hardship, adjustments and long separation, Jimmy never regretted his stint as an OFW. “A trade off,” he calls it. Being away from the family strengthened him psychologically and spiritually. “Absence enhances the love that binds. You realize how important family is,” he quips.
He finds it hard to quantify the benefits from his experience of working in the Middle East. His employer Honeywell was a conglomerate of seven plants which processed black gold into ethylene products for industrial uses. His work assignments in Honeywell involved highly technical work. Starting as an instrumentation technician, he later got involved in more technical aspects of operation, enabling him to hone his craft as a hands-on electrical engineer.
Starting the business
When he came back to the Philippines in 1987, Jimmy went back to teaching factory automation at the UP ISSI. This time around, he taught with more confidence, having acquired solid industrial practice.
Meanwhile, several companies sought him out as an automation and instrumentation consultant. The engagements gave him a glimpse of the world outside employment.
When he finally decided to strike it out on his own, he did not need too big a start-up capital, Jimmy remembers. He began with P32,000 and two staff: a partner and himself.
He was living then in Sikatuna Bliss in Quezon City. In the same building, he found a vacant unit on the fourth floor which became ICC’s first office. The 55-sq.m space was unimpressive.
“So unimpressive that when a Japanese representative of a firm interested to subcontract work to us visited, he never got in touch with us again after seeing our office which we very reluctantly showed him, on his insistence.”
The Technology Business Incubation (TBI) project of the University of the Philippines and the Department of Science and Technology was heaven-sent for Jimmy and his company. The TBI nurtured and “incubated” small, technology-based companies with lower-than-market lease rates; common facilities like conference rooms, a trunkline and state-of-the art equipment; industrial counseling from UP ISSI and DOST; and market exposure via DOST exhibits. “Having a UP address alone gave our company prestige,” Jimmy thinks.
Like in most TBIs, a lessee-company is expected to “graduate” after a three-year incubation. By the time Jimmy’s ICC graduated in 2000, he was ready to relocate to a commercial area and start being a fully independent techno-preneur.
Two units of office space on the 9th floor of Mega Plaza Building at Ortigas Center, Pasig City have been ICC’s headquarters for the past 11 years. It has also a small branch office at the UP ISSI Building in Diliman, Quezon City.
ICC’s range of factory automation and instrumentation services includes: free product selection and specification, turnkey projects on industrial automation and instrumentation systems and systems integration; commissioning and startup; maintenance contracting, troubleshooting and repair and in-house training. Among its clients are San Miguel Corporation, Universal Robina Corporation, Alaska Corporation, and Wyeth Philippines, to name a few.
ICC is a distributor of many product lines such as programmable logic controller, programmable terminal, frequency inverter, PLC networking, control components sensors, switches, relays, timers, counters, and power supply.
The brands ICC carries are well-known: Omron, Siemens, Ametex, Yaskawa, Mitsubishi, IDTECH, Hakko, Intellution.
Testimonial to the growth and market credibility the company has risen to: ICC has spun off its training activities in 2005 to form another company, Mechatronics Technologies Corporation (MTC) which is now a Tesda-accredited training and assessment center for the professional upgrading of OFWs in the electromechanical engineering field. This is required for them to renew their Owwa cards as well as to qualify for promotion in their employment abroad.
Meanwhile, ICC has kept its ties with UP ISSI in the joint conduct of training programs on Scada and productivity systems like Kaizen, total maintenance management, and Just in Time.
In 15 years, not only has ICC graduated from being a company in need of incubation, it has also made the transition from small to medium level of enterprise, having breached the 200-employee size. ICC recently celebrated its 22nd anniversary and is enjoying steady growth in product sales and contracts in engineering and maintenance projects.
Start small, think big, work hard, pray harder
Jimmy agrees that OFWs in the engineering field have strong potential to make it as entrepreneurs. In the Original Equipment Manufacturers Association of the Philippines (OEMAP) where he belongs and once served as president, he reckons that about half of the members have OFW background.
His advice to OFWs who aspire to technopreneurship “Start small, think big, work hard!”
Small is a good way to begin, he says, because it gives you a lot of room to grow. And there’s less risk.
Opportunities in the industry are limitless, so watch out for them, he adds. This is how one grows.
He warns against resting on one’s laurels. “Rather, continue to work hard.”
Study what the industry needs, he advises OFWs looking for their niche. “Use your base competence. Look for a partner if you are afraid to risk your resources.”
Above all, seek help from the Almighty Lord, Jimmy concludes. “As He said ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.’”
For more entrepreneurial success stories, starting and improving a business features, management tips and advice for troubled businessmen, check out the Small Enterprise Research and Development Foundation (Serdef) website at www.serdef.org.
http://bit.ly/q4Mmeh
Monday, September 26, 2011
Internet voting for overseas Filipinos?
Posted at 09/26/2011 4:07 PM | Updated as of 09/26/2011 4:07 PM
Congressmen mull changes to law to increase absentee voter turnout
MANILA, Philippines - Filipino expatriates from the United States, Australia and Jordan have apparently scored a key point in removing a legal impediment blamed for the low turnout in overseas absentee voting.
The Joint Congressional Committees on Foreign Affairs and Suffrage are now considering a substitute bill amending the Overseas Absentee Voting law, in order to do away with the requirement for Filipinos to submit an affidavit to return to the country 3 years after registration.
Other amendments include allowing Filipino expatriates to participate in national referenda and plebiscites aside from voting for president, vice president, senator and party-list; the creation of field and mobile registration offices in all Philippine posts; allowing voting by mail or other technologies that maybe determined by Comelec, the creation of a Department of Overseas Voting in Comelec and the allotment of 10% of the national budget yearly to an information campaign for overseas voting.
Elections Commissioner Armando Velasco, who heads the committee on overseas voting, expressed support for all the amendments, citing the need to encourage more overseas Filipino voters to participate.
Overseas absentee voting has implemented in the past 3 elections in 2004, 2007 and 2010.
However, foreign affairs committee chairman Al Francis Bichara says about 90% of Filipinos overseas have been disenfranchised because of the law’s provisions, making overseas absentee voting a failure.
Ako Bicol partylist Rep. Rodel Batocabe, who heads the technical working group who worked on the bill, said, they “scrapped restrictive provisions in the present law to enable Filipino residents abroad to participate in our election. these are substantial provisions we have included under new proposal we hope committees will consider and move for approval.”
Internet voting proposed
Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez noted latest figures showed only 300,000 of 9 million Filipinos overseas are registered, of which only about 200,000 actually vote.
Rodriguez also made a pitch for Internet voting, which was later echoed by some stakeholders in the hearing.
"We should go to Internet voting. Mailing ano pa yan eh. let's go international through internet voting," he said.
Filipino-American lawyer and businesswoman Loida Nicolas-Lewis presented her research on the experience of other countries that gave their expatriates the right to vote and how these countries increased voter turnout. Lewis pointed out that Mexico allows registration and voting by registered mail.
Lewis pointed out the high voting rates for expatriates of the Dominicaon Republic and Spain. She pointed out that Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom have more relaxed rules on requiring citizens to return to their home countries. In Canada, voter registration can be done by fax and internet.
The commitment to return is the "biggest stumbling block," Lewis said.
Lewis also made a pitch for voting by registered mail in the US, since fraud committed over the US registered mail system is considered a federal crime and is more secure.
Regarding the creation of a department of overseas voting in the Comelec, Velasco said there maybe a legal impediment because the absentee voting law specifies the creation of a committee instead.
Velacso also welcomed the possibility of Internet registration provided there are adequate security measures.
Upon questioning though, Velasco said that if Internet voting is done for Filipino expatriates, it may also be done locally in the Philippines.
"If we can do that (Internet voting), I believe there’s no reason we can't do that in the Philippines," he said.
Velasco was instructed to present a study on these amendments within 30 days.
The committee also approved to remove the word absentee in the amendment bill, potentially renaming the law to overseas voting law.
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/09/26/11/internet-voting-overseas-filipinos
MANILA, Philippines - Filipino expatriates from the United States, Australia and Jordan have apparently scored a key point in removing a legal impediment blamed for the low turnout in overseas absentee voting.
The Joint Congressional Committees on Foreign Affairs and Suffrage are now considering a substitute bill amending the Overseas Absentee Voting law, in order to do away with the requirement for Filipinos to submit an affidavit to return to the country 3 years after registration.
Other amendments include allowing Filipino expatriates to participate in national referenda and plebiscites aside from voting for president, vice president, senator and party-list; the creation of field and mobile registration offices in all Philippine posts; allowing voting by mail or other technologies that maybe determined by Comelec, the creation of a Department of Overseas Voting in Comelec and the allotment of 10% of the national budget yearly to an information campaign for overseas voting.
Elections Commissioner Armando Velasco, who heads the committee on overseas voting, expressed support for all the amendments, citing the need to encourage more overseas Filipino voters to participate.
Overseas absentee voting has implemented in the past 3 elections in 2004, 2007 and 2010.
However, foreign affairs committee chairman Al Francis Bichara says about 90% of Filipinos overseas have been disenfranchised because of the law’s provisions, making overseas absentee voting a failure.
Ako Bicol partylist Rep. Rodel Batocabe, who heads the technical working group who worked on the bill, said, they “scrapped restrictive provisions in the present law to enable Filipino residents abroad to participate in our election. these are substantial provisions we have included under new proposal we hope committees will consider and move for approval.”
Internet voting proposed
Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez noted latest figures showed only 300,000 of 9 million Filipinos overseas are registered, of which only about 200,000 actually vote.
Rodriguez also made a pitch for Internet voting, which was later echoed by some stakeholders in the hearing.
"We should go to Internet voting. Mailing ano pa yan eh. let's go international through internet voting," he said.
Filipino-American lawyer and businesswoman Loida Nicolas-Lewis presented her research on the experience of other countries that gave their expatriates the right to vote and how these countries increased voter turnout. Lewis pointed out that Mexico allows registration and voting by registered mail.
Lewis pointed out the high voting rates for expatriates of the Dominicaon Republic and Spain. She pointed out that Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom have more relaxed rules on requiring citizens to return to their home countries. In Canada, voter registration can be done by fax and internet.
The commitment to return is the "biggest stumbling block," Lewis said.
Lewis also made a pitch for voting by registered mail in the US, since fraud committed over the US registered mail system is considered a federal crime and is more secure.
Regarding the creation of a department of overseas voting in the Comelec, Velasco said there maybe a legal impediment because the absentee voting law specifies the creation of a committee instead.
Velacso also welcomed the possibility of Internet registration provided there are adequate security measures.
Upon questioning though, Velasco said that if Internet voting is done for Filipino expatriates, it may also be done locally in the Philippines.
"If we can do that (Internet voting), I believe there’s no reason we can't do that in the Philippines," he said.
Velasco was instructed to present a study on these amendments within 30 days.
The committee also approved to remove the word absentee in the amendment bill, potentially renaming the law to overseas voting law.
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/09/26/11/internet-voting-overseas-filipinos
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Pinoy students in UK warn vs PH consultancy firms
Posted at 09/22/2011 2:54 PM | Updated as of 09/23/2011 4:27 PM
BIRMINGHAM, England - A surge in the number of students arriving in
Birmingham has alarmed Filipino community groups in the city.
Students started to arrive in the first quarter of 2011, some in groups of 10 to 15 students. All of them came to the UK to seek the proverbial green pasture.
They came with student visas but most, if not all, came here with the intention to work as allowed by the UK law, and also to study. After all, they have been working as registered nurses in the Philippines for many years.
They were lured to work and study in the UK. Now, they feel trapped by the agreements they have signed, and are starting to realize that the consultancy agency that processed their visas took advantage of their naiveté and desperation to find work abroad.
“Ang ganda ng pangako. Sabi po 3 days may trabaho na. Yun po ang pinangako sa amin na taliwas sa experience namin ngayon. We are expecting a lot na hanggang ngayon wala pa rin po (kaming trabaho),” said John, not his real name.
John approached ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau, along with the other students, to warn Filipinos to be wary of these so-called consultancy agencies in Manila. He declined to be identified for fear of being harassed by the consultancy agency.
Consultancy agency in question
Kirsten Student Development Incorporated facilitated the student visas of the Filipino students for a 3-year Level 3 National Certificate Care and Management course in the UK under Quality Care Solutions Ltd or Wave Training Ltd.
The students paid a total of $7,000, excluding the air fare to the UK and other miscellaneous fees. To be granted a student visa in the UK, they also had to secure at least P700,000 or £9,150 in the bank as show money. Before they could leave the Philippines, some of them were already buried in debt, spending up to a million pesos.
The longer they stayed with Kirsten to process their documents, the more they spent. In retrospect, it was a strategy by the consultancy company to milk money from the desperate students. From 3 to 4 months of processing documents, some of them waited up to 2 years before they boarded the plane bound for the UK.
“Kasi once na nakapag-apply ka na, mahirap ng mag withdraw ng pera na binigay mo. Katulad nung nag- apply ako, sinabi nila na 3-4 months makakaalis kami. In that period bayad na kami dapat. Kung mag-withdraw ka, 70 percent lang ang makukuha mo. So parang sa aming mga aplikante, dahil nag- invest ka na ng time, ayaw mo ng mag back-out kasi manghihinayang sa 30 percent,’ said ‘John.’
It was also their understanding that the $7,000 they paid Kirsten included a portion of payment for their tuition fee in the UK college. But when they reported to Wave Training Ltd., they were shocked to find out that nothing has been paid by Kirsten.
In the contract secured by ABS-CBN Europe between one of the students and Kirsten, it stipulates "the UK enrollment and administration fees of $4,000 have to be paid." This amount is part of the total amount of $7,000.
Tuition fee is not stipulated in any part of the contract. But according to John, it was only verbally explained to them that tuition fee is under "the enrolment and admin fees" portion.
He also provided another copy of the contract agreement where the amount was reduced to $ 3,000, but that was only on paper since they had still paid the agreed amount of $7,000. He said the revised contract was given to him prior to his departure from Manila.
Promises divorced from reality
Although it was explained to them that they need at least £600 per month to survive the student life in the UK, nothing prepared the students for the conditions that awaited them in Birmingham. Unable to work for months and with classes to attend, the pocket money they thought would be enough for them to get by, disappeared quickly.
With intense pressure from living in a new environment and decrepit accommodations, one of the students had a mental breakdown and was sent back to the Philippines.
“Dun sa previous batch, may nagkaroon ng nervous breakdown. Kasi di talaga kakayananin dun sa pinadala nila sa amin na pocket money na amounting to £1,000. It’s not enough to sustain us for almost 2 months na wala kaming trabaho,” said Cathy, not her real name. ABS-CBN Europe is also withholding the real name of Cathy to protect her from any form of harassment.
“Marami silang di tinupad. Una di nila na mention na pagdating sa amin dito may agency na may magha-handle dito. Kumbaga wala na kaming ini-expect na third party,” added Cathy.
The third party is another company that secures work for the students. Cathy said this company placed their classmates in other cities where travelling to and from their classes would be physically inconceivable.
ABS-CBN Europe, through its news arm in the Philippines, tried to get Kirsten to comment on the issues raised by the students but to no avail.
Filcom Groups in Birmingham lend a hand
The students are worried they will not be able to pay their tuition fees if they do not start to work immediately. For 36 months, they need to pay £300 a month to Wave Training Ltd. On top of the tuition fee, they also have to worry about living expenses, which average £600 a month.
With the help of the Filipino priest in Corpus Christy Catholic Church, Fr. Edgar Dizon, the students are getting guidance emotionally. Dizon asked the Filipino community in his Parish to help the students. The Filcom groups in Birmingham are mostly composed of nurses working for the NHS and other private hospitals.
“Tayong mga Pilipino, mataas tayong mangarap. Gusto nating maayos ang bukas ng pamilya natin sa Pilipinas kaya gumagawa tayo ng paraan para pumunta sa ibang bansa at magtrabaho. Ang mga taong nagpo-proseso ng mga papers, sinasasamantala nila ang mga kabataang ito, sinisingil nila ng napakalaki, kung ano anong pangako na wala namang katotohanan pagdating nila sa UK,” explained Dizon.
He also called on the government to look into this problem.
“Sana yung mga mambabatas sa Pilipinas tingnan ang bagay na ito, ang gobyerno para ma resolve kung ano ang problema. Kung kailangang itigil na ang ganitong kalakaran sa Pilipinas, itigil na. Aksyon ang kailangan natin kaysa patuloy na nalololoko ang mga kababayan natin,” said Dizon.
The crux of the problem
Consultancy agencies in the Philippines prey on people who are anxious to leave Philippines for better job prospects abroad. Back home, the applicants are unaware of the real situation in the UK. So when consultancy firms present these job opportunities in the UK, they are taken as gospel truth.
Consultancy firms make money from the business of processing student documents but it has recently reached a point of greed where they charge enormous fees, as in the case of Kirsten.
There is no regulatory body in the Philippines to oversee these consultancy agencies. There is also no law that protects the students when confronted with this kind of problem.
“Hinihiling ko po na sana magkaroon ng batas at mapag-aralan kung ano ang patakaran at grounds para pwedeng mabigyan ng lunas ang ‘sindikato’ na ito na gumagawa ng bagay ng magpapaalis pero napakaraming panloloko,” said John.
For the students, the UK college as well as the consultancy firms in the Philippines, are both guilty of duping them.
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/09/22/11/pinoy-students-uk-warn-vs-ph-consultancy-firms
Students started to arrive in the first quarter of 2011, some in groups of 10 to 15 students. All of them came to the UK to seek the proverbial green pasture.
They came with student visas but most, if not all, came here with the intention to work as allowed by the UK law, and also to study. After all, they have been working as registered nurses in the Philippines for many years.
They were lured to work and study in the UK. Now, they feel trapped by the agreements they have signed, and are starting to realize that the consultancy agency that processed their visas took advantage of their naiveté and desperation to find work abroad.
“Ang ganda ng pangako. Sabi po 3 days may trabaho na. Yun po ang pinangako sa amin na taliwas sa experience namin ngayon. We are expecting a lot na hanggang ngayon wala pa rin po (kaming trabaho),” said John, not his real name.
John approached ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau, along with the other students, to warn Filipinos to be wary of these so-called consultancy agencies in Manila. He declined to be identified for fear of being harassed by the consultancy agency.
Consultancy agency in question
Kirsten Student Development Incorporated facilitated the student visas of the Filipino students for a 3-year Level 3 National Certificate Care and Management course in the UK under Quality Care Solutions Ltd or Wave Training Ltd.
The students paid a total of $7,000, excluding the air fare to the UK and other miscellaneous fees. To be granted a student visa in the UK, they also had to secure at least P700,000 or £9,150 in the bank as show money. Before they could leave the Philippines, some of them were already buried in debt, spending up to a million pesos.
The longer they stayed with Kirsten to process their documents, the more they spent. In retrospect, it was a strategy by the consultancy company to milk money from the desperate students. From 3 to 4 months of processing documents, some of them waited up to 2 years before they boarded the plane bound for the UK.
“Kasi once na nakapag-apply ka na, mahirap ng mag withdraw ng pera na binigay mo. Katulad nung nag- apply ako, sinabi nila na 3-4 months makakaalis kami. In that period bayad na kami dapat. Kung mag-withdraw ka, 70 percent lang ang makukuha mo. So parang sa aming mga aplikante, dahil nag- invest ka na ng time, ayaw mo ng mag back-out kasi manghihinayang sa 30 percent,’ said ‘John.’
It was also their understanding that the $7,000 they paid Kirsten included a portion of payment for their tuition fee in the UK college. But when they reported to Wave Training Ltd., they were shocked to find out that nothing has been paid by Kirsten.
In the contract secured by ABS-CBN Europe between one of the students and Kirsten, it stipulates "the UK enrollment and administration fees of $4,000 have to be paid." This amount is part of the total amount of $7,000.
Tuition fee is not stipulated in any part of the contract. But according to John, it was only verbally explained to them that tuition fee is under "the enrolment and admin fees" portion.
He also provided another copy of the contract agreement where the amount was reduced to $ 3,000, but that was only on paper since they had still paid the agreed amount of $7,000. He said the revised contract was given to him prior to his departure from Manila.
Promises divorced from reality
Although it was explained to them that they need at least £600 per month to survive the student life in the UK, nothing prepared the students for the conditions that awaited them in Birmingham. Unable to work for months and with classes to attend, the pocket money they thought would be enough for them to get by, disappeared quickly.
With intense pressure from living in a new environment and decrepit accommodations, one of the students had a mental breakdown and was sent back to the Philippines.
“Dun sa previous batch, may nagkaroon ng nervous breakdown. Kasi di talaga kakayananin dun sa pinadala nila sa amin na pocket money na amounting to £1,000. It’s not enough to sustain us for almost 2 months na wala kaming trabaho,” said Cathy, not her real name. ABS-CBN Europe is also withholding the real name of Cathy to protect her from any form of harassment.
“Marami silang di tinupad. Una di nila na mention na pagdating sa amin dito may agency na may magha-handle dito. Kumbaga wala na kaming ini-expect na third party,” added Cathy.
The third party is another company that secures work for the students. Cathy said this company placed their classmates in other cities where travelling to and from their classes would be physically inconceivable.
ABS-CBN Europe, through its news arm in the Philippines, tried to get Kirsten to comment on the issues raised by the students but to no avail.
Filcom Groups in Birmingham lend a hand
The students are worried they will not be able to pay their tuition fees if they do not start to work immediately. For 36 months, they need to pay £300 a month to Wave Training Ltd. On top of the tuition fee, they also have to worry about living expenses, which average £600 a month.
With the help of the Filipino priest in Corpus Christy Catholic Church, Fr. Edgar Dizon, the students are getting guidance emotionally. Dizon asked the Filipino community in his Parish to help the students. The Filcom groups in Birmingham are mostly composed of nurses working for the NHS and other private hospitals.
“Tayong mga Pilipino, mataas tayong mangarap. Gusto nating maayos ang bukas ng pamilya natin sa Pilipinas kaya gumagawa tayo ng paraan para pumunta sa ibang bansa at magtrabaho. Ang mga taong nagpo-proseso ng mga papers, sinasasamantala nila ang mga kabataang ito, sinisingil nila ng napakalaki, kung ano anong pangako na wala namang katotohanan pagdating nila sa UK,” explained Dizon.
He also called on the government to look into this problem.
“Sana yung mga mambabatas sa Pilipinas tingnan ang bagay na ito, ang gobyerno para ma resolve kung ano ang problema. Kung kailangang itigil na ang ganitong kalakaran sa Pilipinas, itigil na. Aksyon ang kailangan natin kaysa patuloy na nalololoko ang mga kababayan natin,” said Dizon.
The crux of the problem
Consultancy agencies in the Philippines prey on people who are anxious to leave Philippines for better job prospects abroad. Back home, the applicants are unaware of the real situation in the UK. So when consultancy firms present these job opportunities in the UK, they are taken as gospel truth.
Consultancy firms make money from the business of processing student documents but it has recently reached a point of greed where they charge enormous fees, as in the case of Kirsten.
There is no regulatory body in the Philippines to oversee these consultancy agencies. There is also no law that protects the students when confronted with this kind of problem.
“Hinihiling ko po na sana magkaroon ng batas at mapag-aralan kung ano ang patakaran at grounds para pwedeng mabigyan ng lunas ang ‘sindikato’ na ito na gumagawa ng bagay ng magpapaalis pero napakaraming panloloko,” said John.
For the students, the UK college as well as the consultancy firms in the Philippines, are both guilty of duping them.
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/09/22/11/pinoy-students-uk-warn-vs-ph-consultancy-firms
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Filipino maid jailed in Saudi over dirty underwear
By Philip C. Tubeza
Philippine Daily Inquirer
5:59 pm | Saturday, September 17th, 2011
MANILA, Philippines—For allegedly stealing the unwashed underwear of her employer’s mother, a Filipina domestic helper was sentenced to up to one year in prison in Saudi Arabia, a migrant rights group said Saturday.
Migrante International called on the Philippine government to work for the release of domestic helper Melanie Cordon, adding that the theft case against her was false and that she was tried in absentia.
“This is quite disturbing, although this has been the usual treatment to our fellow OFWs who were falsely accused, OFW Cordon, like many other cases, was never given the opportunity to defend herself and never attended a hearing,” said Migrante Middle East coordinator John Leonard Monterona.
Citing an “urgent appeal” from the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission, Monterona said Cordon was detained at the main prison of Ha’il City in the central part Saudi Arabia.
He said Cordon worked at her employer’s mother’s four-storey house in June 2011 and asked that she be allowed to go home after complaining of the heavy work she had to do.
Monterona said her employer’s mother asked her to stay on until her contract expired on August 7. But In July, she was transferred to the house of her employer’s brother.
OFW Cordon left her sponsor-employer’s house but did not take her luggage, only a few items in a plastic bag, Monterona said.
On August 14, which should have been the day of her flight from Jeddah to the Philippines, Cordon went to retrieve her luggage from her sponsor-employer’s house.
“However, when she arrived to collect her luggage she found that it had been opened.
There was a woman standing behind it and she identified herself as a policewoman.
Cordon was handcuffed and brought to a nearby police station because her sponsor-employer’s mother had accused her of theft,” Monterona quoted the AHRC as saying.
“In Cordon’s absence, they had examined her belongings and apparently ‘found’ unwashed underwear belonging to her sponsor-employer’s mother with a few strands of hair and a picture which Melanie did see,” he added.
The domestic worker was taken to the Ha’il main prison and was able to make a phone call to her brother only on August 24.
Monterona said her brother told AHRC that a judge had entered the cell where she and other prisoners were being held and read out the verdicts to all of the prisoners there.
The judge ruled that Cordon will be jailed for a period of four months to one year, Monterona said.
He urged the Philippine embassy in Riyadh to immediately dispatch a consular team to look into the her case.
“We will closely work with the PH embassy to secure her release so that she will be immediately repatriated,” Monterona said.
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/12769/filipino-maid-jailed-in-saudi-over-dirty-underwear
Philippine Daily Inquirer
5:59 pm | Saturday, September 17th, 2011
MANILA, Philippines—For allegedly stealing the unwashed underwear of her employer’s mother, a Filipina domestic helper was sentenced to up to one year in prison in Saudi Arabia, a migrant rights group said Saturday.
Migrante International called on the Philippine government to work for the release of domestic helper Melanie Cordon, adding that the theft case against her was false and that she was tried in absentia.
“This is quite disturbing, although this has been the usual treatment to our fellow OFWs who were falsely accused, OFW Cordon, like many other cases, was never given the opportunity to defend herself and never attended a hearing,” said Migrante Middle East coordinator John Leonard Monterona.
Citing an “urgent appeal” from the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission, Monterona said Cordon was detained at the main prison of Ha’il City in the central part Saudi Arabia.
He said Cordon worked at her employer’s mother’s four-storey house in June 2011 and asked that she be allowed to go home after complaining of the heavy work she had to do.
Monterona said her employer’s mother asked her to stay on until her contract expired on August 7. But In July, she was transferred to the house of her employer’s brother.
OFW Cordon left her sponsor-employer’s house but did not take her luggage, only a few items in a plastic bag, Monterona said.
On August 14, which should have been the day of her flight from Jeddah to the Philippines, Cordon went to retrieve her luggage from her sponsor-employer’s house.
“However, when she arrived to collect her luggage she found that it had been opened.
There was a woman standing behind it and she identified herself as a policewoman.
Cordon was handcuffed and brought to a nearby police station because her sponsor-employer’s mother had accused her of theft,” Monterona quoted the AHRC as saying.
“In Cordon’s absence, they had examined her belongings and apparently ‘found’ unwashed underwear belonging to her sponsor-employer’s mother with a few strands of hair and a picture which Melanie did see,” he added.
The domestic worker was taken to the Ha’il main prison and was able to make a phone call to her brother only on August 24.
Monterona said her brother told AHRC that a judge had entered the cell where she and other prisoners were being held and read out the verdicts to all of the prisoners there.
The judge ruled that Cordon will be jailed for a period of four months to one year, Monterona said.
He urged the Philippine embassy in Riyadh to immediately dispatch a consular team to look into the her case.
“We will closely work with the PH embassy to secure her release so that she will be immediately repatriated,” Monterona said.
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/12769/filipino-maid-jailed-in-saudi-over-dirty-underwear
Filipino is British hospitals’ Nurse of the Year
By Madonna Virola
Inquirer Southern Luzon
12:30 am | Sunday, September 18th, 2011
CALAPAN—A Filipino from this Oriental Mindoro city was named Nurse of the Year during the 2011 Star Awards of the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals (BSUH).
Teodoro “Junjun” Medran Jr., 38, a clinical charge nurse at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in the United Kingdom, was chosen from over 60 nominees, mostly British, by patients, colleagues and a board of judges that included member of parliament Nicolas Soames, a grandson of the late prime minister Winston Churchill.
Following the award, Medran said in an e-mail that he was cited by the Philippine Embassy in London for being a good example for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and struggling parents.
Medran has also been nominated for the Blas Ople Bagong Bayani Award 2011, which recognizes the role of OFWs in fostering high standards of responsibility, efficiency and integrity among overseas workers; and in promoting the welfare of OFWs.
Now on its second year, the Nurse of the Year award is given by the BSUH National Health Services in cooperation with The Argus newspapers. Last year’s awardee was a Briton.
The BSUH is described in its web site as the regional teaching hospital operating across two sites: the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath.
Medran said the award was a recognition of the hard work and professionalism of Filipino nurses and OFWs.
The Department of Foreign Affairs estimates that 250,000 Filipinos live in the UK.
As clinical charge nurse, Medran said part of his job was to certify dead patients who, sometimes, did not have relatives. “I make sure I am with them (before they die), holding their hands, reciting prayers. I always whisper in their ears my wish that they be reunited with the Lord in heaven,” he said.
“I always make my patients happy by singing love and joyful songs to, at least, ease their anxiety. There’s so much from within to share, like love-filled childhood,” he said.
Medran said he learned his empathy for others from his father, who would give away even the food he was about to eat if somebody asked for it. His father believed the giver was more blessed than the recipient.
A graduate of Arellano University at 18, Medran went to the UK in 1999, after working at the Lung Center of the Philippines for six years, then the Philippine Heart Center for two years. He was also a college lecturer while waiting for the board examination results.
“Almost half of my life was spent in the hospital so I said, ‘Why not treat everyone as a family member, too?’ It must really be a calling because I continue to be excited everyday in doing the same job,” he said.
He saw his work as more than just caring for the human body and saving lives. “To touch the soul and emotion of another, I always put myself in someone else’s shoes and always feel that I am a member of the families of my patients. When they are lonely or without visitors, I like feeding them if they can’t feed themselves and making them look good by giving them a shave and cutting their hair. I believe that if they look good they will feel good,” he said
Former patients who returned to the hospital would always ask for him upon admission. Medran would give them a hug, happy to see that they had recovered.
He said, though there were challenges, his courage and strong faith in God enabled him to overcome the obstacles.
Medran is married to another nurse, Cindy Laroco of Baguio City, who works in the same hospital. They have three children: Michaela Argenta, 6; Thea Mikayla, 5; and Theodore, 3.
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/12827/filipino-is-british-hospitals%e2%80%99-nurse-of-the-year
Inquirer Southern Luzon
12:30 am | Sunday, September 18th, 2011
 |
| The Philippine embassy cites Medran as a good example for OFWs. |
Teodoro “Junjun” Medran Jr., 38, a clinical charge nurse at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in the United Kingdom, was chosen from over 60 nominees, mostly British, by patients, colleagues and a board of judges that included member of parliament Nicolas Soames, a grandson of the late prime minister Winston Churchill.
Following the award, Medran said in an e-mail that he was cited by the Philippine Embassy in London for being a good example for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and struggling parents.
Medran has also been nominated for the Blas Ople Bagong Bayani Award 2011, which recognizes the role of OFWs in fostering high standards of responsibility, efficiency and integrity among overseas workers; and in promoting the welfare of OFWs.
Now on its second year, the Nurse of the Year award is given by the BSUH National Health Services in cooperation with The Argus newspapers. Last year’s awardee was a Briton.
The BSUH is described in its web site as the regional teaching hospital operating across two sites: the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath.
Medran said the award was a recognition of the hard work and professionalism of Filipino nurses and OFWs.
The Department of Foreign Affairs estimates that 250,000 Filipinos live in the UK.
As clinical charge nurse, Medran said part of his job was to certify dead patients who, sometimes, did not have relatives. “I make sure I am with them (before they die), holding their hands, reciting prayers. I always whisper in their ears my wish that they be reunited with the Lord in heaven,” he said.
“I always make my patients happy by singing love and joyful songs to, at least, ease their anxiety. There’s so much from within to share, like love-filled childhood,” he said.
Medran said he learned his empathy for others from his father, who would give away even the food he was about to eat if somebody asked for it. His father believed the giver was more blessed than the recipient.
A graduate of Arellano University at 18, Medran went to the UK in 1999, after working at the Lung Center of the Philippines for six years, then the Philippine Heart Center for two years. He was also a college lecturer while waiting for the board examination results.
“Almost half of my life was spent in the hospital so I said, ‘Why not treat everyone as a family member, too?’ It must really be a calling because I continue to be excited everyday in doing the same job,” he said.
He saw his work as more than just caring for the human body and saving lives. “To touch the soul and emotion of another, I always put myself in someone else’s shoes and always feel that I am a member of the families of my patients. When they are lonely or without visitors, I like feeding them if they can’t feed themselves and making them look good by giving them a shave and cutting their hair. I believe that if they look good they will feel good,” he said
Former patients who returned to the hospital would always ask for him upon admission. Medran would give them a hug, happy to see that they had recovered.
He said, though there were challenges, his courage and strong faith in God enabled him to overcome the obstacles.
Medran is married to another nurse, Cindy Laroco of Baguio City, who works in the same hospital. They have three children: Michaela Argenta, 6; Thea Mikayla, 5; and Theodore, 3.
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/12827/filipino-is-british-hospitals%e2%80%99-nurse-of-the-year
Certified as fit to work, OFW is sent back for medical reasons
Philippine Daily Inquirer
12:20 am | Sunday, September 18th, 2011
The Qatar Medical Commission required Angelito Cabillon to undergo a new health assessment to get his Pataka (labor card).
After one month and two weeks as a barista, Qatar Immigration ordered Cabillon to leave the country within 48 hours because he was found to have a scar in his lung.
But Cabillon, who applied through Jobsmanila International Inc. (formerly Achica International Placement Agency) in January was given a “fit to work” clearance after several medical examinations conducted by the Physician’s Diagnostic Center to verify the initial “blurred” findings in his lungs.
He left for Qatar on May 19, 2011, eager to work for a foreign employer and give his family a better future. Cabillon considered it his destiny to be an OFW since several members of his family had worked abroad. Both his parents worked in Israel.
To cover the cost of his overseas employment application, his recruitment agency gave him a referral so he could get a loan from the PJH Group, a lending agency. Cabillon got a P40,000 loan, payable in six months with interest amounting to P23,000.
With his brother as comaker for the loan, he submitted a photocopy of the title to the family house and lot.
But after working for only over a month, he was ordered to return to the Philippines in July because Qatar doctors found the lung scar. On the same day Cabillon arrived in Manila, his father, 72, passed away.
After the interment, he went to Jobsmanila International. He was offered a recompensation amounting to P10,000 only. Jobsmanila also told him he should personally handle his problem with the lending agency.
Cabillon was advised by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to claim the unexpired portion of his 21 months indenture, which was equivalent to P392,000.
Bantay OCW is with Cabillon in his battle for justice. He is now preparing for his case to be heard by the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) on Sept. 7 and 14.
Our collaborators from the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) are demanding that Cabillon’s alleged “fit to work” medical certificate be released by Jobsmanila International.
Traumatic encounter
Joseph Banaag applied as fire alarm technician at Al Mustaqbal International Inc. In April, after less than two months on the job, he came home.
Banaag’s first night at Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was traumatic. He was awakened from his sleep by a feeling that somebody was touching sensitive parts of his body. When he woke up he saw his workmate, an Egyptian engineer, in his room. He told Banaag it was no big deal and he should go back to sleep.
Our kabayan went to Saudi with a bald head and no moustache, not realizing what effect his looks would have on other nationalities.
Banaag told the Egyptian to get out of his room. He locked the door as soon as he was alone.
The following weeks were very difficult for the OFW. The Philippine Embassy confirmed that he was a victim of contract substitution as evidenced by an indenture added just 15 minutes before Banaag’s departure.
The last minute addition meant he would work not as a fire alarm technician but a laborer. Also, his compensation, food and accommodation allowances were not what he expected.
He appealed for assistance from Al Mustaqbal International Inc. However, an employee told him that since he wanted to go home, they could not do anything to help him.
Fortunately, the Philippine Embassy and his employer helped and Banaag was able to come home.
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/12823/certified-as-fit-to-work-ofw-is-sent-back-for-medical-reasons
12:20 am | Sunday, September 18th, 2011
The Qatar Medical Commission required Angelito Cabillon to undergo a new health assessment to get his Pataka (labor card).
After one month and two weeks as a barista, Qatar Immigration ordered Cabillon to leave the country within 48 hours because he was found to have a scar in his lung.
But Cabillon, who applied through Jobsmanila International Inc. (formerly Achica International Placement Agency) in January was given a “fit to work” clearance after several medical examinations conducted by the Physician’s Diagnostic Center to verify the initial “blurred” findings in his lungs.
He left for Qatar on May 19, 2011, eager to work for a foreign employer and give his family a better future. Cabillon considered it his destiny to be an OFW since several members of his family had worked abroad. Both his parents worked in Israel.
To cover the cost of his overseas employment application, his recruitment agency gave him a referral so he could get a loan from the PJH Group, a lending agency. Cabillon got a P40,000 loan, payable in six months with interest amounting to P23,000.
With his brother as comaker for the loan, he submitted a photocopy of the title to the family house and lot.
But after working for only over a month, he was ordered to return to the Philippines in July because Qatar doctors found the lung scar. On the same day Cabillon arrived in Manila, his father, 72, passed away.
After the interment, he went to Jobsmanila International. He was offered a recompensation amounting to P10,000 only. Jobsmanila also told him he should personally handle his problem with the lending agency.
Cabillon was advised by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to claim the unexpired portion of his 21 months indenture, which was equivalent to P392,000.
Bantay OCW is with Cabillon in his battle for justice. He is now preparing for his case to be heard by the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) on Sept. 7 and 14.
Our collaborators from the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) are demanding that Cabillon’s alleged “fit to work” medical certificate be released by Jobsmanila International.
Traumatic encounter
Joseph Banaag applied as fire alarm technician at Al Mustaqbal International Inc. In April, after less than two months on the job, he came home.
Banaag’s first night at Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was traumatic. He was awakened from his sleep by a feeling that somebody was touching sensitive parts of his body. When he woke up he saw his workmate, an Egyptian engineer, in his room. He told Banaag it was no big deal and he should go back to sleep.
Our kabayan went to Saudi with a bald head and no moustache, not realizing what effect his looks would have on other nationalities.
Banaag told the Egyptian to get out of his room. He locked the door as soon as he was alone.
The following weeks were very difficult for the OFW. The Philippine Embassy confirmed that he was a victim of contract substitution as evidenced by an indenture added just 15 minutes before Banaag’s departure.
The last minute addition meant he would work not as a fire alarm technician but a laborer. Also, his compensation, food and accommodation allowances were not what he expected.
He appealed for assistance from Al Mustaqbal International Inc. However, an employee told him that since he wanted to go home, they could not do anything to help him.
Fortunately, the Philippine Embassy and his employer helped and Banaag was able to come home.
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/12823/certified-as-fit-to-work-ofw-is-sent-back-for-medical-reasons
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Jail or suicide: Caught in debt trap, some Pinoys make tough choices
09/16/2011 | 11:00 AM
In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), many expatriates, including Filipinos, who are caught in a "debt trap" are forced to make a tough choice between jail and suicide, the news site Khaleej Times said on Friday.
According to Khaleej Times, "Caught in the whirlpool of recession, job and business losses, and mounting loan and credit card payments, many expatriates come to the conclusion that their only choice is jail or suicide."
The report cited Filipino expatriate "Lein F." who chose to go to jail and a certain "Anil Kumar" who chose to commit suicide.
Anil and his wife committed suicide after killing their daughter, the report said.
Lein, on the other hand, spent three-and-a-half months in jail due to bounced cheques, the report said.
Khaleej Times said many expatriates are harassed and subjected to mental torture as they are unable to find employment and settle their mounting bills.
Citing a report of Dr. Khalid Al Khazraji, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Labour, the report said UAE's labor market comprises 202 nationalities, of whom almost 50 percent are Indians.
"Since 2009, when the global economic downturn was at its worst, many had staggering amounts of personal loans and credit card payments. They were further crippled as they lost jobs, delayed salaries, reduced pay and incessant threatening calls from the banks to settle their debts," Khaleej Times said.
The report cited statistics that "at least 53 Indian nationals committed suicide in the last nine months in Dubai and the Northern Emirates."
Afraid to compromise honor
In the Khaleej Times report, Dr. Raymond H. Hamden, Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, said some "people commit suicide when they find no ways to solve their problems that compromise their honor, respect and trust of their families, community as well as creditors."
He noted that not all cultures put pressure on people to feel shame, guilt, and embarrassment.
However, those who are pressured to feel embarrassed may end up committing suicide, Hamden said in the report.
Khaleej Times said suicide "is a criminal act and it is against the teachings of the religion of Islam."
In the report, a police officer urged people with financial troubles to think of other solutions instead of committing suicide.
“Every problem in life has a solution. Killing oneself would never help in solving a problem. They have to be patient and seek advice from religious scholars whenever they have problems," the officer told Khaleej Times. - VVP, GMA News
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/232562/pinoy-abroad/jail-or-suicide-caught-in-debt-trap-some-pinoys-make-tough-choices
In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), many expatriates, including Filipinos, who are caught in a "debt trap" are forced to make a tough choice between jail and suicide, the news site Khaleej Times said on Friday.
According to Khaleej Times, "Caught in the whirlpool of recession, job and business losses, and mounting loan and credit card payments, many expatriates come to the conclusion that their only choice is jail or suicide."
The report cited Filipino expatriate "Lein F." who chose to go to jail and a certain "Anil Kumar" who chose to commit suicide.
Anil and his wife committed suicide after killing their daughter, the report said.
Lein, on the other hand, spent three-and-a-half months in jail due to bounced cheques, the report said.
Khaleej Times said many expatriates are harassed and subjected to mental torture as they are unable to find employment and settle their mounting bills.
Citing a report of Dr. Khalid Al Khazraji, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Labour, the report said UAE's labor market comprises 202 nationalities, of whom almost 50 percent are Indians.
"Since 2009, when the global economic downturn was at its worst, many had staggering amounts of personal loans and credit card payments. They were further crippled as they lost jobs, delayed salaries, reduced pay and incessant threatening calls from the banks to settle their debts," Khaleej Times said.
The report cited statistics that "at least 53 Indian nationals committed suicide in the last nine months in Dubai and the Northern Emirates."
Afraid to compromise honor
In the Khaleej Times report, Dr. Raymond H. Hamden, Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, said some "people commit suicide when they find no ways to solve their problems that compromise their honor, respect and trust of their families, community as well as creditors."
He noted that not all cultures put pressure on people to feel shame, guilt, and embarrassment.
However, those who are pressured to feel embarrassed may end up committing suicide, Hamden said in the report.
Khaleej Times said suicide "is a criminal act and it is against the teachings of the religion of Islam."
In the report, a police officer urged people with financial troubles to think of other solutions instead of committing suicide.
“Every problem in life has a solution. Killing oneself would never help in solving a problem. They have to be patient and seek advice from religious scholars whenever they have problems," the officer told Khaleej Times. - VVP, GMA News
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/232562/pinoy-abroad/jail-or-suicide-caught-in-debt-trap-some-pinoys-make-tough-choices
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Pinoys bound for Bangkok face strict screening
By Helen Flores
The Philippine Star
Updated September 12, 2011 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Immigration has tightened the screening of passengers bound for Bangkok following reports that the Thai capital is being used as transit point of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) going to countries covered by the government deployment ban, officials said yesterday.
BI Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. ordered BI airport operations division acting chief Lina Andaman Pelia to institute measures that will prevent human traffickers and illegal recruiters from skirting the deployment ban on OFWs by initially sending their victims to other places before flying them to their final destinations where the ban is in effect.
David issued the order after learning that many travelers offloaded at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in recent months were bound for Bangkok and were identified to be “tourist workers.”
Tourist workers refer to undocumented OFWs who attempt to leave the country in the guise of being tourists.
BI spokesperson Maria Antonette Bucasas-Mangrobang said they received intelligence reports that undocumented OFWs have been using the Bangkok International Airport as a jump-off point before going to Middle East, especially to Jordan and Lebanon.
Mangrobang cited an incident at the NAIA last Aug. 22 when four passengers were offloaded from their Bangkok-bound flights after it was discovered that they were actually going to Amman, Jordan.
BI said one of the passengers turned out to be a courier for a syndicate that recruited his three female companions, who were going to work as domestic helpers in Amman.
Members of the BI travel control and enforcement unit, who intercepted the passengers, said the women all pointed to their male companion as the one who provided their plane tickets and hotel accommodation vouchers, the BI said.
Mangrobang refused to provide the names of the passengers, citing a provision in the anti-human trafficking act that forbids public disclosure of trafficking victims.
Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Yemen, and Nigeria are covered by the government deployment ban. – With Rudy Santos
The Philippine Star
Updated September 12, 2011 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Immigration has tightened the screening of passengers bound for Bangkok following reports that the Thai capital is being used as transit point of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) going to countries covered by the government deployment ban, officials said yesterday.
BI Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. ordered BI airport operations division acting chief Lina Andaman Pelia to institute measures that will prevent human traffickers and illegal recruiters from skirting the deployment ban on OFWs by initially sending their victims to other places before flying them to their final destinations where the ban is in effect.
David issued the order after learning that many travelers offloaded at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in recent months were bound for Bangkok and were identified to be “tourist workers.”
Tourist workers refer to undocumented OFWs who attempt to leave the country in the guise of being tourists.
BI spokesperson Maria Antonette Bucasas-Mangrobang said they received intelligence reports that undocumented OFWs have been using the Bangkok International Airport as a jump-off point before going to Middle East, especially to Jordan and Lebanon.
Mangrobang cited an incident at the NAIA last Aug. 22 when four passengers were offloaded from their Bangkok-bound flights after it was discovered that they were actually going to Amman, Jordan.
BI said one of the passengers turned out to be a courier for a syndicate that recruited his three female companions, who were going to work as domestic helpers in Amman.
Members of the BI travel control and enforcement unit, who intercepted the passengers, said the women all pointed to their male companion as the one who provided their plane tickets and hotel accommodation vouchers, the BI said.
Mangrobang refused to provide the names of the passengers, citing a provision in the anti-human trafficking act that forbids public disclosure of trafficking victims.
Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Yemen, and Nigeria are covered by the government deployment ban. – With Rudy Santos
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Filipinos in UAE caught in credit card trap
Philippine Daily Inquirer
2:04 am | Monday, August 22nd, 2011
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates—Before she arrived in this mecca of migrant labor at age 48, Evelyn Naces, a Filipino nurse, had never owned a credit card. Soon she had 14 credit cards—and like thousands of other foreign workers here, a trip to debtors’ prison.
The Philippine Embassy held a financial literacy program in June. Some workers borrowed at rates of 50 percent or more.
“When they put me in shackles, that was the worst,” said Naces, who had $27,000 in unpaid bills, mostly from helping her grown son start a business back in the Philippines that later failed. “I felt so degraded.”
For years, banks all but threw credit cards at the foreigners who come here in droves to work the malls and fill the office towers. The workers, many of them raised in poor countries and new to easy credit, spent beyond their means.
Staggering losses followed, with jail terms common for those who could not pay.
Whether cast as reckless lending or heedless borrowing, the stories of these foreign workers offer an unusual glimpse of the hidden emotions—webs of pride, guilt and family obligation—that follow millions of migrants across the globe.
Some shopped for pleasure, but many ran up bills by answering pleas from poor relatives for needs as varied as livestock and medical care. The ability to say “no” seldom felt like an option.
Still others, feeling uprooted, built houses back home that they might never occupy. Some mothers who left their children behind tried to salve guilty feelings with expensive gifts.
Vicious cycle
“The family back home often thinks the migrant is earning a lot and raises its expectations,” said Grace Princesa, the Philippine ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who has made debt reduction a part of a government campaign to improve conditions for migrants.
“The poor migrant goes deeper into debt just to answer. It’s a vicious cycle,” Princesa said.
Such was the case with Naces, now 52, a single mother who left her infant son with her parents and went to Saudi Arabia to make money to support him. By the time she arrived in the UAE in 2007, he had already grown up without her.
Though she could not get a credit card in Saudi Arabia, she could scarcely avoid one in the UAE. Salesmen stalked nurses outside hospitals and worshipers after Mass at a Filipino church.
Naces bought furniture, clothes and meals for herself, but her biggest expenses involved her son, whose affection she feared she had lost. She built him a house in the Philippines and bought five cars with credit cards so he could start a rental business.
“I felt guilty for being away and not raising him,” she said. “I was trying to compensate.”
Both mother and son went to jail—he on drug charges and she for debt.
Debtors clog jails
While the government does not disclose how many debtors have been jailed, a legislative body several years ago estimated that 10,000 of them were in the courts or prison.
The Dubai police chief has complained that debtors needlessly clog the jails, and employers have warned the Ministry of Labor that debt problems distract employees.
About 85 percent of the UAE’s population—and 99 percent of the private workforce—consists of foreign workers, and local officials keep watch for signs of discontent.
“The employers were saying, ‘This is a priority to us,’” said Qassim Jamil, a senior official in the labor ministry.
The Central Bank tightened lending rules this year, and the labor ministry sponsored a financial literacy program for migrant leaders.
“What do we want? Freedom!” Ambassador Princesa chanted at a session for Filipinos. “Freedom from poverty! Freedom from credit card problems! Freedom from bank problems!”
Aggressive lending
If migrants spent heavily, lenders encouraged them. Traditionally, credit card use was low (in part because of Islamic strictures against charging interest), but banks spotted a new market and moved aggressively.
With foreign banks like HSBC and Citigroup fighting locals for market share, the number of cards leapt to four million in 2008, a fivefold increase in five years, according to the Lafferty Group, a London research firm.
But the UAE lacks a reliable credit bureau, so lenders could not tell how many cards or how much debt the borrowers carried.
“Banks were falling over themselves to lend, and they didn’t have proper credit checks,” said Andrew Neeson, a Lafferty analyst.
Courted with gifts and teaser rates, few borrowers understood the costs. The average interest rate in the Emirates last year, at 36 percent, was more than twice the global average, and banks routinely add another 10 percent for disability and death insurance.
With penalties, some workers were borrowing at rates of 50 percent or more.
Intoxicating
Anyone can be tempted by easy credit, but migrants raised in poverty can find the glittering malls here especially intoxicating.
“The first time I used my card, I felt amazed,” Naces said. “It’s a feeling of excitement, power—greatness even.”
Rex Arcenio, a Filipino optometrist, accepted a gold card because it came with a Montblanc pen and a limousine ride to the airport for his annual leave.
“It was like a status symbol,” Arcenio said.
He ran up $50,000 in debt—for his children’s education, his brother’s cancer treatment and a house in Manila—and was briefly jailed.
Bouncing check
Technically, debtors go to jail for bouncing the blank “security checks” they must sign when accepting a card. If borrowers fail to pay, banks can deposit the checks for the sum owed, and bouncing a check is a crime.
Whether foreign or Emirati, borrowers must repay the debt after leaving jail, though banks often accept reduced terms.
Skilled workers here are generally treated better than in neighboring countries like Saudi Arabia, which can make their debt travails a shock. Jail conditions in the UAE are described as comfortable, but the accused often appear in court in leg irons.
“My world collapsed,” said Arcenio, a proud man in a white lab coat.
Aisha Alambatang, 54, who served a month for one card in February, could be jailed again for others. A Filipino nurse with three grown children, Alambatang spent most of their childhood years abroad, supporting them from Saudi Arabia.
When she arrived in the UAE eight years ago, she got a raise and six credit cards.
‘My heart was broken’
Alambatang built houses for herself and her daughter, and helped the children start several failed businesses. Then she paid for two daughters to move to Abu Dhabi to job-hunt.
Soon she had a monthly salary of $2,200 and debt service of more than $3,000. When Alambatang arrived in court, her daughter was already there.
“When my daughter saw me with a chain on my foot, I felt like my heart was broken,” she said. Worried about returning to jail, Alambatang gets palpitations when she sees the police, and she sleeps with her daughter for comfort.
“I’m not in jail anymore, but here,” she said, hand over her heart, “I’m more in jail.” New York Times News Service
2:04 am | Monday, August 22nd, 2011
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates—Before she arrived in this mecca of migrant labor at age 48, Evelyn Naces, a Filipino nurse, had never owned a credit card. Soon she had 14 credit cards—and like thousands of other foreign workers here, a trip to debtors’ prison.
The Philippine Embassy held a financial literacy program in June. Some workers borrowed at rates of 50 percent or more.
“When they put me in shackles, that was the worst,” said Naces, who had $27,000 in unpaid bills, mostly from helping her grown son start a business back in the Philippines that later failed. “I felt so degraded.”
For years, banks all but threw credit cards at the foreigners who come here in droves to work the malls and fill the office towers. The workers, many of them raised in poor countries and new to easy credit, spent beyond their means.
Staggering losses followed, with jail terms common for those who could not pay.
Whether cast as reckless lending or heedless borrowing, the stories of these foreign workers offer an unusual glimpse of the hidden emotions—webs of pride, guilt and family obligation—that follow millions of migrants across the globe.
Some shopped for pleasure, but many ran up bills by answering pleas from poor relatives for needs as varied as livestock and medical care. The ability to say “no” seldom felt like an option.
Still others, feeling uprooted, built houses back home that they might never occupy. Some mothers who left their children behind tried to salve guilty feelings with expensive gifts.
Vicious cycle
“The family back home often thinks the migrant is earning a lot and raises its expectations,” said Grace Princesa, the Philippine ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who has made debt reduction a part of a government campaign to improve conditions for migrants.
“The poor migrant goes deeper into debt just to answer. It’s a vicious cycle,” Princesa said.
Such was the case with Naces, now 52, a single mother who left her infant son with her parents and went to Saudi Arabia to make money to support him. By the time she arrived in the UAE in 2007, he had already grown up without her.
Though she could not get a credit card in Saudi Arabia, she could scarcely avoid one in the UAE. Salesmen stalked nurses outside hospitals and worshipers after Mass at a Filipino church.
Naces bought furniture, clothes and meals for herself, but her biggest expenses involved her son, whose affection she feared she had lost. She built him a house in the Philippines and bought five cars with credit cards so he could start a rental business.
“I felt guilty for being away and not raising him,” she said. “I was trying to compensate.”
Both mother and son went to jail—he on drug charges and she for debt.
Debtors clog jails
While the government does not disclose how many debtors have been jailed, a legislative body several years ago estimated that 10,000 of them were in the courts or prison.
The Dubai police chief has complained that debtors needlessly clog the jails, and employers have warned the Ministry of Labor that debt problems distract employees.
About 85 percent of the UAE’s population—and 99 percent of the private workforce—consists of foreign workers, and local officials keep watch for signs of discontent.
“The employers were saying, ‘This is a priority to us,’” said Qassim Jamil, a senior official in the labor ministry.
The Central Bank tightened lending rules this year, and the labor ministry sponsored a financial literacy program for migrant leaders.
“What do we want? Freedom!” Ambassador Princesa chanted at a session for Filipinos. “Freedom from poverty! Freedom from credit card problems! Freedom from bank problems!”
Aggressive lending
If migrants spent heavily, lenders encouraged them. Traditionally, credit card use was low (in part because of Islamic strictures against charging interest), but banks spotted a new market and moved aggressively.
With foreign banks like HSBC and Citigroup fighting locals for market share, the number of cards leapt to four million in 2008, a fivefold increase in five years, according to the Lafferty Group, a London research firm.
But the UAE lacks a reliable credit bureau, so lenders could not tell how many cards or how much debt the borrowers carried.
“Banks were falling over themselves to lend, and they didn’t have proper credit checks,” said Andrew Neeson, a Lafferty analyst.
Courted with gifts and teaser rates, few borrowers understood the costs. The average interest rate in the Emirates last year, at 36 percent, was more than twice the global average, and banks routinely add another 10 percent for disability and death insurance.
With penalties, some workers were borrowing at rates of 50 percent or more.
Intoxicating
Anyone can be tempted by easy credit, but migrants raised in poverty can find the glittering malls here especially intoxicating.
“The first time I used my card, I felt amazed,” Naces said. “It’s a feeling of excitement, power—greatness even.”
Rex Arcenio, a Filipino optometrist, accepted a gold card because it came with a Montblanc pen and a limousine ride to the airport for his annual leave.
“It was like a status symbol,” Arcenio said.
He ran up $50,000 in debt—for his children’s education, his brother’s cancer treatment and a house in Manila—and was briefly jailed.
Bouncing check
Technically, debtors go to jail for bouncing the blank “security checks” they must sign when accepting a card. If borrowers fail to pay, banks can deposit the checks for the sum owed, and bouncing a check is a crime.
Whether foreign or Emirati, borrowers must repay the debt after leaving jail, though banks often accept reduced terms.
Skilled workers here are generally treated better than in neighboring countries like Saudi Arabia, which can make their debt travails a shock. Jail conditions in the UAE are described as comfortable, but the accused often appear in court in leg irons.
“My world collapsed,” said Arcenio, a proud man in a white lab coat.
Aisha Alambatang, 54, who served a month for one card in February, could be jailed again for others. A Filipino nurse with three grown children, Alambatang spent most of their childhood years abroad, supporting them from Saudi Arabia.
When she arrived in the UAE eight years ago, she got a raise and six credit cards.
‘My heart was broken’
Alambatang built houses for herself and her daughter, and helped the children start several failed businesses. Then she paid for two daughters to move to Abu Dhabi to job-hunt.
Soon she had a monthly salary of $2,200 and debt service of more than $3,000. When Alambatang arrived in court, her daughter was already there.
“When my daughter saw me with a chain on my foot, I felt like my heart was broken,” she said. Worried about returning to jail, Alambatang gets palpitations when she sees the police, and she sleeps with her daughter for comfort.
“I’m not in jail anymore, but here,” she said, hand over her heart, “I’m more in jail.” New York Times News Service
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