MANILA, Philippines – An alliance of Filipino migrant organizations based in the Middle East expressed disappointment with the recent Supreme Court decision denying with finality the petition of Migrante Sectoral Party (MSP) to join as party-list group in this year’s May elections.
“Its disqualification to participate in the May 2010 elections is a big blow to its quest to seek genuine representation in Congress by mere technicality of the Party-list system law that undermines the principle of democratic representation,” John Leonard Monterona said in a press statement.
It was 2001 and riding on the crest of People Power II that ousted President Joseph Estrada, then Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo inherited the presidency. Reforms seemed in the offing but nine years later, the Pinoy migrants along with the rest of the country, could not wait for Arroyo whose term ends in 2010 to leave Malacanang.
ROME – Residents of an Italian town beat with iron bars, shot at and ran over immigrants Friday, wounding nine – two seriously – in a second night of racially charged violence, authorities and reports said.
The regime of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo changed the face of labor migration in the Philippines. It pursued its labor-export policy aggressively, begging receiving countries to accept more overseas Filipino workers. In the meantime, it shirked its responsibilities toward OFWs in distress, in many instances even becoming complicit in the abuse of overseas workers.
IT WAS, as Charles Dickens famously wrote, the best of times, and the worst. There was the Pacman making Filipinos proud everywhere with his double wins against boxing stalwarts Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto.
There was CNN Hero of the Year Efren Peñaflorida with his moveable feast of books, showing how dreams are reached and grasped. Former President Cory Aquino’s phenomenal wake and funeral again recalled the Filipinos’ unshakeable, if sometimes vociferous, faith in democratic ideals and the people who uphold them.
HONOLULU — Hawaii is a popular destination not only for tourists but also for migrants, and not without reason. But for the forebears of the Filipinos there, who now comprise one of the biggest Asian ancestry group on the island, getting there and planting their feet there was far from being a walk in the park.
Filipinos migrated in waves to Hawaii beginning in the very first years of the 20th century, when the island was a newly annexed territory of the US. Hawaii’s economy then was dominated by the owners of big sugar plantations. “The first Filipinos in Hawaii were sacadas (seasonal farm workers),” said Cora Avinante, an immigration lawyer who is also an expert on the history of Filipino migration to Hawaii.
A human rights group warned Friday in their annual report that the year 2006 is the 'worst' for human rights in the country. The group Karapatan said that 185 activists have been killed in the last 11 months, a record since the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was overthrown in 1986. (Philippine Star, Dec. 1, 2006)
