MIGRANTE-Europe

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.