OFWs in Rome protested against Obama visit in the Philippines

Posted by Pahayag ng Migrante
Rome, Italy 28/04/2014

Lightning protest rally at Pzza. Vittorio Emmanuelle 27/04/2014 (Photo: UMANGAT-MIGRANTE)

The OFW group Ugnayan ng Manggagawqang Migrante Tungo sa Pag-inlad (UMANGAT-MIGRANTE) held a mass leaflet distribution at the portals of Vatican City in the morning followed by a successful lightning protest manifestation in the afternoon at Vittorio Emanuelle Plaza in Rome drawing attention of onlookers of many nationalities,  yesterday, 27 April 2014. Some of the onlookers from Pakistan and Nigeria also joined later and engaged in a brief  discussions on the motives of Obama’s visit and the issue of US imperialism.

The leaflet reads : We, the Filipino migrants of Italy strongly protest against the visit of US Pres. Barrack Obama to the Philippines. It is not a friendly visit. The imminent visits to Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines are in line with the US strategic military “pivot” and the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). Obama’s visit brings with it the US imperialist agenda of entrenching US hegemony in Asia in light of China’s rise as a major regional power, in order to continue imposing itself as the preeminent economic and military power in the Asia-Pacific region. While we condemn China’s incursions into Philippine territory in the West Philippine Sea, we see the new PH-US military agreement as far more dangerous and violates Philippine sovereignty.

Along with the military agreement, Obama will also push forward the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), a US dominated ‘free’ trade agreement and convince pres. Aquino to change the provisions of Philippine Constitution Charter Change of Cha Cha, that blocks the implementation of the said agreement.

The people of the world demand an end to US imperialism and its long history of wars and exploitation. We oppose US imperialism’s desperate efforts to entrench itself in the Asia-Pacific and other global regions through war and plunder. The people want to end the brutal regime of US bases, armed intervention, drone strikes, and other brazen violations of national and the people’s sovereignty. The people oppose highly damaging neoliberal economic dictates aimed at passing on the burden of the crisis of imperialism to the peoples of the world.

NO TO US BASES IN THE PHILIPPINES! NO TO CHARTER CHANGE!

CONDEMN THE US ATTEMPTS TO REOCCUPY THE PHILIPPINES!!!

US troops out of Asia and the Pacific!

Resist neo-liberal economic dictates!  Fight the TPPA!

Peoples of the world unite against imperialism and all reaction! Long live international solidarity!

The group later proceeded to their HQ nearby at Via Giolitti to assess the day’s procedures and discuss activities for the coming Labor day and the annual event Umangat Family Day to be held on June 2014.

##

VANTAGE | POINT THE SUB- “UBER” CLASS

VANTAGE POINT
THE SUB- “UBER” CLASS
By Luis V. Teodoro

Reposted by Belarmino Dabalos Saguing
Rome, Italy 28/042014 

Congress in joint session. (Photo: Bikpy)

THE  diversion of pork barrel funds, of which Janet Lim-Napoles and several members of Congress have been accused, could be implemented not only with the collaboration of congressmen and senators and other high level bureaucrat-capitalists. It also needed the sustained efforts of a class of individuals familiar with the way things are done in this country and its government. Their peculiar and criminal skills have enabled them to amass vast fortunes for themselves as well as their principals and co-conspirators.  Those skills are well-suited to, and mesh smoothly with, government practice and the dominant values of Philippine society. 

Some of these operators were or are in government themselves, usually in some middle-level post. But as has recently been demonstrated, experience in non-governmental organizations does help too.   Many others are in the coercive apparatus  of the Philippine neo-colonial state. Some are torturers and murderers themselves.  

They’re police and military generals, medium-level bureaucrats--even judges. A large segment consists of lawyers, whose skills in navigating the labyrinth called the Philippine legal system enable them to guarantee the impunity, or exemption from punishment, of their principals, no matter how corrupt, vicious, cruel or homicidal—enabling them, in many cases, to literally get away with  murder.

They’re basically technocrats in that they have neither scruples nor morality. “Good Christians” all, what solely matters to them are results in terms of how much wealth they’ve amassed for themselves and their patrons who occupy the highest levels of Philippine officialdom.  They are also the buffers between the law and the latter, thus the marked involvement of judges and lawyers. 

They have been described as constituting “a new class.”  But they are actually part of a social category that in this neo-colonial society with pretensions to democracy has been around for centuries.  In the Spanish colonial period they were the impoverished members of the principalia whose datu forebears  had subsumed their  power to that of the conquistadores.  During formal American occupation they assumed the role of serving their more successful cohorts who had risen in the colonial order as junior partners and collaborators in the running of the government. 

Excluded from direct participation in government by the handful of families the US overlords had anointed to rule, in the post “independence” period (1946 onwards) they became the  minions of the former junior partners  who had by then supposedly and finally become the real rulers of Philippine society. 

They themselves do not belong to what has been called the “uber” (from the German word for “above,” “superior” ), or ruling, class.  But  some of them do eventually ascend—or descend—to that category of creatures who, in this alleged democracy,  basically run the country, though consisting only of a handful of elite families and political clans.

Equally part of this sub-uber class are the semi-criminal elements who own fleets of luxury cars and veritable  palaces and condominiums in the toniest places in the capital-- who maintain homes in Baguio, and Tagaytay, as well as in Hongkong, New York, and London:  who spend much of their time on vacation in Europe and the Americas in-between  episodes of plundering public coffers.  In many instances, they’re also involved in smuggling, kidnapping, extortion and other crimes. But unlike your penniless neighbor who’s likely to languish in prison for snatching a cellphone, they always escape punishment and continue to live obscenely luxurious lives.  They and their political patrons are islands of wealth and self-indulgence in the ocean of poverty known as Philippine society. 

The country has seen these creatures in action in recent times, the outstanding example being the PDAF scandal, in which a clutch of NGO bureaucrats facilitated the plunder of pork barrel funds, amassing in the process billions for themselves and their collaborators in the House of Representatives and the Senate, and defending their ill-gotten gain with whatever means are necessary including violence in the form of kidnapping and illegal detention.

Indicative of how far Philippine society has deteriorated is how much, despite what they do, these denizens of the lowest (in moral terms) rungs of Philippine society still enjoy the respect and even the admiration of their associates, the middle class, and  most of their countrymen,  who salute them for their cunning (in Tagalog, “katusuhan’) as a consequence of, among other factors, widespread hopes among some of the poorest and most powerless sectors of the Philippine society for relief, no matter what the source and the cost, from their desperate straits. 

This same impulse explains why too many Filipinos receive with hoots of derision such rare instances of honesty (so rare they merit front page newspapert stories and lead treatment in the six o’clock TV news programs) as a taxi driver’s returning a briefcase of euros left by a fare in his cab rather than keeping it for himself—or why, despite paeans to the need for education and hard work, lying and cheating in furtherance of personal gain are accepted as necessary means for advancement. 

The very existence of the sub-uber class itself as a subset of the dominant few who rule Philippine society, and mass approval, not always silent, of the former’s capacity to manipulate a system tailor-made to serve limited interests are indivisible from the reality of corruption, deceit, violence and desperation that characterize Philippine society.  No matter how much that society’s supposedly positive aspects are hyped by the media and the politicians, this class is both symptom and cause of its descent into chaos.

Corruption and  violence as the primary means of extending and defending  the presumed entitlement of a few and their henchmen and women to access to public funds to the detriment of the majority are too deeply embedded not only in the political system but in the entirety of Philippine society as well. They cannot  be eradicated overnight without overhauling the system that sustains them.  

And yet eradicating corruption without structural reform is  precisely what Benigno Aquino III promised during the campaign  for the Presidency in 2010.  Both that promise, and the  Aquino claim that the public sector has  been purged of corruption, are illusions that are either cluelessly naïve or deliberately misleading, the latter in furtherance of deluding the citizenry into believing, despite the daily evidence in their own lives, that everything is as well as they should be, and requires only the will of the well-intentioned to achieve. --###

Comments, blogs and other columns: www.luisteodoro.com and www.cmfr-phil.org
Luis V. Teodoro is on Facebook and Twitter (@luisteodoro)
  

News release | Petition Signing laban sa House Bill 3576 inilunsad sa Roma, Italya

Posted by Pahayag ng Migrante
Rome, Italy 14/04/2014

News Release
Ugnayan ng Manggagawang Migrante Tungo sa Pag-unlad (UMANGAT)
Reference: Rowena Flores  +39 3291757805, Alex Reyes  +39 3890362468
                 E-mail : umangat-migrante@gmail.com

(Photo: Umangat-Migrantre)

Rome, Italy Roma Eur, Abril 13, 2014.. Sa pangunguna ng Ugnayan ng mga Manggagawang MIgrante Tungo sa Pag-unlad (UMANGAT-MIGRANTE),  Makabayang Atas ng Supremo Andress Bonifacio (MASA) at ng ibat-ibang lider komunidad at mga concerned OFWS ay nagsagawa ng Petition signing ang mga OFWS dito sa Roma para ipanawagan ang pagbasura sa panukalang batas na House Bill 3576 o “An Act Authorizing Ambassadors, Consul General, Chiefs of Missions or Charge d’ Affairs to order and direct an Overseas Filipino to send support to his or her legal dependents as required by existing laws” na isinumite sa kongreso ng kinatawan ng OFW Family Partylist si dating Ambasador Roy Seῆeres.

Matatandaan simula pa lamang sa pagpasok ng taong 2014 ay naging mainit na usapin sa mga OFWs ang nakapending na panukalang batas na House Bill 3576 at umani ito ng matinding batikos mula sa ibat-ibang organisasyon ng mga migranteng Pilipino sa ibat-ibang panig ng mundo dahil ito ay isang napakalaking insulto  sa mga OFWs at kanyang pamilya at ito rin ay pagpapanunumbalik ng “forced remittance decree”, o ng Executive Order 857  ni dating Pang. Ferdinand Marcos na malaon ng pinabasura ng mga migrante.

Sa ilalim ng HB 3576, inoobliga ang lahat ng land-based at sea-based na OFW na magpadala ng remitans sa “Philippine banking system or any authorized credit unions, money transfer operators or through the postal mail”. Kapag hindi regular na nagawa ito, sila ay papatawan ng karampatang parusa. Gayundin, ang mga pribadong recruitment agency ay awtorisadong obligahin ang mga OFW na magpadala.

Sa Seksyon 5 ng HB 3576, binibigyang-kapangyarihan din ang mga awtoridad ng mga embahada at konsulado na pigilin ang renewal ng mga pasaporte ng mga OFW kung hindi sila makakapagpadala.

Tinututulan naming mga OFW at aming mga pamilya ang HB 3576 dahil ito rin ay isa na namang mekanismo para makapanghuthot ng karagdagang kita at singilin mula sa amin. Tulad ng EO 857 kung saan obligado ang mga OFW na magpadala ng 50-70% ng kanilang buwanang sahod/sweldo, ipinagbabawal din ng HB 3576 ang “padala/pakisuyo system” at nililimitahan ang  pagpapadala ng remitans tanging sa mga “government-authorized channels”. Ang sinumang lumabag din ay paparasuhan din sa pamamagitan ng pagkumpiska sa kanilang mga pasaporte o hindi pag-renew ng kanilang mga kontrata.

Ibig sabihin, ang HB 3576 ay hindi totoong para sa kapakinabangan ng aming pamilya kundi lalo’t higit sa gobyerno, mga bangko at iba pang institusyong pinansyal. Isa na naman itong mekanismo para higit na gawing gatasang-baka kaming mga OFW.

Nanindigan kaming mga OFW at aming mga pamilya na ang HB 3576 ay isang panukalang batas na lalong magbabaon sa amin sa utang at kahirapan. Matatandaang ang dating forced remittance law ni Marcos ang siyang nag-anak sa samu’t saring mga lending institution na nagpista sa desperasyon ng mga OFW. Sagad-sa-buto ang pangungutang ng mga OFW nang ipatupad ang naturang batas. Lalo itong makakapinsala ngayong baon na nga kami sa utang bago pa man kami makalabas ng bansa dahil sa kaliwa’t kanang mga bayarin, buwis, pagtaas ng presyo ng mga bilihin at serbisyo at kawalang-kabuhayan.

Nanindigan kaming mga OFW at aming mga pamilya na ang HB 3576 ay isang panukalang batas na lalong magbabaon sa amin sa utang at kahirapan. Matatandaang ang dating forced remittance law ni Marcos ang siyang nag-anak sa samu’t saring mga lending institution na nagpista sa desperasyon ng mga OFW. Sagad-sa-buto ang pangungutang ng mga OFW nang ipatupad ang naturang batas. Lalo itong makakapinsala ngayong baon na nga kami sa utang bago pa man kami makalabas ng bansa dahil sa kaliwa’t kanang mga bayarin, buwis, pagtaas ng presyo ng mga bilihin at serbisyo at kawalang-kabuhayan.

Dahil sa kanyang pagpasa sa HB 3576, lumilinaw ngayon ang pusisyon ni Rep. Seneres at OFW Family Partylist alinsunod sa pangkalahatang program ng rehimeng BS Aquino sa walang-ampat na pagbubuwis at panghuhuthot sa migrante at mamamayan. Para maisalba ang sarili sa krisis sa ekonomiya, umaasa ng malaki si BS Aquino sa remitans naming mga OFW para pagkunan ng karagdagang kita sa gitna ng malawakang korupsyon at kapalpakan sa gobyerno.

Ibinasura ang forced remittance law noon sa sama-samang pagkilos at pagtutol ng migrante at pamilya. Handa kaming muling gawin ito ngayon.

Ibasura ang HB 3576!

Tutulan ang sapilitang pagpapadala!

Serbisyo, hindi negosyo! Proteksyon, hindi koleksyon!

BS Aquino, hindi gatasang-baka ang mga OFW!

Photo: Umangat-Migrante

###

UMANGAT and MASA join hands vs HB 3576 in Eur Fermi

Posted by Pahayag ng Migrante
Rome, Italy 13/04/2014

Ka Tony and Cons. 'Bong Rafanan explaing why HB 3576 must be junked to OFWsd in Eur-Fermi Park (Photo contyributed by 'Bong Rafanan)

Ugnayan ng Manggagawang Migrante Tungo sa Paguinlad (Umangat and Makabayang Atas ng Supremo Andres Bonifacio (MASA) distributed flyers and  conducted a petition signing among OFWs at EUR-Fermi today 13 April 2014 between 12 noon and 2:30pm.

It is in execution of a joint plan to combat the forced remittance house bill 3576 submitted to the Congress of the Philippines last December, 2013 by Rep. Roy Seneres of OFW Family Club Partylist, a proposed law being opposed by OFWs worldwide.

It is hoped that more groups will actively join the campaign. Todate, there are at least three goups who already shared the campaign. 

Photos contributed by Demetrio 'Bong' RAgudo Rafanan of MASA

Migrante Europe | Press release | BAYAN MUNA CONDEMNS MAD RUSH FOR THE RETURN OF US BASES

News Release
April 12, 2014

References: Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares, 09178350459
Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate, 09177174014

BAYAN MUNA CONDEMNS MAD RUSH FOR THE RETURN OF US BASES
Says it is already studying option to question new US-PH deal at the SC

Protesters display placards and banners as they march towards the gates of the U.S. Embassy during a protest in Manila, July 4, 2013. (Photo: Reuters)

Bayan Muna Reps. Neri Javier Colmenares and Carlos Isagani Zarate today said that it is beyond doubt that the Aquino administration is in a mad rush to complete the sell out of Philippine sovereignty through the Agreement on Enhanced Defense Cooperation (AEDC) when United States of America Pres. Barack Obama arrives in April 28.

Rep. Colmenares charged that the AEDC will practically bring back US military bases in the Philippines without a treaty, without rent and without limits as the American may use all Philippine military facilities - an arrangement worse than the Bases Treaty rejected by the Philippine Senate in September 1991.

“Simply put, it is like a dog’s welcome gift to his master. They are trying to move heaven and hell so that Obama would be here for the signing of the AEDC; coupled with pro-imperialist charter change, would again make the Philippines a full pledged American colony,” said the senior deputy minority leader.

“Even if they say that “key provisions and modalities of the AEDC would reflect, among others, full respect for Philippine sovereignty, nonpermanence of US troops and no US military basing in the Philippines and a prohibition against nuclear weapons, we all know that these can be circumvented by the fact that in reality it is the US government is the one calling the shots and not the Aquino administration,” said Rep. Colmenares.

“Case is point is the supposed no US military basing provision; but the US can say that it would fund the construction of Philippine bases in every province in the country and under the AEDC they are allowed to use all these bases. So technically they do not own the base but it is practically an American base. This would also be the framework for the existing bases, in paper it is a Philippine base but in reality it is a US base,” said Rep. Colmenares.

Meanwhile Rep. Carlos Zarate said that “another point is the supposed prohibition of nuclear weapons, but we know that even if the US respects and observes this prohibition it can still bring other types of weapons of mass destruction that would make us a prime target of US enemies,”

“Furthermore, they already found a way to circumvent the constitutional ban on the presence of foreign troops in the country thru the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) but now they will further maximize this and increase US troop presence in the country. So in truth the AEDC is a very deceptive deal,” said the progressive solon.

“This early we are already studying the option of questioning the AEDC at the Supreme Court because it is a clear violation of our Constitution particularly Sections 3 and 7 and possibly Section 8 of Article II. We are also of the position that this is not a mere executive agreement but a treaty and should be scrutinized by the Senate and the House of Representatives,” added Colmenares.

“We must learn from history that the Filipino people ousted the bases in 1991 not only because its presence violates our sovereignty but they were also magnets for attack from the many enemies of the United States. The presence of US troops here will increase the tension in the region and threatens its stability. We do not want to become another Iraq where the US troops remained even if Saddam Hussein has long been dead. We should stand against China’s bullying but we should get the support of the international community instead of the US,” ended Rep Colmenares.###

US Naval base at Subic Bay 

Satur Ocampo - Activist, Journalist, and outstanding Congressman

Posted by Pahayag ng Mogrante
Rome, Italy 11/04/2014

Ka Satur during his visit to Rome September-October 2013 with the author (Photo: Pahayag ng Migrante)

Satur Ocampo was born in Sta. Rita, Pampanga to a family of landless tenant farmers. He graduated from elementary and high school at the Sta. Rita institute in 1952 and 1956 respectively. After studying at the Philippine College of Commerce (now Polytechnic University of the Philippines or PUP), Manuel L. Quezon University and Lyceum of the Philippines, by 1963 he was working as a full-time business journalist for the Manila Times. He was a vice president of the National Press Club (NPC) from 1970 to 1972.

Ocampo was involved in politics from an early age. In 1964, he was a founding member of the student-youth organization Kabataang Makabayan (Patriotic Youth). Soon thereafter in 1967-1968, he was on the National Council of the Movement for the Advancement of Nationalism (MAN).

President Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law on Sept. 21, 1972 and Ocampo, like many others, was forced to go into hiding. In 1973, Ocampo co-founded the National Democratic Front, seeking to unite various anti-dictatorship forces.

In 1976, he was arrested and incarcerated as a political prisoner. For the next 9 years he was severely tortured in various prison camps. Though tried by a military court for rebellion, he was never found guilty. In 1985, while on pass to vote at the National Press Club annual elections, he escaped from the soldiers guarding him and rejoined the underground revolutionary movement.

After the dictatorship fell in 1986, and President Corazon Aquino called for peace talks and Ocampo headed the NDF peace negotiating  panel. When the talks collapsed due to the killing of 18 farmers at a rally near the Malacañang Palace on January 22, 1987, Ocampo returned to the underground.

In 1989, he was arrested again along with his wife, Carolina Malay. He was freed three years later, in 1992, a year after his wife was released. Neither of them were found guilty of any crime. He wrote columns for the Philippines and Features, Diaro Uno, Pinoy Gazette and Sunstar Manila in the 1990's.

On September 25, 1999, major people’s organizations of the Philippines met to form a new political party including, most notably, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN). The new party was calledBayan Muna or "People First". As the first president of the party, he was the party’s leading nominee in its first foray into electoral politics in the May 14, 2001 party-list Philippine election.

Bayan Muna topped the party-list race with an unprecedented 11.7% of the votes cast, earning it more than the required number of votes for three party-list seats in Congress. Their efforts led to tangible results as two Bayan Muna-sponsored bills, the Overseas Voting Act and Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, were enacted into law. Ocampo spearheaded the formation of an alliance, Legislators Against War (LAW), to oppose U.S. aggression in Iraq and worldwide. To protect Philippine industry and agriculture he helped form the Legislators-Businessmen-People’s Forum (LBPF), mitigating the destructive impacts of globalization.

Ocampo was reelected president of Bayan Muna in its third national convention last January 13, 2004 and headed the party’s nominees for party list representatives in the May 10, 2004 elections where Bayan Muna garnered 10.8% of the votes cast, again securing three seats in Congress.

Ocampo currently chairs the House Special Committee on Peace, Unity and Reconciliation. He is also vice chairman of the Human Rights Committee and member of several other committees, such as Appropriations, National Defense, Health, Foreign Affairs, Public Information, Suffrage and Electoral Reforms and is now a practicing journalist with Sun Start on his column At Ground Level.

Rome OFWs - THUMBS DOWN TO HB 3576

Posted by Pahayag ng Migrante

Rome, Italy 10.04.2014

(Photo: Belarmino Dabalos Saguingh) 

HB 3576, a bill filed in the House of Representatives requiring overseas Filipino workers (OFWs)  to send money back to their family or dependents in the Philippines or else their passport will not be is a resurrected Marcos law.

It is stupid, unnecessary and obviously just another money-making scheme and the OFWs of Rome Italy is vehemently opposing its passage.

Section 1 of HB 3576 states that OFWs ”are required to remit regularly a portion of their foreign exchange earnings to their family or legal dependent recipient in the Philippines.”

The bill also states that “Ambassadors, Consul Generals, Chiefs of Mission, or Charge d’ Affaires are authorized to withhold the renewal or approval of the passport of an erring OFW unless proof of compliance of the remittance requirement of his financial support is submitted,”

The bill is a clear thrtowback of Marcos’ draconian EO 857 “forced remittance law”  that “drove OFWs in deeper debt.

It a slap in the face of OFWs around the world who are already knee-deep in debt and barely coping with the global economic crisis, by a representative who doubtlessly ignorant of the OFW situation.

 EO 857, which was enacted December 13, 1982, required seamen, contractors, doctors, engineers, and other professional workers, to remit 70 percent of their basic salary while domestic and other service workers should remit 50 percent.

Section 4 of EO 857 states that “the Ministry of Labor and Employment shall not approve the renewal of employment contracts and agency or service agreements unless proof of remittance of foreign exchange earnings is submitted.

Punishment also includes the non-renewal of the OFWs passport and suspension or exclusion from the list of eligible workers for overseas employment.

We strongly refuse to accept this resurrection of a law that we have already junked many years ago.

OFWs remitted more than $21.4 billion in 2012, according to the records of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. The figure has steadily risen from $20.1 billion in 2011 and $18.7 billion in 2010. This bill appears to be designed with the assurance that the remittances will be flowing into the coffers regularly, which make the bill an unnecessary burden for the migrant wotker who left the country precisely to enable them to have a chance to give their family a decent human life which is not possible to attain since the government has neglected to create jobs in the country that is driving more and more workers to flee the country in search of a better alternative.

Meantime, an e-petition opposing the said bill is circulating among OFWs worldwide.

OFWs signing petition vs. HB 3576 in, Italy 06042014 (Photo: Pahayag ng Migrante)

This bill is not favourable to all OFWs and we will make sure that it does not get approved,