Resident
Editor’s Note
by Dennis Estopace
(editor@ofwjournalism.net ),
Resident Editor
CHOOSING
stories for the OFW Journalism Consortium
is like having a sunny-side fried egg
for breakfast: scoop the yellow yolk
or snip the white layer first?
These
are choices the diner mulls. If she
has the time.
Time
is a luxury that Consortium writers
don’t have but the editor does.
After
working on Move (our first magazine
[also Vol. 7 Nos. 5-10 as a newspacket)
that came out in October 2008, it’s
been a long time, indeed since we came
out with our stories.
Job fairs posting domestic and overseas
job opportunities are especially critical
in these tine for Filipino workers. Photo
from www.pinoymoneytalk.com
The
Consortium, for the past six months,
has been grappling with its own future
as its bank account resembles a fried
egg, sunny-side up.
Stories on overseas Filipino workers
in a crisis-shackled world, however,
found oases in several news agencies
and in OFWs themselves. Some of the
stories are in this latest newspacket.
Despite hard-to-go-by times, our
stories remain free for reprint. We
only ask the Consortium is acknowledged
as source.
It makes us shudder thinking we will
grope inside the pockets of readers,
especially OFWs, who are already agog
at how to balance their checkbooks.
We can only hope they can continue
to rely on the generosity of strangers
as much as of their countrymen to
transform the drought in jobs, income,
and goodwill into a lush green field
of a prosperous future.
For
you, the Consortium reader, we hope
you can see the sunny-side of our
egg yolks: the stories we can serve
in future breakfasts.
Gov’t
economist says Middle East guide to crisis’
impact on OFWs PASIG
CITY. Philippines—AS the plane nosed
down to its landing in Dubai, economist
Josef Yap sensed a portent of things to
come for Filipino workers in the Middle
East and the labor export industry.
“These are the scenes of the Asian
financial crisis of 1997,” Yap recalled
saying to himself and to three other Southeast
Asian economists during that visit in
the financial capital of the United Arab
Emirates.
JEREMAIAH OPINIANOand
ISAGANI DE LA PAZ report
for the OFW Journalism Consortium®.
Full
story
Teachers
say Asia grappling to balance migration,
crisis-hit labor market PASIG CITY, Philippines—PROFESSORS
studying labor migration in Asia said
countries in the region will scuttle to
protect their economies but avoid edging
out foreign workers as a global financial
collapse seeps into real sectors.
One of them is Dr. Yap Mui Teng of the
Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy under
the National University of Singapore.JEREMAIAH
OPINIANOand
ISAGANI DE LA PAZ
report
for the OFW Journalism Consortium®.
Full
story
From
debt they can’t part Overseas
Filipino workers bear debts as crisis
hits labor-importing economies MAKATI
CITY, Philippines—RAMONES Caytiles’s
stint in Taiwan is as short as the song-length
of his namesake American punk rock band:
two weeks.
But nearly six months now since he and
171 fellow workers got pink slips last
year from their employer Hanston Display
Corp., Caytiles feels life is as long
as Don Maclean’s American Pie song.
JEREMAIAH
OPINIANOand
ISAGANI DE LA PAZ
report for the OFW Journalism Consortium®.
Full story
0.7-million
Pinoys in US belong to housing rescue
plan tier QUEZON
CITY, Philippines—MORE than 0.7
million Filipinos belong to the tier that
the United States government plans to
rescue from a housing crisis, recent US
census data bare.
The 2007 American Community Survey of
the US Census Bureau cited that 45.6 percent
of an estimated 1.7 million Philippine-born
US residents cite 30 percent or more of
their monthly income goes to cost of ownership
of a house, or mortgage.
ISAGANI DE LA PAZ
reports for the OFW Journalism Consortium®.
Full story
Steady
decline in Pinoy, Asians ordained as priests
in the US QUEZON
CITY—FOR NEARLY a decade, the Catholic
Church in the United States has had steady
supply of priests from Asia, with the
Philippines one of the oases in the Sahara-like
career of priesthood.
But the numbers have been decreasing,
a survey commissioned by the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
revealed.
ISAGANI DE LA PAZ
reports
for the OFW Journalism Consortium®.
Full story
Migration
Journalism: The story of the OFW Journalism
Consortium
by DENNIS ESTOPACE and
JEREMAIAH OPINIANO
IT WAS a humid afternoon six years ago
when three men sipped coffee and conspired
against Philippine journalism.
“It’s a crazy idea but it
could work,” one of the men, a reporter
for The Manila Times then, said.
“What could be different…,”
the youngest of the trio, who would fly
off to Maldives in six months time, said.
Full
story
The
OFW Journalism Consortium: A Reader’s
View
by ILDEFONSO F. BAGASAO
AMONG my peers, there seems to be a
common observation in the reporting
of any kind of news that media generally
shows bias for sensational stories that
whet the reading public’s appetite
for such accounts but which incidentally
also sells newspapers, broadsheets and
tabloids.
News reportage on Filipino migrants
is no exception.
Stories about overseas Filipino workers
(OFWs) coming home in coffins, jumping
out of the windows, committing suicides,
of rape, torture, and other forms of
maltreatment in foreign shores, continue
to dominate our daily newspapers. One
has to find balance and variety in reporting
of this or any kind of news. Full
story
How
to take care of your money? Read the stories of the
OFW Journalism Consortium on financial
literacy for Filipinos abroad and their
families back home.
Click here
2006
Special Newspacket on Financial Literacy
in Overseas Filipinos by
the OFW Journalism Consortium cited
in the newsletter Migrant Remittances
(published by the United States Agency
for International Development [USAID]-Microenterprise
Development Office and the United Kingdom
Department for International Development
[DFID]) http://www.livelihoods.org/hot_topics/docs/Migrant%20Remittances_Oct06.pdf
With
Monarch Insurance's OFW Care,
OFWs can enjoy superior protection benefits.
For just P3/day, you can enjoy this comprehensive
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while working abroad:
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n-Global Emergency
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To learn more about the value of this product,
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Global
Forum on Migration & Development
(GFMD/Philippines 2008)
On the occasion of the Philippines’s
hosting
of the Second Global Forum on Migration
and Development
(27-30 October 2008, Manila)
The OFW Journalism Consortium in partnership
with the Royal Netherlands Embassy in
the Philippines will soon release MOVE
A free special policy magazine on international
migration issues from a Filipino’s
eyes.
Companies or groups wishing to place advertisements
in the magazine are welcome.
For inquiries, email the OFW Journalism
Consortium
at ofwjournalism@gmail.com
or call 63-02-796.26.39
Supported
by the Royal Netherlands Embassy
in the Philippines
nLetters
to the Editor
Padala
quirks with the Bureau of Customs (Email
in Filipino unedited)
Dear
Editor:
Ako
po ay OFW dito sa Hong Kong. Pitong
taon na po akong nagtatrabaho para
sa aking pamilya.kahapon po april
18 2008 bumalik ang aking tiyahin
sa Pilipinas at ipinapakidala ko ang
aking lumang SAMSUNG LCD 17"
computer screen. Binili ko ito nuon
pang 2004. Siningil po ang aking tiyahin
ng customs dahil ang sabi nila base
sa kanilang pagkakakita sa nasasabing
computer LCD monitor e "brand
new" daw po at nakakahon pa maingat
lang po ako sa gamit.hinold ang aking
tiyahin sa Customs at kukunin daw
ang lcd pag hindi nagbayad.
Sa takot ng aking tiyahin sabi nya
na 1500 peso na lang ang pera nya
at nagbayad naman sya.nagtatrabaho
po ako dito at ilang beses na din
po akong nagpabalik balik sa atin
ng may dalang second hand na electronics
dahil mejo may kamahalan nga ang bago.nais
ko po sanang palagpasin dahil sa 1,500
peso lamang, subalit hirap na hirap
na po ako dito sa Hong Kong tapos
ang tiyahin ko nagkakatulong tapos
pinapunta lamang dito ng kanyang amo
at nakisuyo lang ako para dalhin ang
gamit tapos ipipilit ng ating mga
opisyal na bago ang gamit.nag issue
ng resibo ang customs. gusto ko pong
magkaroon ng katarungan itong kaso
na ito.
Hindi na po maganda ang nangyayari
na ito. kahit na i-give up ko ang
pagka-Pilipino ko sa ganitong ginagawa
sa atin ng kapwa nating Filipino sa
sarili pa nating bansa.ipinilit nilang
bago ang LCD dahil nakakahon pa daw.naitago
ko po ang kahon na iyon dahil maingat
din po ako sa gamit at kung sakaling
ibenta ko at least e mejo di magagasgas
at kung maglilipat kami dito sa Hong
Kong.nakakainis po kasing isipin na
ganito ang ginagawa sa atin.ipapabalik
ko po dito ang LCD at kayo na po ang
bahala...kahit na di na ako bumalik
ng bansa para lang mailabas itong
kahihiyan na itong ginagawa sa atin.napakababaw
po pero kailangan na natin ng pagbabago.
The
Consortium is a nonprofit global
media service that does focused
reportage about Filipinos’
international migration and
its surrounding issues.
This
article is free, but to publish,
broadcast, rewrite, or redistribute
this, please write or email
the OFW Journalism Consortium
editor@ofwjournalism.net
for permission
Edited by Dennis Estopace
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