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Coercion
of victim, not movement, key in human trafficking –US govt
report
MANILA—
From the southern Philippine city of General Santos, thousands
of kilometers from the capital of Manila, 17-year-old Ruby would
have been sold –like others before and after her trip, she
suspects– like merchandise in a trade profiting from human
bondage and sexual slavery. And according to a United States Department
of Justice report, the movement or migration of people is non-essential
to the debate. It’s the context of that movement or migration
that is at the heart of the criminal sale of young women and children
like Ruby. ISAGANI DE LA PAZ and PATRICIA MARCELO report for the
OFW Journalism Consortium®. Full
story
Three
stories below are based on a three-part series that OFWJC reporter
JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO submitted as a fellow of
the Yuchengco Media Fellows Program at the University of San Francisco
Center for the Pacific Rim, California, United States. The edited
copy arrived by courier on February 14, 2007 in Manila and remains
pending for publication in view of unforeseen circumstances in the
publishing agency there. The OFW Journalism Consortium believes
the three articles are good stories for our readers. The USF Center
for the Pacific Rim will release the author’s three-part series
very soon through www.pacificrim.usfca.edu.
Acknowledgment is given to Pacific Rim Executive Director Dr. Barbara
Bundy, Kiriyama Distinguished Fellow Mona Lisa Yuchengco, New America
Media Editor Rene Ciria-Cruz, and OFWJC editor Dennis Estopace.
National
spirit flickers among Filipino diaspora
STRASSEN,
LUXEMBOURG—FILIPINA pioneer Remy Becker is used to intrusions
coming from some 200 Filipinos here. Becker is the beacon of Filipino
generosity, comfortably sliding into the role as “godmother”
to Filipinos in Europe’s investment capital. The kindness
and assistance Becker extends, she hopes, will be done by fellow
Filipinos abroad. But such hope remains dashed if Filipinos themselves
appear to be giving up, especially on their motherland.
Full
story
Money
from Pinoys abroad still short of spurring rural growth—study
SAN
QUINTIN, PANGASINAN–THE spire on a Tudor-style mansion encircled
by green rice reeds jutting from acres of land here points people
to where money, real dollars, could be found: up. The house belongs
to Marietta Reyes who, like many of the 5,000 Filipinos in this
fourth-class municipality, has flown in 300-seater jumbo jets that
may or may not have passed the sky above it zooming outside Philippine
borders. San Quintin is a town of Marietta Reyeses: of many migrant
workers whose homes are images of migrant workers’ bounty
at home. Yet despite the continued flow of migrant workers’
dollars, economists believe these monies still fall short of spurring
Philippine rural growth. Full
story
Pinoys in the US mull ‘hero’ tag
BAY
FAIR, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A.–RODRIGO (not his real name) does
everything possible for the family in the Philippines. This undocumented
Filipino says he works hard as a handyman, and the earnings he sends
back home —enough for children’s basic needs as well
as schooling— are perhaps a reason why people call Filipinos
abroad like Rodrigo “heroes.” Other Filipinos abroad,
whether documented or otherwise, however wonder why they’re
called as such. Full
story
Labor
execs stick to skills as OFW protector
MANDALUYONG
CITY—THE LIGHT-brown beef stew simmering on a pot in a makeshift
kitchen here may save Jennifer Dul-loog’s life as a household
service worker in Spain. So the 29-year-old prospective overseas
Filipino worker and government officials hope. Dul-loog, who would
leave for work abroad for the first time, is one of thousands of
applicants for domestic work overseas that underwent training on
housekeeping and must prove to government overseas employment workers
she’s acquired required skills. According to Philippine Overseas
Employment Administration head Rosalinda Baldoz possession of such
skills by Filipino workers abroad is their best protection from
any abuse or maltreatment. PATRICIA MARCELO reports for the OFW
Journalism Consortium®. Full
story
SIDEBAR
Migrants’
family lights up rural Philippine village life
PAMPANGA—EVERY
YEAR for two days, a village in this third class municipality of
the Philippine province of Pampanga lights up like a nuclear reactor
fall-out. Smack in the center of a dark night sky over rice farms
hundreds of kilometers away from the provincial highway, Sta. Maria
village glows and beams out light in a two-day party because of
the devotion to Cathlic Church icon Mary. And the showcase of this
devotion, led by a family of migrant Filipinos, has kept alive in
this village for six generations. CANDICE Y. CEREZO reports for
the OFW Journalism Consortium®. 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
These articles are free, but to publish, broadcast, rewrite, or
redistribute this, please write or email the OFW Journalism Consortium
editor@ofwjournalism.net or ofwjournalism@gmail.com
for permission.
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