Big deadlines this weekend so just a few readings:
Rasheed Abou-Alsamh says Manila Should Evacuate All OFWs From Lebanon Now.
Daniel Byman on why Syria and Iran are allied. Fred Kaplan on what’s in store for Israel.
The Inquirer editorial calls the government reaction to the Bolante detention a joke.
Amando Doronila forgets that the state of the nation address is a constitutional requirement, but also bats for the 2007 elections (which he confidently predicts will take place) as a referendum on the administration.
JB Baylon recounts how the late Enrique Zobel handled coup plots.
Supreme Court says OK to national ID.
John Mangun is optimistic about the economy.
Technorati Tags: lebanon, Philippines, politics
Good to know that by tomorrow some 300 OFWs more or less would be back home.
Ang bait naman natin(not joking) pati yung evacuation ng 105 Thai OFWS sagot din natin.
Siguro dahil inaabolish na ang death penalty,baka naman daw pwedeng iabolish na din ang SONA….
E yung Debt penalty iabolish na din daw.
Parehong di pwede eh.
National ID
maganda sana ito,kung di nga naman gagamitin sa crackdown ng insurgents.
pwera dun sa nabanggit maganda ang ID na pwede sa SSS/GSIS,TIN,Voter’s ID rolled into one.
Lebanon’s Filipino OFWs are the living proofs that Filipino overseas workers, obviously from the impoverished ranks of Philippine society, would rather take the risk of facing shellings, explosions, destruction, deaths, injuries, hardships and other man-caused disasters in another country where they have a chance of keeping their job than to return home.
Their dogma: Anywhere but the Philippines.
Simply staggering! Quite extraordinary! Where on earth do you see citizens of a (so-called) democratic nation willing to go through that kind of hell in Lebanon just because they know that if they return home, it will be double hell?
The OFWs’ attitude reflects the kind of nation Gloria has turned the Philippines into: A NO MAN’s LAND.
Gloria should die of shame!
great cartoon !
INUTIL in Malacanang!
I concur Anna, with her policy of selling our countrymen, time will come that there will be no Filipinos left in the Philippines. Baka yan ang plano niya para makamkam niya lahat ng kayamanan sa Pilipinas.
Did she have a new facelift? Is that were this Midget used the OWWA fund for evacuating the stranded OFWs in Lebanon? Standby Fund? What does it mean?
Did she have a new facelift? Is that where this Midget used the OWWA fund for evacuating the stranded OFWs in Lebanon? How about the Standby Fund? What does it mean?
DiYumuYuko,
I wouldn’t put it past her to steal some of the OWWA funds for a facelift. Heheh!
Try to catch a photo of Gloria at the Senga turnover ceremonies. She is wearing a Napoleonic military pantsuit complete with a gold braided collar. Epaulets na lang ang kulang for the little dictator from the Pasig.
Anna:
I just thought it would be a good explanation for the rather chinky eyes (parang binanat iyong bugs around the eyes) and the cutie-cutie again compared to her pictures before she had those stomach pains during the party for the Fatso that I suspected was caused by the Diet Pills she must have taken before joining the party for the Fatso. BTW, the picture above looks more like she is the Fatso’s twin than his wife!!! 😛
MB, Pakita naman ng pic of this bansot in military regalia. So I can show it around here.
Hehe! Odd twins they are coz one is dambuhalang bansot and the other is dambuhalang baboy.
The picture above reminds me of a special coverage I transcribed for a TV in Tokyo when she gatecrashed a program for new employees of a Japanese company somewhere in Laguna, and none of the new employees there were that enthusiastic to welcome herjust to prove that Filipinos, especially those below poverty line, are fed up of this cheat. One voice they say? You bet, there is One Voice even without this organization invented by Benipayo, et al. Indeed, it’s a One Voice that says “Alis Dyan, Tiyanak!” 😕
I wish they would stop comparing Tiyanak with Napoleon the Great. For all his faults, Napoleon was loved by the people he led. The Philippine Tiyanak is nothing but a fake,never ever been loved even by those she hands out ramen and rice to.:-} She is just so vain to imagine herself as popular! She could not have 1M votes if she had not paid for them stolen votes! Arguelles +O:-) admitted that in fact! :->
ana go to the OPS.gov.ph website but the picture is not very clear. I hope tomorrow’s papers will have better pictures.
MB,
I’d love to see her wearing a penguin costume instead. Or a Hitler getup perhaps.
Penguin suit? Heheh! Why not? She wears natural flippers after all – shoe size 12 for 1m50 height – she’ll be a star!
Thnx MB, will do right away!
He he he..the revenge of the tiyanak..everything in place and in order:
Coup plotters neutralized: check
Esperon as new AFP cheif: check
Prelates bought or threatened: check
Impeachment doomed to failure: check
Next on the list to be accomplished: Cha Cha realized.
Sabi nga ni JB: “When you know you are not loved you become paranoid”
nyuk nyuk..
btw.. interesting take by Daniel Byman.
MB, just saw the pic. Her wardrobe mistress has a good imagination. Oh la la! The simile military get up is so a propos and it drives home the point: “I’m in control!”
On Esperon: that fella is one goddamn lucky military. He wouldn’t have made Lt Gen had the Board of Generals strictly followed their promotion matrix. Now he’s got himself 4 stars and poor Joey Reyes must be in the dumps. I bet the Reyes’ replacement as CG Paf will be one of Esperon’s classmates with a Chinese family name.
Watch out! If that fella becomes CG PAF, you will see depleting funds…
from senga to esperon (gloria in between)…in this pic from the ops site:
senga: “nobody can hawak me!”
esperon: “ako lang, sir, okeey?”
arroyo: “my god! bading pala ‘tong si esperon.”
palace never doubted senga loyalty…
but certainly not his command of the english language!
On Daniel Byman who I am willing to bet is a Jew.
why is Hizbollah being portrayed as a puppet and a creation of ‘outside forces” ? Why can’t Hizbollah be recognized for what it is – a group that was formed in reaction to Israeli oppression? Why can’t Syria and Iran’s assistance to Hizbollah be taken at face value? That they support Hizbollah because they believe Hizbollah and Palestinians need all the help they can get? Why frame the thing in terms of inter-muslim power struggles and all that? Hizbollah is about liberating Palestine. Granted they use terror but as the old arch-conservative Pat Buchanan said of the Iraq war – “War is the terrorism of the rich and terror is the war of the poor.”
I’m so sick of watching and reading so called middle east experts interpret the middle east for us. They mouth Israeli lines anyway. Look at all the adjectives Byman uses with Hizbollah. We are flooded by Israelis and so-called experts on channels like CNN. Do a quantitative analysis and see if the reportage is balanced. Why isn’t there an arab representative everytime an israeli speaks? why isn’t there a pro arab expert everytime a pro Israeli expert speaks?
News is reported using the language of Israel. Hizbollah’s rockets are terror while Israel’s bombing is self defense. The two Israeli prisoners are hostages/captives while 10,000 Palestinians, including children, rotting in Israeli prisons are legitimate prisoners.
The way news is reported whenever the issue involves Israel and the Palestinians reminds me of the media in Malaysia. Malaysian media always reports the response of the ruling party to whatever issue the opposition raises. TV news and print report that so and so from the opposition said such and such but the actual charge is never reported verbatim. It’s only the response that is reported verbatim. This is exactly what happens when you watch CNN and BBC to a lesser extent. The Iraq war was reported using Bush’s language. The war on terror, the same thing. And anything involving Israel is always reported in Israeli talk.
Twink Macaraeg’s show on ANC this afternoon is admiral for its objectivity. She had the Israeli ambassador and the Lebanese consul general. Unfortunately the debate ended in a shouting match because the Israeli ambassador kept shouting down the Lebanese consul everytime he was trying to make a point. The Lebanese consul showed photos of children’s mangled corpses and asked the Israeli ambassador what these children had to do with Hizbollah. Of course they had the misfortune of living in muslim areas. Then the consul asked but why are you now bombing even those christian areas?
We have to hear it from the mouths of the opposing sides. We don’t need filters.Only then can we even approach understanding the crisis in Palestine and the rest of the middle east.
There you go again, Anna, MB, Schumey and you guys…
My sides are splitting again. And I just had a full camote and banana-Q dinner. That’s all I could afford. Tough times, really.
So Monday is SONA Day. Big celebration at Fortress Pasig afterwards? Wonder what’s the State of their Dinner at The Fortress.
Excellent post, MB.
30,000 ofw’s in lebanon! my heart goes out to them…..a herculean task to get them evacuated. let’s do a little ‘rithmitic and logistics, shall we? 600 buses at 50 seats for 30,000 ofw’s or by plane 747’s x 100 = 30,000.
i really hope that the gov’t has the money to fund this endeavor.
MB, You stated the facts very well and with such force of conviction and clarity that you can convert the most cynical neo-con in our midst.
Byman isounds like a Jewish name and that’s what I thought too when I read his piece.
Le Monde and Le Figaro carried an interview verbatim of the Lebanese PM in French (he speaks French like a native), in a QA format – I don’t know if the CNN or BBC carried the interview. He was pleading for his country – so sad.
Datu, Sri Lanka has 94,000 migrant workers in Lebanon and they even have a quicker, more orderly response than our own government. By the way MB, the “penguin” took the afternoon off to make “KISKIS” este “SIPSIP” pala to her generals in shining armor instead of meeting with the DFA about the evacuation progress in Lebanon. Sa bagay, there is nothing new to report as there are still 30,000 OFWs trapped in war-torn Lebanon. Ah, yes, meron palang iba: all embassy officials, personnel and their dependents are all safely out of Lebanon. The MECT also reported that fighting is isolated, bakit, malaki ba ang Lebanon? My goodness, how stupid can these people be!
Manolo,
Nice picture. Can GMA’s feet reach the ground when she stops? Or does the guy beside her act as her training wheels? Poor chap, let’s see if he can still smile after a kilometer.
proxy wars these may be…in a proxy battleground…
but for heaven’s sake, let’s not wait for house-to-house fighting before OFWs are evacuated…
gloria, now na!
Filipinos evacuated from Beirut by the UNITED NATIONS = zero!!!
Thais evacuated from Beirut by the UNITED NATIONS… alzo zero.
Any Asian evacuated from Beirut by the UNITED NATIONS… Kofi Annan gets a fat ZERO!!!
Based on the column of the editor in chief of the Manila Standard Jojo Robles, Filipinos who pay no taxes should not make representations with the government. What do this Filipinos think! They are income tax exempt on their income.
First they sign a contract that is a form of indentured service. They have to pay fees to get that contract. The Government charges them fees for getting that contract. Then the recruiter gets a fee also from them for signing that contract. Their airfare is also deducted from their future pay for the contract. That is the market for migrant labor. Why go against the theology of the market. The “amos” there have made an economic investment and I am sure there was no recourse to those contracts in case of disasters natural or man made.
I think you have to call Solita Monsod to make an econometric calculation of the loss of close to $100M to the Philippine economy every year. (30,000 x 3,000 per anum)
(Calculate the loss of income and the cost of bringing all of these workers home (30,000). It would probably cost $30-40 M to bring them home. Please note that according to government data it costs Php 2-3 billion pesos per person to run for national public office.)
(Do the simple math. The agricultural fund that Joc Joc dipped his hands into was over Php 1 billion.)
(The government has no resources they say!)
What do they think they can get a free ride home just because the big powers want to sustain their hold on the oil producers of the region? Hey guys we need our oil from there. All Filipinos should understand that they signed a contract of indentured servitude. Their “amos” have almost life and death control over them.
(A probable meeting of the GMA Cabinet to look at the economy of bringing the workers home to rationalize government actions)
Welcome to the world of dumb and dumberer
anna, ang smart mo naman. matagal ng nagsimula ang pagpunta ng mga pinoy overseas para magtrabaho. at kahit wala pa si gloria, yang mga pinoy ofws ay willing na ring maghirap sa ibang bansa para lang kumita ng malaki. ikaw? bakit ka nasa ibang bansa? wag mo sabihing pinilit ka rin ni gloria. At bakit ayaw mo umuwi? dahil ba kay gloria? at kung dahil kay gloria, ang arte mo naman. kung handa kang lisanin ang bayan mo nang dahil lamang sa isang tao, napakahina naman ng pagmamahal mo sa bayan.
Yeah… Antonio walang….., and you seem to have just noticed, eh? Thanks anyway! If you weren’t being so resolutely pro-Gloria, you would be smart too.
Anyway, happy now, Antonio Walang…..? Yeah? You sure? Gooood! Feeling like a million dollars now? Yeah? You sure? Gooooood! That’s all that matters now eh, Antonio Walang…..? (As they say, simple pleasures for simple people)!
Well, you ain’t that dumb after all just kinda slow on the intake… Here’s what, re-read the post – it speaks of Pinoy overseas IN CONFLICT-TORN LEBANON. You ain’t hog dumb now to read that it is all about OFWs in Lebanon now, are you?
Lebanon’s Filipino OFWs are the living proofs that Filipino overseas workers, obviously from the impoverished ranks of Philippine society, would rather take the risk of facing shellings, explosions, destruction, deaths, injuries, hardships and other man-caused disasters in another country where they have a chance of keeping their job than to return home.
Lebanon’s OFWS prove the Filipinos don’t want to come home. Yan ang sabi mo. When you spoke of OFWs in Lebanon, you clearly referred to them as a mirror of Filipino OFWs in general, anna. So don’t be all shifty now and claim that you were only talking of filipinos in Lebanon. Grabe. How smart can you be?
And by the way, its slow on the UPtake, not INtake, you smart cookie.
I’m not pro-Gloria, anna. I’m just anti-stupid. Why do you think I keep replying to your posts? And BTW, the walter mitty syndrome means delusions of grandeur. That’s what you have, you smart belle.
hoy..anna de bruha…i can say the same thing about you….If you weren’t so maniacally obsessed with gloria, you would be smart too..you twit! Haven’t the voices in your head told you that your synapses have been misfiring lately? Or has that been a chronic condition? Sagotin mo nga ang mga tanong ni Antonio para maaninag namin if you really walk your talk, ms. mental & moral giant kuno! Pweh!
Ah, true Antonio ….., that was a slip. Thanks for being alert!
Anyway, Antonio Walang . . . . . and Neil Walang. . . . .? You really believe you can do anything at all against me and about what Neil Walang ….. describes as my “obsession” with your favorite moral bansot Gloria y magnanakaw? Hah! Get real jerks!
Moan, moan, moan! You poor sods! Absolutely, staggeringly poor sods!
Now, much as I would “love” to discuss with you, I really think people in here and MLQ3, our host ain’t interested in your drivel and my reaction to your drivel so, Antonio and Neil Walang….., END OF STORY!
(Gloria’s sending her Walang….. sugod cavalry against me – how flattering! Hahahahah! Poor sods!)
Phil, Like Schumey, I wonder if Gloria had to be lifted and dumped on the saddle! But I like DiyumuYuko’s description of Gloria: TIYANAK! heheh!
oh there you go again with your ‘end of story’ exhortation, just because you can’t admit that you were wrong. at wish mo lang na napapansin ka ni gloria! bwahahahahahahaha. don’t worry about that, you smart cookie. you aren’t relevant enough to even register on the radar.
ping!
oh thats right. your ego is big enough to register. my bad. 🙂
The OFW phenomenon really took off during the early oil embargos in the late ’60’s and early ’70’s when oil first skyrocketed. The oil-rich and dollar-rich countries of the Middle East were the primary focus. Then labor Secretary Blas Ople and his bright young aides, such as Jonathan de la Cruz and Willie Villarama, were instrumental in setting up a system to market labor abroad, what was then a very convenient way to make up for unemployment at home. At that time, Blas Ople and his wiz kids were hailed as geniuses.
Later on, the OFW phenomenon was discovered to also be a very convenient cash cow and source of hard currency. So the machinery to provide Filipino labor for foreign markets was further fine-tuned. Europe and Asia also came into play in later years. We became very prolific at sending our workers abroad and it has become our #1 source of hard currency. It has sustained the value of our peso through difficult times and its huge multiplier effect has created commerce and employment at home. It would not be an exaggeration to say that it is the most vital cog to our economy.
Although the OFW phenomenon is seen as a double-edged sword, with both salutary as well as debilitating effects, none of the administrations after Marcos were able to wean the country away from dependence on the foreign currency sent by the OFWs. Today, because of efficiencies in the banking system and in methods of remittance, the foreign currency sent by Filipinos abroad has reached an all-time high. It will probably increase in the next few years.
If many of our OFWs did not evacuate, it was because they preferred to stick it out in Lebanon. The crisis caught many foreign embassies by surprise and even the U.S. was initially very slow in responding to requests for evacuation. Many Australians also felt abandoned by their embassy when the Australian government could not respond fast enough. The Philippine response, given its limited resources, has been quite creditable. If more have not been evacuated, it is because they refuse to move out. Of course, there will always be jaundiced eyes and venomous tongues that will obsessively find fault.
The worst problem that maybe encountered by our OFWs in Lebanone is displacement and also lose of employment, since many businesses and infrastructure have been destroyed by bombardment and the upcoming probability of ground incursion.
Since it is beyond our capabilities to evacuate most of the 30,000 plus nationals scattered all over Lebanon, the best our government can do is plan for the next course of action, like sending a team of Government and social workers to look after the welfare of our OFWs in Lebanon if and when the situation permits. And also look after the families of those who may lose the means of support while the crisis is ongoing. That’s for now the least it can do.
It would be informative, indeed, if anybody can give us the statistics on the number of OFW’s every year since the time of Marcos. Ideally the number should be slowing down as the economy and job generation improves, but I doubt it. As Carl says it will only increase further in the next few years.
It would also be beneficial to compare our OFW trend (since Marcos) to that of other ASEAN countries.
“The Philippine response, given its limited resources, has been quite creditable.”
The Inquirer reported that OWWA has seven billion six hundred million pesos in cash reserves. I think it’s safe to say that amount of money is not as limiting as the administration would have us believe.
Here’s an ugly thought –
The Israeli /Hizbollah conflict that has escalated into the devastation of Lebanon is actually distracting Americans from the increasingly umpopular US occupation of Iraq. Put this in the context of the coming US mid-term elections which is shaping up to be a vote on Iraq and you’ll get a better idea of what’s going to drive Bush’s thinking on the crisis in Lebanon.
My barber Berto in his folksy way has this to say about the Israel – Lebanon war.
“Aba eh… ang ibig sabihin pag ang anak ko ay nakasuntok ng anak ng iba, puede nang bombahin at sunugin nila ang bahay ko? … at bahala na maski nangdun ang asawa ko at ibang mga anak ko?â€Â
MB,
Is this a case of “wagging the tail of another’s dog?”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,173-2277717,00.html
The Times of London is angry that right wing Israelis are celebrating the anniversary of the terrorist bombing of the King David Hotel.
phil, it’s about scale, isn’t it? Hezbollah didn’t just punch some other kid in the nose.