Broken families will be a thing of the past with the help of Microsoft’s Tulay program, Lilybeth Doronio, who because of Tulay now communicates with her overseas worker husband five times a day.

Lilybeth has been married more than 20 years and she and her husband, an engineer at a power plant in Vietnam, used to make do with talking to each other thrice a week using his mobile phone.

She can’t believe her savings now because with her knowledge of Skype and Facebook, they are now able to communicate three to five times a day. All these thanks to Microsoft’s Tulay training center where she was able to get free computer literacy courses.

“He would chat with me in the morning before he leaves for work. Then we find the time to chat during his lunch break. At night, we use Skype so we could talk sometimes until the wee hours of the morning.”

She has three children, two boys and a girl but she still hopes to join her husband in Vietnam someday.

Like Lilybeth, another unexpected Tulay almnus is 80 year old Buhay Tan, a great grandmother seven times over.

Buhay has nine children, all of whom are now professionals. Four of them are abroad and badly wanted to be able to communicate with her. Buhay said two of her sons are in Saudi Arabia, and two of her daughters work as nurses, one in London and the other in California.

Tulay’s trainor in Davao, Wadi Mutia, now considers Buhay as a star pupil. He said his student now knows Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and MS Publisher. She is also into social networking tools like Facebook.

For more, read http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/pinoy-migration/02/11/09/it-literacy-program-graduate-grandma

A group of Saudi Arabia based overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) wrote me an email providing me a copy of a letter to senate President Juan Ponce Enrile asking him to create an oversight committee to supervise the disbursement of the Expatriate Livelihood Support Fund (ELSF).

The P1 billion ELSF was proposed by President Gloria Arroyo to provide financial assistance to OFWs who lost their jobs abroad as a result of the global financial crisis. Funds would be sourced from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), she said during her visit to the kingdom last week.

“Since the OWWA fund comes from our $25.00 biennial contributions, which is held in trust by the government, it is both our right and responsibility to ensure the Fund, our fund, is only used for the benefit of our member-owners and our families,” the OFWs said.

Francis Oca, VP, PPP (Partidong Pangdaigdigang Pilipino – Riyadh) said “while we do not question the intention by which the ELSF was created, we want to be sure that adequate safeguards are in place so that this Program does not end up like the Smokey Mountain project.”

Lastly they asked that the fund is used only to assist retrenched OFWs and their families and that measures be put in place to ensure the recovery of the funds disbursed.

By JULIE JAVELLANA-SANTOS

Overseas workers in Saudi Arabia are complaining about the inconvenient schedule for the registration of overseas absentee voters there.

Francis Oca, long-time advocate of overseas absentee voting (OAV) said in a letter to Philippine ambassador to Saudi Arabia Antonio Villamor that "the announced schedule/timing of the registration is not conducive to attaining the DFA/COMELEC's goal of registering at least a million OFW voters for the 2010 election."



The Philippine embassy earlier announced that registrants would be entertained from 8 am to 4 pm, Saturday till Wednesday. This would mean there would be no registration on Thursday and Friday, the heaviest days during the past two registrations since the weekend in Saudi Arabia falls on these days.



"Parang hindi tama na Saturdays to Wednesdays. Pano naman yung mga 7am to 4pm ang work, ang time lang e Thursday and Friday?" Oca said.



OFW Roberto Pardinas added "oo nga, mahirap masunod ang ganitong schedule kailangan pa lumiban sa trabaho."

The head of the United OFW, Eli Mua said "parang joke-jok lang itong gingawa nila sa OFWs. Those schedules are meant to discredit and downgrade this registration. It is meant to discourage the OFWs from registering; they seem not to help the thousands; just pleasing the few."



"Hindi puwede mag-absent ang OFW at hindi nag-bibigay ng special leave ang mga companya dito. Wala silang paki-alam sa registration natin; ang mga managers na ibang lahi would not give a a minute for our own OAV - Thursday and Friday lang makakarehistro ang 90 % sa mga OFWs. Magagalit naman tayo dito kung ganyan naman na walang walang considerasyon sa atin," Mua said.



Returnees still in CLOAV

OFWs have even more complaints about the proposed conduct for absentee voting. There are still a lot of cases in the certified list of overseas absentee voters (CLOAV) of misspelled names and overseas workers who had transferred to other countries.



The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) hopes to correct this during the registration period, which officially started Feb. 1 and will last for seven months until Aug. 31, 2009. During this period, all overseas Filipinos wanting to cast their ballots in the presidential elections in 2010 can sign up at Philippine embassies and consulates abroad.



Hopefully, the outcome this time will be better because the COMELEC has been through two previous registrations for OAV.



For the initial registration in 2003 (for the May 2004 elections), there were 361,457 registrants compared to 142,665 during the registration in 2006 (for the 2007 polls).



The COMELEC attributed the reduction in registrants to the fact that the 2007 polls were merely mid-term elections. They said the 2004 polls were presidential elections thus generating much more interest.



They overlooked the fact that some of the obstacles already present in 2003 were never corrected.



Obstacles

The Overseas Absentee Voting Secretariat of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA-OAVS), formerly lead agency in the implementation of OAV said overseas Filipinos usually fail to comply with registration requirements because of distance (from the nearest embassy or consulate), nature of work, and employer's restrictions.



In many cases, the OAVS said overseas Filipinos are geographically dispersed and work or reside in areas far from the designated registration centers – the embassies and consulates. Unfortunately, the DFA-OAVS said there are only 87 facilities (81 Posts, 3 POLOs and 3 MECOs) which serve as voting centers.



For this reason, the embassies have partnered with employers of large numbers of Filipinos to either bus the employees to a registration site or conduct field registrations.



Community involvement in Saudi Arabia

Nevertheless, the numbers have not been good. Probably why this time around, one group is not taking any chances.



The Partidong Pangdaigdigang Pilipino, whose main aim is to get at least one overseas Filipino worker into congress in 2010, is partnering with the embassy in Riyadh to conduct voter information and education campaigns there. The biggest concentration of OFWs is in Saudi Arabia, which also happens to be the number one destination of OFWs.



Rudy Dianalan, president of the Jeddah chapter of PPP said "we have brainstormed the theme and one of those brought up also involved 3 P's: Pagrehistro, Pagboto, Pagbabago."



He said they plan to revive camp visits, lectures at various work sites since "this
helped generate the bulk of Jeddah's 33,000 registrations and 16,000
voters in 2004." In the 2007 elections where the community had not
been involved, there were only 3,000 additional registrants and just
6,000 votes cast.

Similar campaigns are being waged elsewhere and they all involve community involvement.



Different agenda
Here in Manila, OAV advocates are continuing to push for amendments to the overseas absentee voting bill.



Ellene Sana, Executive Director of the Center for Migrant Advocacy, said the amendments in question will scrap the affidavit of intent to return which has been required of Filipino immigrants abroad. This has also proven a deterrent to Filipinos overseas, particularly to green card holders in the US who fear that their residency will be affected by executing this affidavit.

This requirement was included in the law to keep the overseas Filipino "connected" to the Philippines.


That's not all, though.



Longer registration period

Sana said her group and other civil society groups as well are lobbying for a longer registration period for overseas absentee voters. They are protesting its drastic cut from ten to seven months. From the original Dec. 1, 2008 to August 31, 2009, the registration period has been shortened from February 1 to August 31, 2009.

"I do not understand why the period for continuing registration of local voters is one year while that for overseas absentee voting is only seven months," Sana complained.

John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator of Migrante International, earlier said that shortening the duration of the OAV registration to seven months is unreasonable, unjust and unconstitutional.

Preparations
But Nicodemo Ferrer, COMELEC Commissioner in charge of OAV said the time span is enough. Preparations for the 2009 registration began as early as April 2008 when consultations were held with non-governmental organizations, the DFA-OAVSand the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO).

Ferrer then proposed a "massive information dissemination campaign" for the 2010 elections. Filipinos overseas will be allowed to vote for the president, vice-president, senators and party-list representative.

His fellow commissioner, Rene Sarmiento said a lot of the former registrants will be removed from the voters' lists because the ruling is if an overseas absentee voter fails to cast his ballot for two consecutive elections, he will have to re-enlist. Since the first registration in 2003, many OFWs have transferred residences and/or ended their contracts and have returned to the Philippines.

This year, the COMELEC is expecting at least a million registrants.

Former DFA Undersecretary Rafael Seguis said they are targeting one million absentee voters to register for the coming elections. In preparation for this, COMELEC officials in Manila even visited consular posts abroad to train foreign affairs personnel on the process of registering overseas Filipinos.

After three years, UST journalism professor and migrant advocate Jeremaiah Opiniano and the Institute for Migration and Development Issues (IMDI) has managed to come up with the .Philippine Migration and Development Statistical Almanac by monitoring, compiling, and eventually harmonizing statistics on Filipinos’ international migration.

But more than merely a compendium of figures on migrants, my friend Jeremaiah said the Almanac is also a fitting tribute to the hardworking women and men within the government—from both statistical and non-statistical agencies—who have dutifully encoded and compiled raw and processed data surrounding overseas Filipinos.

He said the Migration and Development Statistical Almanac attempts to present data from administrative sources, as well as data from surveys and other selected quantitative studies, on Filipinos’ international migration and development. The data fleshes out the positive and negative consequences surrounding the overseas migration phenomenon to both the Philippines and to the countries where Filipinos go to.

In his introduction on http://almanac.ofwphilanthropy.org, Jeremaiah said the Almanac does not aim to immediately make sense of the various data it presents but rather presents these datasets, regardless of where the data came from and the variances of such data.

Thus, some interesting facts which can be culled from this Statistical Almanac:
• There are 239 countries identified to have Filipinos. Some 209 of these countries are members of the United Nations, while 30 others are non-members (including islands and territories unfamiliar to many of us). Filipinos go to these countries as temporary migrants (or more renowned as “overseas Filipino workers”), permanent migrants, and undocumented or irregular migrants;
• Temporary migrants from the Philippines, says various datasets, can either have males or females as the leading group by gender based on annual data releases. But the permanent migration (that includes marriage migrants who have married foreign partners) is predominantly female. Filipino seafarers are a visible group in terms of number;
• Regions located in Luzon island —the National Capital Region, Southern Tagalog, Central Luzon, and the Ilocos Region— have consistently emerged as the top origin areas of temporary and permanent overseas migrants, as well as the hubs of many households receiving assistance from abroad;
• Overseas workers have the Middle East and Asia as the leading regions of destination for temporary migrants, whereas North America is the leading region of destination for permanent migrants. The Philippines-Saudi Arabia corridor is the biggest migration corridor for temporary migrants, while the Philippines-United States migration corridor is the biggest for permanent migrants;
• The Philippines, from 1975 to 2007, has received over-US$120 billion in cash remittances —all passing through the formal banking system. And in an initial attempt to estimate remittances plowing into each and every Philippine province, triennial estimates show that families receiving assistance from migrants abroad got PhP208.848 billion in 2000 (covering 1.107 million migrant households), PhP245.856 billion in 2003 (1.31 million households), and PhP348.524 billion in 2006 (1.601 million households);
• Males have more total and average remittances yearly than females; and
• Comparisons between estimated remittances during the year 2003 and the audited gross incomes of provincial governments show that remittances of migrant households are more than the total local government incomes in 55 of 79 provinces.
According to Jeremaiah, this was not solely his work but the work of a core group composed of representatives from the Institute for Migration and Development Issues, the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), and the University of Santo Tomas - Social Research Center (SRC).

Let us give credit to Labor Attaché Des Dicang who promptly responded to a story written about the late OFW Elvis Laverinto by Harris Julo, the Isabela correspondent of ABS-CBN Regional Network Group. (see http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/pinoy-migration/01/06/09/kin-appeals-govt-bring-back-ofws-remains-ksa)

Laverinto’s family in Isabela called on President Arroyo to repatriate his remains and Dicang said in a letter to Filipino community member Joseph Espiritu that “our office has earlier coordinated with his sponsor, Mr. Al-Dossary, who now is processing the necessary documents for the repatriation of our kababayan with the concerned authorities and with our Embassy in Riyadh.”

And this immediately after New Year when everybody was still hungover from the long holiday.

Unfortunately, Dicang said Laverinto held a visa of a family driver and thus was not entitled to GOSI claims. However, “Dicang may be entitled to blood money claims” and this could be used for repatriating his remains.

We now have to see if this letter will have some effect as repatriation of remains from Saudi Arabia usually takes months.

His wife, Janneth, said her husband was pinned to death under a vehicle he was overhauling. The jack was allegedly detached causing the entire weight of the vehicle to crash down on the victim.

The 41-year-old victim of Barangay Villapaz, Naguillan, Isabela used to be a chief mechanic at Cauayan City.

His family learned of his sad passing last November 15, 2008.

This was sent to me Dec. 24, 2008, hours after it happened I understand.

Red tape is red tape. Most of us deal with it and fume in silence. Sometimes, though, it becomes outrageous. Like this instance told to me by my friend Noli Benavent who accompanied our PPP-Central member and a volunteer of OFCI/Anita's Kitchen Self-Help Feeding Project, Ma.Tina (last name withheld) to claim the $100 remittance of her friend as a Christmas gift to her and her kids.

The money would have been the family’s meager Noche Buena plus some gifts for the two (2) young kids which Ma. Tina went to get at eBiz Western Union Farmer's Cubao branch last Dec. 24, 2008.

Noli was with her and witnessed the Western Union lady teller claiming that her first names (Ma.Tina) did not match the first name in their system which is Matina even though her last name, claim number, and the name of the sender were correct.

Ma.Tina even presented to the teller her identification, an NBI Clearance, showing her name as Ma Tina (with a space and a missing dot) which can also be interpreted at first glance as one word, MaTina.

After pointing this seemingly minor error, the teller insisted that the name Matina was different from Ma.Tina as claimed by our PPP-Central member. Ma.Tina said that her friend has been sending her money before (not just once) and she had never experienced such refusal to pay her remittance.

Ma.Tina explained to the teller that her friend (who's an American serviceman) is not accustomed to writing initials such as Ma. which he often writes as Ma Tina and is often misinterpreted by encoders from the Western Union sending office commiting the error of typing her name Ma Tina (or Ma.Tina) as one word, Matina.

Nonetheless, the teller told Ma.Tina that the remittance cannot be released for another reason 'coz the address of the sender does not match what's in the system. Ma.Tina wrote the known address of her friend as an APO Box No. and since her friend (the American serviceman) at that time sent the remittance from Afghanistan (where he is currently stationed) and paid for by his credit card issued in the U.S. mainland, the address in the Western Union system may have registered the address of the sender either from credit card's origin (USA) or sending country (Afghanistan).

How would Ma.Tina know what's inputted in the system when the address she often writes in the claim form (which she doesn't had any problems before) is the APO Box Number of her friend.

Having explained this, the teller still refuses to release the funds and insisted that Ma.Tina contacted the sender and have him change the errors in the Western Union's sending country's system.
We went out of the branch so Ma.Tina could load up her mobile phone and send her friend three (3) SMS, each costing her P15, explaining to her friend what happened.

Her friend called Ma.Tina four (4) times (everytime cursing the incompetence of the receiving Western Union branch) to let her know that the Western Union sending office in his base camp in Afghanistan stated that the transaction is valid and can be withdrawn anywhere here in the Philippines.

When we got back to the eBiz Western Union branch to let the teller knows about this, the branch wouldn't accept customers coming in because it was already closing time.

Noli said “I would have shouted invectives to the branch and created a commotion but I hesitated in doing so 'coz it's Christmas.”

He went on: “I'm still fuming mad as I'm writing this now (even as I have cooled down after this incident happened earlier). I couldn't believe that a needy mother (who's a regular Western Union customer) would be refused payment of her remittance at a time like this when she needs to send the money for a decent Noche Buena in her home and gifts for her kids in Surigao City as she will be alone here in Manila away from them. What a bleak Christmas for Ma.Tina and her young kids.”

PNB Remittance Company Canada
serves the Filipino community

By Jojo Taduran

TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA - It is the pride of every Filipino in Canada by sending their hard-earned money
to their love ones in the Philippines through the PNB Remittance Company
Canada (PNBRCC).

A subsidiary of the Philippine National Bank which is one of the biggest banks
in the Philippines, the PNB Remittance Company Canada is the Philippines' flag
carrier like the Philippine Air Lines (PAL).

In fact in Toronto alone PNBRCC is always in the forefront supporting the different
activities of the Filipino community including the orientation of new immigrants in
coordination with the Philippine Consulate General's Office headed by Consul General
Alejandro B. Mosquera and other Fiipino community organizations not only in Toronto
but other parts of Canada.

The PNB Remittance Company Canada is contributing to the economy of the Philippines
considering that all its' remittance passed through the Central Bank of the Philippines thus
strengthening the country's foreign reserves,

Jun Miranda is Canada's regional head of the PNBRCC with main office is located at
103 - 90 Dundas St. West, Mississauga, Ontario, Ontario L5B 2T5, Tel. 905 - 896-4840,
Toll Free 1 - 886 - 8806, Fax: 905 - 896 9338, Email: info@pnbrcc.com.

The PNB Remittance Company's branches and their supervisors including the locations
are as follows:

1) Scarborough with Lyssa Borabon as the branch supervisors, 3430 Sheppard Avenue East,
Scarborough, Ontario, M1T 3K4, Tel. 416 - 293 - 5696, 416 - 293 - 8758, and 416 - 293 - 5438,
Fax: 416 - 293 - 7376, Emails: sacarborough@pnbrcc.com and lborabon@pnbrcc.com;

2) Toronto with Mercy Grace Letrondo as the branch supervisor, 545 Sherbourne St., Unit 3, G/F, Toronto, Ontario M4X 1W5, Tel. 416 - 960 - 9231 and 416 - 960 - 9833, Fax: 416 - 960 - 8688, Emails: sherbourne@pnbrcc.com and gletrondo@pnbrcc.com;

3) Eglinton with Roland Romeral as branch supervisor, 875 Eglinton Avenue West, Toronto, Ontario M6C 3Z9, Tel. 416 - 960 - 8488 and 416 - 782 - 5525, Fax: 416 - 784 - 5155, Emails: eglinton@pnbrcc.com and rromeral@pnbrcc.com;

4) Mississauga with Vicente Madamba as the branch supervisor, 90 Dundas Street West, Unit 103, Mississauga, Ontario L5*0, Fax: 905 - 896 - 9338, Emails: mississauga@pnbrcc.com and vmadamba@pnbrcc.com;

5) Vancouver with Lucille Ardinazo as the branch supervisor, 101 - 1245 West Broadway, Vancouver, British Columbia V6H 1G7, Tel. 604 - 737 - 4944, Fax: 604 - 737 - 4948, Emails: vancouver@pnbrcc.com and lardinazo@pnbrcc.com;

6) Winnipeg with Allan Rafal as the branch supervisor, 737 Keewatin St. Unit 7, Winnipeg, Manitoba R2X 3B9, Tel. 204 - 697 - 8860, Fax: 204 - 697 -8865, Emails: winnipeg@pnbrcc.com and arafal@pnbrcc.

The PNB Remittance Company Canada is now providing freight forwarding services for boxes bound for the Philippines under the PNB Cargo services aside from the money transfer or remittance.

In the meantime, the Philippine National Bank (PNB) and the Allied Bank are now working for their merging to become one of the biggest banks in the Philippines to take effect on the first month of 2009.