This topic contains 40 replies, has 20 voices, and was last updated by 
JON 17 years, 1 month ago.
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It was just the product of terror and it was written in the Bible. So matira and matibay between Arab and Israeli.
Although Im living in Tel aviv, ive been worried and felt sorryfor all the innocentpeople killed in war specially the chidren (Arab Israeli)
Well let us pray for themand also my condolences to the family of ourfellow OFW’s who are victims of grid and horrible death. -
PANAHON PA BAGA NI DAVID AND GOLIATH, MORTAL NANG MAG KAIWAL ANG LEBANON BUDA ISRAEL KAYA NGANI LETS…..
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PAKI CHECK TABI MGA UKAY KAINING PHOTOFRAUD SA LEBANON.
http://www.aish.com/movies/photofraud.asp -
Anonymous@ Noy-Islaw, I really admire the way you openly voiced out the sentiments of OFWs.
Do we have the choice? Dai! Takaipuhan ta magpadara sa Pilipinas para sa pamilya, bako iyo ini ang rason niata ta yaon kita digdi sa luwas kan bansa. Unfortunately, this situation is being exploited by our own government, kaya para sako, rest in peace na sako ang issue about it, sayang na adrenaline kung gamiton ko sa pag-kunsumisyon ko sa sarong bagay na dai man sanang solution. -
Just like the saying 20 years ago, “Hindi ka nag-iisa”, Islaw. It is just so frustrating that some people esp OFWs don’t see the bigger picture of what’s going on and what’s going to happen in RP. One of the ways for the OFWs to be influential is to control or calibrate the flow of remittance money. Kaya lang may problema dyan. Unless we (OFWs) have our own banking or remittance system, we have to go to the legal means of sending money thru the banks. And if we don’t send money, our dependents would suffer.
Sad to say, sometimes what we need is another “miracle”. -
salamat manoy pedro,
Here we go again, donations, donations….
Are they really donations? No strings attached? What’s the catch? Who will allocate them? Who will APPEAR to receive them and who will ACTUALLY benefit from them?Thanks to the US for their good intentions. Too bad they will all remain intentions…
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like you islaw, we have all the right to condemn the corruption in our government. i read yesterday that the US will give around 20 million dollars to fight corruption in the Philippines. i wonder where that money will end up. it is very painful toknow thatsome of our women are abused or killed trying to earn a living for their families. many are also victimized by illegal recruiters. and our government is not doing enough to protect them. illegal recruitersshould be shot on the spot. mahina pa ang checks and balances sa atin. yung taga-checkcorrupt din. pero marami ring mga bayan na mas corrupt pa sa atin katulad ng haiti, nigeria, at iba pa. sige magalit ka. lilipas din yan.
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I totally agree with mr. de quiros’ comments.
At least I’m not alone in thinking that as far as the government is concerned, OFWs like me are just part of the statistics and a very good source of funds for their selfish ambitions.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it once again… Our country has gone to the dogs! I do not expect to live long enough to see any progress in my country. I’ve learned to accept that since I was in my elementary years. Malayung-malayo tayo sa ibang bansa, ni wala sa kalingkingan. ANg pagkain na lang na nabibili sa oalengke is not even enough to feed their domesticated pets. Ang pusa at aso sa ibang bansa, may insurance, may libreng check-up, ambulance and hospitalisation, may record kung anong lahi, may designer na damit, may malambot na tulugan, may masarap na pagkain at kumpleto sa bakuna. Sana ganun din ang trato sa mga tao sa atin. Natural resources and perfect beaches? Wala na tayong resources. Does anybody know of any place that hasn’t been molested by politicians? Wala! They have sucked up all my countries’ juices for their own benefit.
Here are SoMe of the FACTS I normally tell my friends about my country of origin:
ALL POLITICIANS in my country ARE LIARS.
PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT IS one of the most CORRUPT in ASIA, if not in the entire UNIVERSE.
OUR COUNTRY IS STILL IN THE THIRD WORLD.
THE ECONOMY DOES NOT PROVIDE ENOUGH FOR THE BASIC NEEDS OF FILIPINOS.
OUR PRESIDENT IS A LIAR AND A CHEAT. THE ONE BEFORE HER IS NO DIFFERENT, HE’S JUST A MOVIE STAR ACTING LIKE THE PRESIDENT.
GINAGATASAN LANG ng GOBYERNo ANG MGA EDUKADONG OFW NA PUMAPAYAG MAGPAALIPIN SA IBANG BANSA PARA LANG MARANASAN ANG GINHAWA NA KELAN MAN HINDI MAIIBIBIGAY NG GoBYERNO.
FOR ME, THESE ARE ALL FACTS, I CHALLENGE ANYONE TO PROVE ME WRONG. If anybody can prove me otherwise, I’ll be the happiest man on earth..
What if sabay-sabay na hindi magpadala ng mga remittance ang mga katulong, yaya (kagaya ng nanay ko), driver, taga-punas ng pwet (kagaya ng kapatid ko), taga-punas ng suka at tae (kagaya ko) na mga OFW.. Siguro magpapanik sila kasi wala na silang regular na makukurakot. Ano kaya kung gawin namin yun.. pano na sila? ANo kaya?….
Mukhang okay lang yun kasi okay lang nga na maki-hitch na lang tayo habang hinuhulugan tayo ng bomba di ba? Tapos, pag tapos na ang gyera, tayo rin ang gagawa ng mga nasira kasi tayo lang naman ang mga gutom at walang trabaho di ba? Kaya palalagpasin na lang natin ang kawalan ng silbi ng ating presidente at ng gobyernong pinatatakbo nya kesa nga naman mamatay tayong dilat ang mata sa Pilipinas.
Kinalimutan ko ilusyon na may pag-asa pa ang bayan natin dahil WALA!!
Ikinahihiya ko ang gobyerno ng Pilipinas at lahat ng kasali dito. I know, it will not have a slightest effect on their crocodile egos but still i think they’re a load of useless crap. -
Miyerkoles, Hulyo 26, 2006
Ikatlong grupo ng OFWs galing Lebanon dumating na
Dumating na nitong Miyerkoles ng umaga ang pangatlong batch ng mga Pinoy na inilikas mula Lebanon.
Napaiyak sa tuwa ang 37 overseas Filipino workers (OFW) nang makauwi sa bansa mula sa Lebanon.
Si Loribel Abalos, tatlong buwan pa lang bilang caregiver sa Lebanon.
Pero maliban sa takot sa giyera mas napauwi si Abalos dahil hindi na niya matiis ang pananakit sa kanya ng anak ng kanyang amo. Hindi rin daw siya pinapasweldo.
Pagdating naman sa evacuation center sa Beirut, kakarampot lang ang pagkain nila dahil sa dami nilang naghahati-hati.
“Masayang-masaya ako na nakauwi na ako ngayon. Nakakatakot ang bomba doon. Nagtatago kami tuwing may sasabog,” ani Abalos.
Mula sa airport, dumiretso ang mga OFW sa Overseas Workers Welfare Authority (OWWA).
Ang mga taga-Kalakhang Maynila ay ihahatid ng OWWA sa kanilang bahay samantalang titira naman muna sa doon ang mga taga-probinsya habang inaayos ang kanilang mga tiket pauwi.
Ibinalita naman ni foreign affairs spokesman Gilbert Asuque na nag-alok na ng tulong ang International Organization for Migration para sa paglilikas ng mahigit sa 400 OFWs sa Beirut. -
THERE’S THE RUBPack up and go
By Conrado de QuirosInquirerLast updated 01:28am (Mla time) 07/26/2006
Published on Page A12 of the July 26, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
IT WAS a plaintive cry from the bowels of a desperate land and the pit of a desperate heart. “Where have all the OFWs’ [overseas Filipino workers’] billions in remittances gone?” That was the cry that issued from the mouth of Fr. Agustin Advincula, who runs the Church of the Miraculous Medal in Beirut, where thousands of tired, frightened and desperate Filipino domestic helpers in Lebanon have sought shelter from Israeli bombs.
It struck a painful contrast, the way other countries were sending ships and other modes of (quick) transport to pluck their nationals out of harm’s way and the way the Philippine government was telling its overseas workers to “hitch a ride” to save themselves. The image that flashed in my mind with that advice was the kind of public transport in our provinces in the south, called “habal-habal,” that ferries as many as a dozen people.The contraption is just a motorcycle that has a couple of wooden boards strapped behind the driver where passengers sit on both sides, balancing themselves. Sometimes it takes in more than a dozen passengers, the desperate finding miniscule spaces left in the thing to plant foot or toe on to it. It’s the perfect image of the Filipino’s plight, the balancingact he has to do to survive. Unfortunately there are no habal-habal in Lebanon.
Later the person-occupying-Malacañang-who-likes-to-call-herself-president would tell the OFWs to “just pack up and go.” Nobody seems to have told her that unlike the folk at the foot of Mayon Volcano, no one is waiting to see if a bomb would fall nearby before they leave. Certainly, no one is waiting for their employers to give them their wages first before they leave; many have been abandoned by their employers right at their doorstep, “bahala ka na sa buhay mo” — each (wo)man to (her)himself. All of them would like nothing better than to go, never mind pack up.
Question is: How?
Which brings us back to Father Advincula’s plaintive and thundering question: Where have all the OFW millions gone? Advincula wasn’t being accusatory when he asked that, as the reports clarified, but his question itself remains a finger pointing at the crooks in furious indictment.
There are many answers to that question, but one of them is the transfer of funds of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) to the government’s PhilHealth Insurance Corp. some years ago. The mandate of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, as its name suggests, is to give welfare assistance to OFWs and their families. But on Nov. 24, 2002, PhilHealth president Francisco Duque proposed another use for its funds. He wrote a memo to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo saying that the diversion of Owwa Medicare funds to PhilHealth would bear significantly on the 2004 elections. Arroyo believed him and issued Executive Order 182, transferring the Medicare Funds of the Medical Functions of Owwa amounting to P530,382,446 to PhilHealth.
The transfer was approved by the labor department, with the exception of Corazon P. Carsola, whom the OFWs may truly thank even if she fought for a lost cause. She refused to sign, objecting to the use of medical funds badly needed by the OFWs for patent electoral purposes. The very design of the new PhilHealth card proclaimed it to be so: It metamorphosed from a simple one bearing the picture of the beneficiary to one showing Arroyo cradling an infant. The infant was not its beneficiary.
Subsequently, Labor Secretary Patricia Santo Tomas declared that OFWs who had incurred medical expenses would no longer be reimbursed by Owwa.
The ironic note here is that Arroyo did not win even with that ploy. She still needed to call up Garci no less than 15 times to do so — if one may call the result winning.
Where did the OFW millions go? That was one of its destinations. The others, well, as Franklin Drilon, a former labor secretary, points out, the Owwa has cash reserves amounting to a mind-boggling P7.6 billion. Why Arroyo should choose to allocate only P150 million to rescue the Filipinos in Lebanon from dire straits, only she can say. It is so much less than the amount she took from the Owwa, funds meant to keep OFWs alive and healthy, just so she could remain politically alive, never mind healthy, or indeed just so she could rescue herself from her desperate plight. Which didn’t work anyway; she still needed the sea-unworthy vessel MV Garci to get her out of her Hezbollah.
The nationals of other countries who were promptly evacuated by their governments were not the lifeblood of their country. They were people whose jobs, bureaucratic or civilian, had simply brought them there. Yet, if you saw the footage in BBC and CNN, there they were at the docks, filing out without hurry, children and elderly in tow, some with prettyheavy luggage, climbing up the stairs in waiting ships. This was no Dunkirk. Their governments were giving them this service for no other reason than that they were citizens, their governments owed it to them for being so.
By contrast, the Filipinos who could not be evacuated by their government,who were being told to hitch a ride by the Department of Foreign Affairs and just pack up and go by the person-occupying-Malacañang-who-likes-to-call-herself-president were the lifeblood of their country. They were the maids, drivers and canal diggers whose blood, sweat and tears were keeping their country alive and its crooks fat. Their government was scrimping on them for a reason other than that they were cannon fodder. There were more of them back home eager to brave war, famine and natural and human disasters for a crack at living. A crack at living by dying, the ultimate balancing act.
Just pack up and go? It’s very good advice, but wrong adviser and wrong advisee. Arroyo shouldn’t be telling that to the Filipinos in Lebanon. The Filipinos in Lebanon should be telling that to her. -
Timeline: Decades of conflict in Lebanon, Israel The 1967 Arab-Israeli War and Jordan’s 1970 crackdown on the Palestine Liberation Organization, following a coup attempt against King Hussein, drove large numbers of Palestinian refugees into Lebanon — Yasser Arafat and the PLO among them. Below is a timeline of significant events in the relationship among Israel, Lebanon and the Palestinians since then:
December 1968: Israeli commandos attack Beirut International Airport on December 28, 1968, damaging or destroying more than a dozen airplanes in retaliation for an attack on an Israeli civilian airplane at the airport in Athens, Greece. Two Palestinians were charged in the Athens attack that left an Israeli passenger dead. November 1969: Lebanese army commander in chief Emile Bustani and Arafat sign an agreement in Cairo that recognizes the “Palestinian revolution” and allows Palestinians in Lebanon “to join in the armed struggle without undermining Lebanon’s sovereignty and welfare.” This agreement will stay in effect for nearly 20 years, until Lebanon rescinds it in May 1987. 1970-1971: Faced with fighting in Jordan that left thousands dead, the PLO moves its base to Lebanon, where it carries out raids on Israel. A Palestinian terrorist group linked to the PLO is formed. Its name is “Black September” — a reference to the Jordanian crackdown on Palestinians in September 1970. 1972: Black September attacks the Israeli Olympic team during the games in Munich, Germany. After a struggle that left a coach and an athlete dead, the terrorists take nine Israeli athletes hostage, demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners in return for the hostages’ release. Israel refuses, and a shootout between the attackers and West German authorities leaves all nine hostages, four terrorists and a policeman dead. April 1973: Israeli elite commandos — dressed as women and led by future Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak — kill three PLO leaders in Beirut. 1975: Civil war breaks out in Lebanon, pitting Palestinians and pro-Palestinian Lebanese militias against Lebanon’s Christian militias. The war would last nearly 15 years, officially ending in 1990. 1976: Syria sends military peacekeepers during the early months of the civil war to help end it. The troops would remain there nearly 30 years, until April 2005. March 1978: A PLO attack on a bus in northern Israel prompts Israeli military forces to move into Lebanon to push the PLO back from the border. Israel withdraws after the U.N. Security Council passes a resolution for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces. Under the leadership of Lebanese army Maj. Saad Haddad, an Israeli ally, a 12-mile wide “security zone” is established to protect Israeli territory from cross-border attacks. September 1978: The Camp David Accords, brokered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter, lead to a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. The accords lay the groundwork for a similar treaty between Israel and Lebanon, as well as its other Arab neighbors. July 17, 1981: Israeli forces bomb PLO headquarters in West Beirut, killing more than 300 civilians. The attack leads to a U.S.-brokered cease-fire between Israel, the PLO and Syria, whose troops were in Lebanon. 1982: The cease-fire lasts until June 6, 1982, when Israel invades Lebanon with about 60,000 troops in a push to destroy the PLO, after an assassination attempt on Israel’s ambassador to Britain. Arafat and the PLO flee Lebanon in August and settle in Tunis, Tunisia, where they remain until moving to Gaza in 1994. The Israel-backed Lebanese president-elect, Bashir Gemayel, is assassinated September 14, shortly before his inauguration. Israeli troops enter West Beirut a day later, and the following day, nearly 800 Palestinian refugees are massacred at the hands of Lebanese Christian militias in the Sabra and Shatila camps. Israel is accused of doing nothing to prevent or stop the massacre. Hezbollah, a fundamentalist Shiite Muslim militant group, emerges as a force in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon. Sponsored by Iran, modeled after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and supported by Syria, Hezbollah aims to establish a Shiite Islamic state in Lebanon and force Western interests like Israel and the United States out of the region. April 18, 1983: A suicide attack by Hezbollah on the U.S. Embassy in West Beirut kills 63 people, a harbinger of future attacks against U.S. and Western interests. May 17, 1983: Lebanon and Israel sign a U.S.-brokered peace agreement, spelling out terms of Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, conditional on the withdrawal of Syrian forces. Syria opposes the agreement. October 23, 1983: A Hezbollah suicide bomber blows up the headquarters of U.S. Marine and French forces in Beiru -
Linggo, Hulyo 23, 2006
400 namatay sa digmaang Lebanon-Israel
Mahigit 400 na ang mga taong nasawi sa patuloy na bakbakan sa ng mga gerilyang Hezbollah at mga sundalong Israeli sa Lebanon.Pinakamalaking bilang ng mga nasawi ay mga Lebanese na umabot na sa 370. Samantala, 15 sibilyan at 19 na sundalo ang nalagas sa panig ng mga Israeli.Nakapwesto na rin ang may 5,000 sundalo sa Israel borders na handang dumepensa sa patuloy namang pag-ulan ng missile mula sa panig ng Hezbollah.Mas lalo ring lumalala ang sitwasyon sa Southern Lebanon partikular sa siyudad ng Tyre na naging dahilan na rin para sapilitang magsilikas ang mga residenteng natitira sa lugar.Sa pinakahuling report na natanggap ng ABS-CBN News Team nitong Linggo muling umatake ang mga Israeli na tumaranta naman sa mga residenteng nalalabi pa sa Lebanon. Sagot daw ito sa missile attack ng mga Hezbollah sa Haifa.
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Linggo, Hulyo 23, 2006
OFWs sinalubong ni Arroyo
Ligtas nang makarating sa Pilipinas ang una at pangalawang batch ng mga Pilipino na inilikas mula sa Lebanon Linggo ng hapon.Lumapag ang Jordan Aviation Airbus 3911 lulan ang 229 na OFWs at tatlong bata mula Lebanon sa Villamor Air Base dakong 3:02 p.m. nitong Linggo.Personal silang sinalubong ni Pangulong Arroyo at ilan pang opisyal ng Department of Foreign Affairs at Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.Bakas sa mukha nila ang tuwa at tila nakahinga na nang maluwag matapos ang mapait na karanasan.Kung susumahin kakaunting bahagi lamang ang mga Pilipinong nagsidating sa halos 30,000 pang naiwan sa Lebanon.Kaya naman pangako ng Pangulo na walang Pinoy na maiiwan sa Southern Lebanon kung saan nakataas pa rin ang Alert Level 4.Bago tumulak ng OWWA Center kung saan tutuloy ang ilan sa mga inilikas na Pinoy, dinokumento muna ang mga OFW para malaman kung sino ang pumasok sa Lebanon nang ilegal.
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Alert Level 4 sa OFWs nakataas sa south Lebanon
Inihayag ng pamahalaang Pilipinas nitong Sabado ang pag-iral ng Alert Level 4 para sa mga Pilipino sa southern Lebanon dahil kaguluhan sa pagitan ng Israel at Lebanon.
“[Nasa] alert level 4 [na ang] southern Lebanon, at mandatory na ang evacuation dito, pero the rest [of Lebanon], alert level 3 pa lang,” ani Vice-President Noli de Castro sa DZMM.
Inaasahang dadating sa Linggo ang unang grupo ng mga Pilipinong nailikas mula Beirut Ayon sa mga awtoridad, naanatlaa ang biyahe ng Emirates Airlines flight na mag-uuwi sana sa mga Pilipino nitong Sabado.
Sa kabila nito, patuloy ang trabaho ng Department of Foreign Affairs na makakuha ng isa pang eroplano para makauwi ang mga Pilipino sa lalong madaling panahon.
Samantala, iginiit ng aktibistang Migrante International na hindi lang southern Lebanon ang dapat pagtuunan ng pansin ng pamahalaan.
Ayon kay Gary Martinez, tagapagsalita ng grupo, dapat may paghahanda na rin sa mga lugar na pwedeng madamay sa gera.
Si Martinez ay nangangamba para sa asawa niyang caregiver sa Israel dahil sa inaasahang pag-atake ng Hezbollah suicide bombers.
Sa iba pang ulat, patuloy na hinahanap ng kanilang mga kamag-anak ang mga OFW sa Lebanon at Israel na hanggang ngayon ay hindi pa nila nakakausap. -
Needles to say that: it is destiny. I wish there is a way of knowing in advantage what will take place. But if we do it is not practical.
We are all concerned. Now that we learned some lesson we still hv time for the next big thing. Jihad has no sign of letting go. They realy want Israel, then Saudi Arabia or Egypt. They want to sanctify their Koran for the long term. I beleive this is the final frontier past the cold war Communism among wars. The Dragon has not much compared to this. Its just one of those things not discused because we are not sure.
In Bible perspective “The world is under the power of the wicked one, however…..” Revelation 46:7 Simply saying THE WORLD IS UNDER A MAGIC SPELL ever since the Adam & Eve. Even Disneyland mentioned that. Boring? Yes
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