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Hong Kong — The candidacy of Nacionalista Party senatorial bet Susan “Toots” Ople received a major boost this weekend with the expression of support from no less than Brother Mike Velarde, leader of El Shaddai.
In an open prayer rally marked by intermittent rains attended by thousands of El Shaddai members, Brother Mike Velarde said that [...]

TUCP, other labor groups back Ople’s Senate bid

In solidarity with the different labor groups, former senator and the Secretary-General of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines Ernesto “Boy” Herrera expressed full support to the senatorial bid of former labor undersecretary Susan “Toots” Ople.
In a message delivered by TUCP Spokesman Alex Aguilar at Ople’s launch, Herrera said the TUCP welcomes and supports [...]

Ople Center urges GOCCs to help affected families

Ople Center urges GOCCs to help affected families; bats for one-stop shop on-site calamity loans assistance from GSIS, SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-Ibig and OWWA
Former labor undersecretary Susan Ople issued an appeal in behalf of workers’ and OFW families affected by typhoon “Ondoy” for onsite calamity loans processing and assistance by various social security agencies and the [...]

No to Text Tax!

(The article below appeared in today’s Panorama Magazine and Tempo. For those who share my sentiments and have a Facebook account, please sign up and support our cause via the No to Text Tax! page. Thanks!)
The House committee on ways and means recently approved a measure imposing a five-centavo tax on every text message. The [...]

Sunday column: A letter to my father

A letter to my father
By Susan V. Ople
Dearest Amang,
Not a day passes that I don’t think of you.
When I open the morning paper, I’d skim over news items and think, “How would you have reacted to this and that issue?” You see it’s not just you as my father that I miss, but [...]

RP falls into Tier 2 Watch List of US State Department re Human Trafficking

The US State Department has released its annual report on human trafficking and guess what? Our country is listed under Tier 2 and is now on the watch list. Previously, we were a Tier 2 country, but not in danger of falling further behind in global efforts to curb trafficking of persons.
Why am I not [...]

An anatomy of a massive illegal recruitment

Author’s Note: This article was posted on Inquirer.Net Global Nation
MANILA, Philippines—It all started last November with an ordinary flier which said: “4,000+ jobs for bus drivers in Dubai.” The paper ad offered a monthly salary of 5,200 dirhams or roughly P67,000. Thousands of these fliers were distributed by a local recruitment agency known as CYM [...]

A poem I wrote for my dad in 2005

If you were here, I would not be writing this poem with you in mind
Conversations would have more meaning
And time would march with purpose rather than crawl on its belly
Like a sea lion aimlessly slithering through space
If you were here, you would be writing sharp discourse,
Probing pieces that tell us why genius is rare
Hacking at [...]

Waiting for the action to start…

2.55 PM. Andito ako sa Starbucks, sa harap ng stage kung saan magaganap ang rally laban sa Con-ASS.
Tahimik pa ang kapiligiran. Ordinaryo lang kilos ng mga tao.
Mamaya pupunta dito ang mga kaibigang blogger at ilan na mga Facebook user. Kung libre kayo, pasyal kayo dito.
Kung hindi naman, bakit di sumali sa mga protesta online?
Kung [...]

Video against Illegal Recruitment and Human Trafficking

We had a dinner-forum event last Wednesday, May 12, at Dulcinea in Tomas Morato. We invited several bloggers so that they could meet some of the bus drivers that the Ople Center was able to bring home from Dubai.

Bloggers with Bus Drivers, Susan Ople, Carlo Ople, and Former Congressman Willie Villarama
Here’s the video that [...]