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	<title>Little NotesArchives | Little Notes</title>
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	<link>http://www.susanople.com</link>
	<description>Blog of Susan &#34;Toots&#34; Ople, OFW and Labor Advocate in the Philippines</description>
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		<title>A Bagong Bayani in Need: Let&#8217;s help Alfred Salmos!</title>
		<link>http://www.susanople.com/a-bagong-bayani-in-need-lets-help-alfred-salmos/</link>
		<comments>http://www.susanople.com/a-bagong-bayani-in-need-lets-help-alfred-salmos/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 May 2012 23:23:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Susan Ople</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Archives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alfred Salmos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bank of Philippine Islands]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jeddah]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[OFW]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philippine Consulate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saudi Arabia]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.susanople.com/?p=1003</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[He wishes to come home and be with the family he had lost touch with while spending more than 20 years of his life in Saudi Arabia. Alfred Salmos suffered serious burns, several of which have hardened into keloids, after being electrocuted at work. An electrician by profession, he was sucked into a 14,000-volts breaker that he was trying to shut down. For the past two years, an Indonesian worker has been looking after Mang Fred. He could no longer work because of his physical condition. According to the Philippine Consulate in Jeddah, they are now working on the exit clearances of Ka Alfred who has to settle some fees over an impounded car several years ago. The Ople Center is working closely with NGOs in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia such as Patnubay Riyadh and PEBA, on this case. For those who wish to help OFW Alfred Salmos, please send donations to his sister: Epifania Reem S. Colina c/o BPI Branch in Carmen West Rosales, Pangasinan, Account Number: 0639-0859-29. For those who wish to get in touch with Reem Salmos Colina, please get in touch with me at the Blas F. Ople Policy Center, 833-5337/833-9562, so we can coordinate this with [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<title>A Mother&#8217;s Appeal: &#8220;Gerald, come home&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://www.susanople.com/a-mothers-appeal-gerald-come-home/</link>
		<comments>http://www.susanople.com/a-mothers-appeal-gerald-come-home/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 04 May 2012 02:15:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Susan Ople</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Archives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Azal Shipping & Cargo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Department of Foreign Affairs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hostage incident]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iceberg 1]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Inter-World Shipping Corporation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[seafarers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Somali pirates]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.susanople.com/?p=993</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Nanay Aurora Gonzales is stoic. She seldom smiles, and bears a posture of sternness, like a school principal. But all that&#8217;s an act. She is a mother, after all. And her eldest son is missing. Gerald Gonzales boarded a shipping cargo vessel named Iceberg 1 on April 7, 2009. The ship is owned by a Dubai-based company called Azal Shipping &#038; Cargo. Gerald&#8217;s manning agency in Manila is Inter-World Shipping Corporation. On March 29, 2010 at around 2 a.m., Nanay Aurora received a frantic phone call from Gerald. &#8220;We&#8217;ve been hijacked!&#8221; Stunned, the mother was left with a million questions and a phone line that went dead. Two years have passed and Gerald has yet to make it home. Nanay Aurora and her husband are based in Jaro, Iloilo City. She would dutifully follow up her son&#8217;s case with the DFA Regional Office and Inter-World Shipping Company. Her inquiries were met with a standard reply: Azal Shipping is still negotiating with the Somali pirates. Gerald is the only Filipino left on board Iceberg 1. Her mother is worried about his physical health and conditions. Click on the link below to hear Nanay Aurora&#8217;s appeal: Nanay Aurora&#8217;s Appeal Let us support [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Ople Center backs calls of OFWs in Barcelona for consulate to remain open</title>
		<link>http://www.susanople.com/ople-center-backs-calls-of-ofws-in-barcelona-for-consulate-to-remain-open/</link>
		<comments>http://www.susanople.com/ople-center-backs-calls-of-ofws-in-barcelona-for-consulate-to-remain-open/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:46:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Susan Ople</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Archives]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.susanople.com/?p=977</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[OFW and labor advocate Susan Ople urged the Department of Foreign Affairs to reconsider its decision to shut down the Philippine Consulate in Barcelona, Spain in view of the large number of Filipinos under its jurisdiction. The president of the Blas F. Ople Policy Center, a non-profit organization that specializes on migration issues, noted that Filipinos in Barcelona have organized a Facebook account with over 4,000 members to ventilate their misgivings over the DFA&#8217;s order to shut down the consulate as part of its rationalization plan. &#8220;We support the appeals of Filipinos in Barcelona for a reconsideration of government&#8217;s decision to close down the Philippine Consulate which services more than 20,000 OFWs. The consulate was opened in 2008 in response to the OFWs&#8217; appeals precisely because it was too inconvenient and expensive for them to travel all the way to Madrid for consular assistance,&#8221; Ople pointed out. The former labor undersecretary said the Philippine Consulate in Barcelona also caters to Filipino seafarers whose ships dock at its major ports. This concern was echoed by Filipino community leader Ritzie Ann Taruna who wrote: &#8220;Ships, manned mostly by Filipino seafarers who have urgent consular needs, often dock in the international ports of [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
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		<title>Ople Center&#8217;s Press Release on PHL&#8217;s Tier 2 rating</title>
		<link>http://www.susanople.com/ople-centers-press-release-on-phls-tier-2-rating/</link>
		<comments>http://www.susanople.com/ople-centers-press-release-on-phls-tier-2-rating/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 28 Jun 2011 06:48:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Susan Ople</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Archives]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.susanople.com/?p=832</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Loss of $250 million in non-humanitarian aid averted with PH&#8217;s Tier 2 rating A non-government organization welcomed the improved standing of the Philippines in the United States Trafficking in Persons Report for 2011 from a Tier 2 Watch List to a Tier 2 rating but emphasized the need to build on these gains because human trafficking syndicates continue to operate in the country. Susan Ople, president of the Blas F. Ople Policy Center, a non-profit organization that is actively involved in the drive against human trafficking, said that the upgrade should inspire the government to aim for a Tier 1 ranking, by trying to obtain more convictions and cleaning up the local recruitment process. &#8220;With this improved rating, the Philippines managed to avert the loss of an estimated US$250 million in non-humanitarian assistance from the US government while sending a strong signal to human traffickers around the world,&#8221; Ople said. Under the US anti-trafficking law, countries that fall under the Tier 2 Watch List categories for two consecutive years are at risk of an automatic downgrade to Tier 3. Non-humanitarian assistance to Tier 3 countries can be withheld by the US government under the said law. The former labor undersecretary [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Today is Father&#8217;s Day</title>
		<link>http://www.susanople.com/today-is-fathers-day/</link>
		<comments>http://www.susanople.com/today-is-fathers-day/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 19 Jun 2011 00:12:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Susan Ople</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Archives]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.susanople.com/?p=828</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On Father&#8217;s Day, we honor the &#8220;Tatays&#8221;, &#8220;Papas&#8221;, &#8220;Amangs&#8221;, &#8220;Dads&#8221;, and &#8220;Itays&#8221; in our family. We thank them for their fortitude. We celebrate their perseverance. We admire their humor in the face of all kinds of adversity. My own father passed on at the age of 75. He lived a full life, with seven children and several grandchildren, and an entire country to serve. His legacy lives on as our nation continues to rely &#8211; perhaps too much &#8212; on overseas employment and on the institutions that he was able to father &#8212; OWWA, the POEA, NLRC, and the old NMYC which is now known as TESDA. One of my deepest regrets as his daughter was that I was not there to hold his hand, and comfort him when he died on the carpeted floor of a moving plane. I was not there to say goodbye. I am sure though that my father knew how much I loved and admired him. I still talk to him by his grave, and in my mind, and sometimes through posts such as this, to extend that love beyond earth&#8217;s boundaries. So on this Father&#8217;s Day, I hope that children would hold on tightly [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>US gov&#8217;t cites PHL&#8217;s &#8220;significant progress&#8221; in fight VS human trafficking</title>
		<link>http://www.susanople.com/us-govt-cites-phls-significant-progress-in-fight-vs-human-trafficking/</link>
		<comments>http://www.susanople.com/us-govt-cites-phls-significant-progress-in-fight-vs-human-trafficking/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 07 Apr 2011 06:45:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Susan Ople</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Archives]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.susanople.com/?p=816</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(Note: The Blas F. Ople Policy Center issued this press release today, April 7, 2011) An uptick in convictions, historic budgetary allocations and offloading of suspected trafficked victims may have “saved” the Philippines from falling into the dreaded Tier 3 category of the US State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report, a non-government organization said yesterday. “The interim assessment report greatly diminishes the possibility of having $250 million in non-humanitarian assistance to the Philippines withheld from us by the US government,” Susan Ople, head of the Blas F. Ople Policy Center explained. The country has been in the Tier 2 Watch List since 2009. A Tier 3 ranking this year would have led to the withholding of non-humanitarian assistance to the Philippines by the US government. The Blas F. Ople Policy Center, a non-profit organization that is actively involved in the fight against human trafficking, noted that the US State Department recently released its Interim Assessment Report on how countries in a special watch list for insignificant efforts to fight human trafficking will likely fare in its forthcoming official June 2011 report. Based on the interim report, the Philippines was cited for demonstrating “significant progress” in the fight against human [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Ople Center Reactions to the Taiwan Deportation Issue</title>
		<link>http://www.susanople.com/ople-center-reactions-to-the-taiwan-deportation-issue/</link>
		<comments>http://www.susanople.com/ople-center-reactions-to-the-taiwan-deportation-issue/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 10 Feb 2011 04:28:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Susan Ople</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Archives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bloggers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[column]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Department of Foreign Affairs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[displaced overseas Filipino workers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DoLE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[domestic helpers in Hong Kong]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dubai]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Filipino overseas workers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[HK Magazine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[human trafficking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Illegal Recruitment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[OFW]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[OFWs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ople]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Panorama Magazine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philippine Embassy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[POEA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Press Release]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tempo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[women workers]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.susanople.com/?p=768</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[News Release Blas F. Ople Policy Center February 10, 2010 NGO calls on PH to say less and do more to show appreciation for its friendship with Taiwan Former labor undersecretary and known OFW advocate Susan Ople called on the Aquino administration to bare its plans on how to mitigate the impact of further fall-out from the ongoing row between the Philippines and Taiwan over the recent deportation of 24 Taiwanese nationals to mainland China. The daughter of the late Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas F. Ople stressed that while the Philippine government continues to invoke its One-China policy, the fate of over 100,000 Filipino workers and their families back home hang in the balance. &#8220;Are we truly prepared to walk the talk? What is our contingency plan once Taiwan decides not to renew the contracts of our workers? If we don&#8217;t even have one, then I appeal to government officials to come up with more nuanced and sober statements,&#8221;&#8216; Ople said, adding that the worsening rift is now causing Filipinos in Taiwan deep concern. The head of the Blas F. Ople Policy Center, a non-government organization known for helping distressed OFWs, said that there are instances in the diplomatic world [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>Job hunting 101</title>
		<link>http://www.susanople.com/job-hunting-101/</link>
		<comments>http://www.susanople.com/job-hunting-101/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 23 Jan 2011 07:42:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Susan Ople</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Archives]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.susanople.com/?p=764</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I recently interviewed two job applicants for a single opening in our non-government organization known as the Blas F. Ople Policy Center. The two young women were in their 20s, very pretty, but with resumes too skinny for the position offered. I asked both applicants how long they have been in job search mode. Six months, they replied. They were co-workers in a garments retail outlet that paid them a meagre Php 5,000 monthly salary. I advised them to sue the company, improve their resumes and prepare much better for a second evaluation. They have a week to come back and convince us at the Ople Center why they were worth the wait. In truth, both applicants were not prepared to sell themselves. I find this as a common affliction among job hunters. They expect their potential bosses to have time for a guessing game. “Guess what I have in mind,” the applicant seems to signal with eyes that look up and down but rarely at me. It saddens me to see young people ill-prepared for questions that are standard fare in any job interview. Questions such as – “what can you offer our company?”; “where do you see yourself [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>Meet Chris</title>
		<link>http://www.susanople.com/meet-chris/</link>
		<comments>http://www.susanople.com/meet-chris/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 16 Jan 2011 07:41:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Susan Ople</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Archives]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.susanople.com/?p=762</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[From time to time, Our Times features interesting men and women who abhor mediocrity and prefer to lead lives that contribute to positive change. Chris dela Cruz is one such person. Young, articulate and bold in the pursuit of dreams, Chris founded his own school in January 2007. The American Institute for English Proficiency combines critical thinking with English proficiency lessons to enable students from all walks of life learn the rudiments of effective communications. Chris had to improve his English as a little boy when half of his family moved to Hawaii from Ilocos Norte when he was just nine years old. His grandparents who have long made Honolulu their second home petitioned his father, himself and another sibling. It took seven years before his mother and two other siblings were able to follow, thus completing the family. Looking back, the dela Cruz family did not lead an easy life in Hawaii as new emigrants. Chris described his family as “very poor”. “We led an impoverished life in Hawaii. At eleven years old, I would deliver newspapers while going to school, living on tips. I also did yard work and cleaned homes of rich people.” Growing up, Chris encountered [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Brother Mike Velarde said he will vote for Ople</title>
		<link>http://www.susanople.com/brother-mike-velarde-said-he-will-vote-for-ople/</link>
		<comments>http://www.susanople.com/brother-mike-velarde-said-he-will-vote-for-ople/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:53:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Susan Ople</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Archives]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.susanople.com/?p=409</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hong Kong &#8212; The candidacy of Nacionalista Party senatorial bet Susan &#8220;Toots&#8221; 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 he will personally vote for Ople. &#8220;Kaibigan ko ang tatay niya. Ako ang nagpatakbo sa kanya. Iboboto ko siya,&#8221; Velarde said, referring to the senatorial candidate. Ople was the lone senatorial bet who attended the prayer rally together with NP presidential standardbearer Manny Villar and vice-presidential bet Loren Legarda. Brother Mike Velarde also made a strong pitch for Buhay Party-List which he said is pro-life and is against all forms of artificial contraception. He also cited his long friendships with Senators Villar and Legarda. The former labor undersecretary and OFW advocate said she was very grateful to Brother Mike for his encouraging words. &#8220;I admire him beyond words because he has been consistent in looking after the interests of his followers including thousands of OFWs who have found spiritual strength through El Shaddai,&#8221; Ople said. The youngest daughter of the late senator and Foreign [...]]]></description>
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