Coming back home
Home is where you grew up, and where the amazing smell of childhood memories lives on forever. It is where you’d want to eternally rest someday, though hopefully not that soon – with the graves of family and friends just a whisper away. In my travels abroad, I have met Filipinos who thought and dreamt of home like an ethereal rainbow, after a cold shower of rain. For them, the golden pot lies at its end, when weary bones could finally retire with full financial security. One’s journey to reach that pot has taken quite a few OFWs to places that one gets to read about only in Arabian fairy tales. Still, the idea of home beckons and that thought is made easier by the prospects of having fallbacks ready once a migrant worker’s journey ends. It is in...
5 OFWs file complaints against Welfare Officer in Jordan
A group of women who were recently repatriated from Jordan sought the help of Tatak RMN’s Bantay OFW, a daily morning public service radio show hosted by former Labor Usec Susan “Toots” Ople and senator-to-be Koko Pimentel. They alleged that despite the hardships that they have gone through in Jordan, the welfare officer there failed to show the kind of compassion and behavior expected of her. Yesterday, through the Blas F. Ople Center and with the help of Atty. Charles Parsia and other lawyers of Senator Manny Villar, five of these women filed individual sworn affidavits against Welfare Officer Carmelita Mag-uyon. The formal complaints were received by Atty. Lyn Perez at the 4th floor of the OWWA Building. Today the same set of...
Sustainability and the act of saving lives
If you have the power to save a life, would you do it? Or do you set a limit on how much time, effort, and money you are willing to set aside before you even decide to act? That is the crux of the matter involving the creation of a technical working group to study what the administration’s policy should be when it comes to blood money involving overseas Filipino workers on death row. The decision of the Office of the President to create a technical working group to study and create guidelines on cases involving blood money stemmed from unusually high amounts being required by aggrieved families. The Department of Foreign Affairs have raised the issue of sustainability in relation to requests for blood money. But first, a definition of terms. Qisas is...
SONA, PNoy Style: The “Wang Wang” Speech
Isang pagbati kay Pangulong Aquino sa kanyang makasaysayang talumpati tungkol sa Wang Wang sa gobyerno. Katulad ng dati, tiyak na maraming mga diplomats ang napakamot ng ulo, dahil sa paulit-ulit na pagbanggit ng “wang wang” – 20 beses ayon sa isang komentarista sa radyo. What’s that, mate? Is that even a word, that “wang wang”? Sabay kamot ulit sa ulo. Malinaw na si PNoy ang audience palagi ay ang mga Pinoy, kasi nga tayo ang boss niya. Straight-shooter si PNoy. Kitam ito sa kanyang mabilis na delivery. Ramdam ito sa bawat salita. Mas gusto ko ang SONA 2 sa SONA 1 dahil pinapakitang komportable na si PNoy sa kanyang kinalalagyan, mas kilala na niya ang sarili bilang taga-pamuno ng bansa. Kung baga, ‘yung...
DH-turned-BPO owner headlines OFW Reintegration Fair
I met her years ago when the first Microsoft Tulay facility opened in Davao City. Her name is Myrna Padilla. She worked for 20 years as a domestic worker in Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Extreme poverty while growing up forced her to give up formal schooling but never prevented her from learning what she could. While in Hong Kong, Myrna was a community leader. She was a familiar sight in pro-OFW rallies. One day, her association tapped her to write position papers, lending her a typewriter for use at home. Myrna would only bring out the typewriter when her employers were asleep, sometime past midnight. Takatakatak! The keys of the used typewriter would make such a ruckus that Myrna’s female employer would wake up and search for the source of...
How the Internet has Changed the News
(My Panorama column for today, July 24, 2011. For more info about our seminar on How To Communicate Change through the Media, call the Ople Center at 8335337 or visit www.blasoplecenter.com). During the Marcos years, when my father was labor minister, the print media dominated the news. Columnists like Ka Doroy Valencia and Joe Guevara were bigger than life. But even then, my father had already sensed a change in the air. Veteran broadcast journalist Jun “Bote” Bautista recalled that way back when the print media ruled the news, Ka Blas Ople would look for TV journalists and wait for them to arrive before starting his press conference. He had seen the emerging importance of television news even when his own press releases were written with print...
Palace forms a committee to decide on blood money guidelines
First, a definition of terms. Qisas is a principle under the Shari’a or Islamic law that makes the actual perpetrator of a crime alone guilty, and alone liable to punishment. The punishment must be the exact equivalent of the crime, i.e. tooth for a tooth, life for a life. [5:45, The Holy Qur'an] However, in consideration of the priceless value of human life, the Islamic law explicitly recommends the substitution of compensation on another plane — through the so-called “diyyah” or blood money compensation for the victim’s mandatory heirs. Upon the acceptance of “diyyah”, a letter of forgiveness or “tanazul” is issued by the victim’s mandatory heirs. Once the “tanazul” is issued, the...
Susan “Toots” Ople
My friends call me Toots. Am the youngest of seven siblings. Our family hails from the coastal town of Hagonoy, Bulacan and we are proud of our roots. My daughter's name is Estelle and she's a brilliant debater/person. I love dogs! And I enjoy writing in the dead of the night.
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