Cruising for Stories
Dubai — I thought it would be a breeze to write while on a cruise. After all, the cruise ship itself is named “Costa Favolosa” and our itinerary included port visits to Dubai, Oman, and Abu Dhabi. Seven days at sea – how difficult would it be to open my laptop to write? Very. A keyboard was the last thing I wanted to see, touch, and tap while on deck, with sea wind as my shawl, and looking yonder where the sky meets water with little boats bobbing up and down like dolphins. The cruise is an annual tradition of the Nacionalista Party led by Senator and Mrs. Manny Villar. Onboard and offshore, the entire cruise was an instantaneous crash course for many of us about life in the Emirates. There are more than 300 Filipinos working onboard Costa...
God was in the room
Nanay Edith Langamin forwarded a text she got from Atty. Ira Pozon of the Office of the Vice-President to my mobile phone. It said that the Vice-President would like to meet with her regarding the case of her son, Jonard, who is on Saudi Arabia’s death row. The meeting was to be held Wednesday, January 4 at the Coconut Palace. “Ma’am Toots, pakisamahan po ako,” Nanay Edith said. The Blas F. Ople Center, a nonprofit organization, which I head, has been helping Nanay Edith follow-up on her son’s case since April 2011. At that time, news reporter Jeff Canoy was doing a documentary on the lives of OFWs. Jeff’’s able researcher, Cherrie Ongtengco, fetched Nanay Edith at her home in Caloocan City for that eventful morning meeting. It was 10.30...
Common sense, in absentia
Over the holidays, I have accumulated vignettes from overseas Filipino workers on vacation from their countries of work. Having been exposed to more stable governance, reliable services, and compatible systems, these Filipino expatriates would lament the lack of common sense in our own red tape-infested, messy and disjointed procedures and policies. Fernan Santos, a regular chatter at the online chatroom of the daily Bantay OFW radio program over DZXL told me that he was actually called a “criminal” by a Bureau of Immigration agent at our international airport because he had a namesake on the NBI’s list of fugitives. After showing his own NBI clearance, employment contract and other papers proving that he was and had always been an overseas worker,...
Christmas Love
Today, my mother, Susana, my siblings as well as my daughter and I, will have lunch together at my brother’s condo unit in Quezon City. Each sub-family will bring food to share, and I am quite sure that my Kuya Bulos in Los Angeles, California and our eldest brother, Luis, who is based in Geneva, Switzerland, will call my mom on her mobile phone which will then get passed around like a box of yummy chocolates. Such happy family reunions that straddle both the virtual and non-digital worlds make the Christmas holiday season really a joy to behold. One can tell from the constant uploading and tagging of photos on Facebook that this season has been both busy and happy, celebrated the Filipino way. Today, we give thanks for the birth of our redeemer,...
Heroes
Labor Attache Nasser Mustafa is a hero. While in Libya, he fulfilled his promise to bring home two Filipino domestic workers being held against their will by their employer, deposed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s niece. While the Department of Foreign Affairs had enunciated its position to wait for the Libyan transition council to take over the country’s leadership, Labor Attache Mustafa worked out a bold rescue plan. What was remarkable about his feat is the modesty attached to it. An initial statement issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs regarding the Philippine Embassy’s rescue mission conjured images of an elaborate and grandiose plan, citing the use of two embassy teams and a pit stop at the embassy itself. That someone even felt...
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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