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...
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...
Ople Center Reactions to the Taiwan Deportation Issue
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. “Are we truly prepared to walk the talk? What is our contingency plan...
Learning more about human trafficking
Kuala Lumpur – The Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Justice jointly organized a three-day regional training on the protection of trafficking in persons victims and prosecution of offenders abroad in Malaysia on November 17-19. I was invited as a resource person to give a presentation on the role of the Blas F. Ople Policy Center as a non-government organization that assists distressed Filipino workers particularly those trafficked to different countries. The audience was composed of 35 Philippine Embassy officials assigned in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member-countries. They comprised consular officers, labor attaches, welfare attaches, and assistance-to-nationals (ATN) officers. Representatives from the...
An Open Letter to Vice-President Jejomar Binay
I am glad that you are finally the Presidential Adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers’ Concerns. Your predecessor, Vice-President Noli de Castro, did an excellent job in this position. He poured a lot of heart and soul in helping our OFWs, and often travelled to the Middle East to convey our government’s concern over the plight of distressed workers especially those on death row. This position is a challenging one not only because of the sheer size of your constituency – around 9 million overseas Filipinos and their families back home – but also because of the tight budget deficit that makes it extremely difficult for government to spend more for repatriation and recovery programs. But spend it must, not just for protection, but most especially on...
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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