TELLTALE SIGNS

by Rodel Rodis
June 16, 2013
While the Philippines was preoccupied with the controversy over the killing of a Taiwanese fisherman by the Philippine Coast Guard on May 9, little attention was paid to the ominous arrival on May 8 of three Chinese naval ships at the Ayungin Reef (Second Thomas Shoal) – the gateway to the oil and mineral rich Reed Bank – just 105 nautical miles from Palawan Island, within the 200 mile exclusive economic zone of the Philippines. Continue reading →

by Rodel Rodis
June 1, 2013
The Scarborough Shoal conflict which began on April 9, 2012 when Chinese fishing vessels were caught poaching in Philippine waters by the Philippine Navy has taken a back seat to a new, potentially graver conflict in the West Philippine Sea, this time with Taiwan, a conflict which began on May 9, 2013 when the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spotted a Taiwanese fishing boat poaching in Philippine waters off Balintang Island. Continue reading →

by Rodel Rodis
May 16, 2013
This was the question posed to me by a curious TV reporter on May 7, just three days after a stretch limousine hired to carry nine Filipino nurses to a bridal party across the San Mateo Bridge suddenly burst into flames killing five of the occupants, including the bride. Continue reading →

by Rodel Rodis
May 1, 2013
After the Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) law was finally passed in 2003, its most enthusiastic supporters vowed to get it immediately amended as soon as possible. This effort would take almost a decade of patient lobbying but, at long last, the Amended Overseas Voting Act (OVA) was approved by the Philippine Congress on February 7, 2013 with overwhelming multi-partisan support. Continue reading →

by Rodel Rodis
April 16, 2013
The 1993 Best Picture movie, Schindler’s List, informed the world about Austrian industrialist Oskar Schindler and how he saved 1,100 Polish Jews during WWII by hiring them as workers in his factory. A new documentary, Rescue in the Philippines: Refuge From the Holocaust, being shown this month in hundreds of PBS stations throughout the US, will inform the world about Philippine Commonwealth Pres. Manuel L. Quezon and how he helped 1,305 German Jews escape Nazi persecution in 1939 by providing them with visas and safe shelter in the Philippines. Continue reading →

by Rodel Rodis
March 16, 2013
Delegates attending the 2nd Global Summit of Filipinos in the Diaspora held in Makati on Feb. 25-27 were greatly alarmed by the widespread indifference of many Filipinos in the Philippines towards overseas Filipinos. How is it possible that just when the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) released figures showing record remittances by overseas Filipinos, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced the delisting of 238,455 overseas Filipino voters? Continue reading →

by Rodel Rodis
March 1, 2013
Organizers of the 2nd Global Summit of Filipinos in the Diaspora—set to convene February 25-27, 2013 at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City—hope that the conference will “track the progress and highlight the best practices of Diaspora engagement.” This is the broad mission laid out by the Summit’s principal sponsor, the Commission of Filipinos Overseas (CFO) which seeks to harness the resources and energy of the 12 million overseas Filipinos in support of its “flagship program- Diaspora to Development (D2D)”. cfo.gov.ph Continue reading →

by Rodel Rodis
February 16, 2013
Although it pledges in its website (comelec.gov.ph) “to find ways to provide opportunities for the Filipinos who are abroad to be able to cast their votes and have their voices heard in a very important democratic process”, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has actually done the exact opposite, by finding ways to deny opportunities for overseas Filipinos to participate in the Philippine electoral process. Continue reading →

by Rodel Rodis
February 1, 2013
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on January 18, 2013 announced that it will remove 238,557 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from the official voters list for “failing to notify the commission of their intent to vote on May 13” after they were given a “last chance” to be retained in the National Registry of Overseas Absentee Voters (NROAV). Continue reading →

by Rodel Rodis
January 16, 2013
Lost in all the media frenzy over the various fiscal cliffhangers facing the US on the last day of the 113th Congress on January 1, 2013 was the fate of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) that had been routinely extended every five years by the US Congress since it was first enacted in 1994 to address domestic and sexual abuse and to expand services and programs for victims of sexual crimes. Continue reading →