Malu, Oh Malu

For those of who you don't know Malu Fernandez until now, Google her name.
Anyway, she has seen the light, she has issued a public apology and has resigned from her job. Here is her apology in full, which I lifted from cyberspace.

Statement from Malu Fernandez on the OFW Controversy
I am humbled by the vehement and heated response provoked by my article entitled 'From Boracay to Greece!' which came out in the June 2007 issue of People Asia. To say that this article was not meant to malign, hurt or express prejudice against the OFWs now sounds hollow after reading through all the blogs from Filipinos all over the world. I am deeply apologetic for my insensitivity and the offensive manner in which this article was written, I hear you all and I am properly rebuked. It was truly not my intention to malign hurt or express prejudice against OFWs.
As the recent recipient and target of death threats, hate blogs, and deeply personal insults, I now truly understand the insidiousness of discrimination and prejudice disguised as humor.
Our society is bound together by human chains of kindness and decency. I have failed to observe this and I am now reaping the consequences of my actions. It is my fervent hope that the lessons that Ive learned are not lost on all those who through anonymous blogs, engaged in bigotry, discrimination, and hatred ( against overweight individuals , for example ) I take full responsibility for my actions and my friends and family have nothing to do with this.
To date I have submitted my resignation letters to both the Manila Standard and People Asia, on that note may this matter be laid to rest.



Just for the record, I am just one of the countless affected by Malu's hurtful writings. My Tita Malou, Tito Bobong, Tita Kathy, cousin Kathlyn are OFWs.
My father-in-law was an OFW. Scores of my wife's aunts, uncles are OFWs.
Every Filipino has a relative who is an OFW.


There are quite a few people in this world I describe as "sui generis".
From my book, Malu is one of them.

Pinoys kidnapped in Iraq

You may have heard of the fifty one Pinoys who were "kidnapped" to Iraq to work on the construction of the United States Embassy in Bagdhad.
The story was that Filipinos were recruited supposedly to work in Dubai as hotel staff, telephone repairmen, etc.
But they were brought to Bagdhad instead as construction workers.
This was exposed in a congressional hearing in the U.S.
Click the following links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlPanioiqCM&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evRPwwyno_c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OPHyJacQGg&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzS-zfFgeL0&mode=related&search=

I was detained in China

Have you experienced having been detained in a foreign land?

That is the worst nightmare one can ever expereience.

It is horror enough to be detained in your own country.

It is doubly horrific to be detained in another country, in a communist country at that!

I experienced detention in China in may last visit.

I was in the company of my wife and son and some cousins.

Horrified as I was, my companions were more troubled.

My detention lasted for about fifteen minutes.

It was as if time stood still.

This is what happened:

I was lining up at the Hong kong border ready to cross to China.

When I gave my passport to the China immigration personnel, he gave me stern look, and then without a word, left his seat.

I saw him talk to another uniformed person who I surmised was his supervisor.

The supervisor then took my passport and went to a room.

At that time, tension filled not only my whole body, but also among my companions.

A little later, the Chinese immigration authority, who did not know a single English, gestured that I proceed to one cubicle.

It was a cubicle that was empty with only a chair.

There I sat for about fifteen minutes, all by myself.

My companions could see me from a distance.

None of Chinese guards knew an English word.

Then a horrible thought came to me: China is not a good place to be detained.

Fortunately, the supervisor came back, and went to me, gave me back my passport, compared the picture in my passport with my physical appearance. Without any explanation as to why I was held in their cubicle, the China immigration guard processed my passport, and then allowed me to enter Shenzen.

At that time, I no longer wanted to proceed to China.

I have never been detained my entire life.

And my first time in detention, albeit brief, was in a foreign land. Sa China pa.

Supreme Court to hear Koko Pimentel petition again

The Supreme Court today bared that it will again hear the oral arguments of Koko Pimentel at 10:00 a.m. on Friday pertaining to his petition to review and set aside the actions of the Commission on Elections which had denied him a chance to prove that the elections in Maguindanao and other Mindanao provinces were a farce and did not reflect the true will of the electorate.
I could be wrong but I believe the decision of the Supreme Court to hold oral arguments again on two similar petitions by one petitioner is unprecedented.
I have yet to research on any other situation that the Supreme Court made this unusual move, which is good for Koko Pimentel.
Technically there are two petitions of Koko Pimentel that came one after the other.
In his first petition, Koko Pimentel went to the Supreme Court and sought to exclude the Maguindanao canvass.
After the oral arguments where Koko Pimentel represented himself, the Supreme Court did not grant a temproary restraining order.
Subsequently, Koko withdrew his petition.
Thereafter, after the Maguindanao votes were canvassed by the Comelec dispite pleas by Koko to allow him to prove that the certificates of cnavass were manufactured, Koko Pimentel had no recourse but to elevate the matter to the Supreme Court.
By this time, Miguel Zubiri had already overtaken Koko in the counting with the canvassing of the votes from Bais City and Bogo Cebu.
As a matter of fact the Comelec was already poised to proclaim the senator from the republic of Maguindanao, Miguel Zubiri, when in the nick of time, the Supreme Court announced it was holding oral arguments on Friday.
So the scheduled proclaimation is cancelled.
What is the significance of the proceeding in the Supreme Court.
I believe this is the greatest opportunity to really cleanse and purify our rotten electoral processes.
I also believe it should already be the Supreme Court which should come into the picture.
The Comelec is hopeless. It is a failure.
Instead of cleansing the elections, it has only promoted the further deterioration of the corrupt electoral system.
If the Comelec commissioner really want to clean our elections, it can do it.
But it didn't. Instead, it blamed the Filipino way of life culture.
The Comelec is a constitutional body.
Only the Supreme Court can check the Comelec.
So this is it. This is the opportunity.
We have faith in the Supreme Court that it can move mountains, and stop the electoral corruption.
The 2010 presidential elections is only three years away.
The country cannot afford to have another president with dubious mandate brought about by massive poll cheating in the south.
We cannot afford continuous political instability.

Wholesale cheating spotted in 10 Mindanao towns

Senatorial candidate Koko Pimentel has spotted wholesale cheating in at least ten Mindanao towns prompting him to ask the Commission on Elections (Comelec), as National Board of Canvassers (NBC), to act on his petitions to retabulate the senatorial votes.
Koko Pimentel said in these 10 towns in different provinces in Mindanao, election documents were falsified, enabling Team Unity bet Juan Miguel Zubiri to obtain from 87 percent to 92 percent of the votes cast which is “statistically improbable.”

Pimentel said his motions for the retabulation of votes in these towns are backed by documentary evidence that would show that election results were manufactured not only in Maguindanao but in other provinces also to bloat the number of votes for Zubiri so that he could overtake him (Pimentel) in the race for the 12th senatorial slot.

He has filed a new petition with the Supreme Court to compel the Comelec to retabulate the senatorial votes in Maguindanao. The petition was filed after Comelec shot down the repeated objections of Pimentel’s lawyers to the authenticity and validity of the Maguindanao results.

Pimentel identified the towns that are the subjects of Pimentel’s motions for recomputation to correct the fraudulent entries as Sultan Naga Dimaporo, Salvador and Matungao in Lanao del Norte; Sultan Kudarat, Datu Blah Sinsuat and Kabuntalan in Shariff Kabunsuan; Lutayan and Palimbang in Sultan Kudarat; and Patikul and Luuk in Sulu.

In Sultan Naga Dimaporo, Lanao del Norte, Pimentel said that Zubiri obtained 24,560 votes or an incredible 90.29 percent of the total registered voters of 27,201 while Pimentel was credited only with 114 votes.

Another unbelievable result in Sultan Naga Dimaporo, according to Pimentel, is that out of 147 precincts in this municipality, the 12 Team Unity senatorial candidates garnered exactly the same number of votes that are equal to the number of voters who actually voted while candidates from the Genuine Opposition and other parties garnered a uniform zero or one vote.

For instance, he said all Team Unity bets received 167 votes out of 167 voters who cast their ballots in Precinct No. 0123-A.

They likewise received a uniform 193 votes each in Precinct No. 142-A where there were 193 voters who cast their ballots.

Available election documents also showed that there was a 100 percent voters’ turnout in 40 polling precincts while another 50 precincts had a voter turnout of 97 to 99.9 percent in Sultan Naga Dimaporo, which is an “incredible feat.”

Unfortunately, Pimentel said the manufactured votes from these areas have all been carried out into Zubiri’s running total through their respective provincial COCs.

But fortunately, he said the national canvass is still ongoing and he and his lawyers have filed the necessary petitions with Comelec-NBC to retabulate the votes in these areas using the election returns.

“We can only hope that the Comelec will be fair to us by giving us our ‘day in court’ to prove these petitions and not hastily proclaim just any 12th placer,” Pimentel said.

Other statistically improbable results due to “dagdag-bawas” operations that were discovered by the Pimentel camp are as follows:

· In Salvador , Lanao del Norte, Zubiri obtained 15,797 votes or 85.52 percent of the 17,646 registered voters while Pimentel was credited with only 402 votes.

· In Sultan Kudarat, Shariff Kabunsuan, Zubiri garnered 33,888 votes or 87.62 percent of 38,672 voters who cast their ballots while Pimentel received only 2,791 votes. The number of voters who cast their ballots was an unbelievably high 98.34 percent of the 39,326 registered voters.

· In Datu Blah Sinsuat, Shariff Kabunsuan, Zubiri obtained 7,105 votes or 86.67 percent of 8,198 registered voters while Pimentel got only 2,833 votes. The voter turnout was 99.94 percent of the 8,203 registered voters.

· In Kabuntalan, Shariff Kabunsuan, Zubiri received 5,465 votes or 79.92 percent of the 6,838 voters who voted while Pimentel was credited with only 426 votes.

· In Lutayan, Sultan Kudarat, Zubiri obtained 23,452 votes or 91.80 percent of 25,546 voters who cast their ballots while Pimentel received only 10,580. The voter turnout was 97.16 percent of 26,291 registered voters.

· In Maguindanao province, Zubiri garnered 195,823 votes or 91.97 percent of 212,921 registered voters while Pimentel received only 67,111 votes. Nineteen senatorial candidates from GO and other parties obtained zero vote.

Earlier, attempts at wholesale cheating in North and South Cotabato by the administration camp were exposed at the national canvassing.

In North Cotabato , Zubiri’s votes of approximately 143,000 were inflated to 265,000 while Pimentel’s votes of approximately 140,000 were reduced to 95,000. In South Cotabato , Zubiri’s votes of 141,674 were increased to 218,664 while Pimentel’s vote total was left untouched. These attempts at wholesale cheating were caught and nullified by the Comelec.

Pimentel has filed electoral sabotage charges against the provincial election supervisors and other election officials who were responsible for the vote padding and shaving scam in North and South Cotabato