RP News

Emata: The jobless insurance system

By Ben Emata

Friday, September 16, 2011

THE global recession that is hitting too the American soil is certainly affecting a lot of Filipino-Americans. So many of our kababayans are without job for sometimes now and it is a good thing that America is providing jobless insurance for its terminated workers.

The scheme is such that those terminated by some companies still get money from the government insurance system by way of its insurers. In other words, everyone who was terminated will still be able to buy food and pay rents because of such a system.

It is a sad thing that the matter does not exist in the Philippines and once a worker is terminated by an employer, he goes to the open streets and beg from friends and relatives for food and other expenses.

I had suggested before that the country should adopt the insurance system.

The government does not spend anything since the money spent in such system come from the employers and employees themselves. It is only the influence and strength of the government that compel employers-employees relationship to follow guidelines.

Right now, millions of Americans are without work but still drive their cars and able to buy food and pay rent or mortgages because of the nice system. This can be done in the Philippines if some legislation is enacted on the matter.

I have not been through this matter ever since because it never occurs in my life when I was terminated or fired whatsoever. With God’s help, I work through and through until my last day towards retirement. But some of my friends and relatives fell into this system and they felt comfort and satisfaction for such a big help in time of crisis.

I once again urge Congress or whatever agency of the government which has the right to implement this to put it into action to help thousands of probable terminated workers or those who had been terminated already. The only thing the government can do here is help both the employers and the employees in time of crisis.

The workers will surely welcome this set up and will all be willing to support it by way of making payment to the system. This is terrific and surely it will save thousands upon thousands of families from hunger. I guarantee things will never go wrong with this.

Poor Filipinos have 9/11 victim to thank for homes

MANILA (AP) - A street sign in Manila shows an American businesswoman and Sept. 11 victim smiling down on a community whose transformation would have warmed her heart: children frolicking on tidy brick alleys near brightly colored houses.

Unlike many victims of the 2001 attacks who are remembered mostly by their family and friends, Marie Rose Abad's legacy lives on half-way around the world in a once-notorious Manila slum now turned into an orderly village that carries her name.

Her Philippine-born American husband had the community of about 50 one-story houses built in her memory in 2004 as a tribute to their 26 years of marriage and her unfulfilled desire to help the poor in the Philippines.

"She's a hero around here," said Nancy Waminal, a 37-year-old mother of two.

Green help for the poor cited in top Asia prize

MANILA- An Indian engineer, a Philippine charity group and an Indonesian social worker are among the winners of Asia's Magsaysay award this year for giving green technologies to the poor, organizers said July 27.

Award foundation president Carmencita Abella said the trio had helped harness the technologies to empower their countrymen and worked to create waves of progressive change across Asia.

"Working on critical issues... they are showing how commitment, competence, and collaborative leadership can truly transform individual lives and galvanise community action," Abella said.

The award, often described as Asia's Nobel Prize, is named after a famous Philippine president who died in a 1957 plane crash.

It aims to honor people who address issues of human development in Asia with courage and creativity.

Pair charged for animal torture videos

MANILA- A Philippine couple has been charged for making dozens of videos showing teenage girls torturing and killing animals, an animal rights group said July 26.

The videos were sold via secretive Internet chat groups to people overseas who wanted to watch the footage for thrills, said Rochelle Regodon, Asia campaign manager for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

"The videos just tear your heart out. This disgustingly cruel enterprise must be stopped," Regodon said at a news conference where some of the clips were screened.

In the videos, girls wearing mini-skirts and high heels cut the ears off rabbits with scissors before being setting them on fire, burned a dog with a clothes iron and stood on puppies.

After PETA reported the crimes to authorities, police charged a husband and wife in the northern Philippines with animal cruelty, child abuse and human trafficking.

U.S. tourists abducted in Zamboanga

A special crisis committee has been activated to deal with the kidnapping. ZAMBOANGA- Gunmen abducted two U.S. citizens and their Filipino relative holidaying at a tiny southern Philippine island July 12, police said. Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann, 50, her son, Kevin, 14, and her Filipino nephew, Romnick Jakaria, 19, were snatched by more than a dozen gunmen who raided the island by boat before dawn, said local police chief Nonito Asdai. "They made the bodyguards lie on the ground while they took the victims," Asdai said, showing reporters the U.S. passports of two of the victims that were recovered from the small resort on Tictabon island, off Zamboanga. The woman was born on Tictabon but was adopted by a U.S couple in her childhood, Asdai said, adding she owned the resort and had been back visiting for nearly two weeks. The boy is her child by her German husband, who is based in the U.S. state of Virginia, according to Asdai.

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