Category: Politics

Apokalipto.. What is this?

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On September 2, 2009

Caption:
May pag-asa pa kaya…

ang nawalan na ng pangarap?

Girl:
Kayo po ba ang tutulong sa amin?

Mysterious Guy in Red:
Tutulungan ko kayong tulungan ang inyong mga sarili

Kakalat na ang bagong sigla. sundan mo…

Uhmm.. what is this? Anyone have any idea?

Usapang OFW DZMM & Blas Ople Center Leader’s Forum

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On August 15, 2009

I attended this yesterday afternoon. It was televised via DZMM TV and hosted by Henry Omaga Diaz & Susan “Toots” Ople.

I was lucky to have the chance to see this live at the ABS-CBN Studio 4.

This is basically a forum organized to tackle about the issues being faced by the OFWs. What the presidentiables plan to do if they become president.

The presidentiables who attended were:

Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero
Senator Loren Legarda
Senator Mar Roxas
Senator Jamby Madrigal

A lot of OFWs attended the forum including the 137 bus drivers stranded in Dubai (check my post regarding that).

There were too many things discussed, but here are some points that I remember:

To have an OFW bank to keep all the money that OFWs remit. This money will be solely owned by the OFWs.
OFW bank will in turn be used for OFW investments (businesses they can put up, etc)
OFWs can make use of dual citizenship so they can also benefit from both country’s laws.
OFW funds should be used for the OFW families and not for the government.
Scholarship fund for the children of the OFWs.
Retired OFWs will have better life in the Philippines
Government to Government basis for the OFWs will be done via negotiations

At the end of the show, there was a survey done by ABS-CBN via text votes. They asked if the people believe that after the leadership forum, there will be good times coming for the OFW (basically if they believe what the presidentiables are saying about their plans). 45% answered yes and 55% said no. That means a lot of work will need to be done by the government for the Filipino people to start believing in them.

After the show, I asked each of the presidentiable if I can take picture with him/her. Based on that brief interaction, I like Chiz Escudero & Jamby Madrigal the best 🙂 It shows in the pictures.

More pictures here.

Meet & Greet: Chiz Escudero

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On August 13, 2009

Such an honor to have met Chiz Escudero in person. Thank you so much Jonas & Marcelle for inviting me to the event. It was really a rare opportunity to chat with Chiz upclose & personal 🙂

Chiz Escudero Meet & Greet
Venue: NPC Clubhouse, Bougainvilla St. cor. Balete Drive, New Manila QC
Date & Time: August 13, 2009 6PM
Organizer: Yehey.com

It took me quite some time to find the venue. Good thing Carlo helped me find the way hehehehe 😛 Arrived at the venue at 5:55PM. Saw Chiz came in at around 6:10PM.

We were served Chicharon while waiting. Then buffet was ready.

We were divided into groups. So about 5-7 people in 1 group (there were 30 who attended). So have to wait hours for our turn. We were the last group 🙁

I was just lucky that I was in good company. Had a good chat with my tablemates/groupmates 🙂 It was a good 3.5 hours, though at the end, I was starting to get really sleepy and bored. For the last few minutes, Marcelle showed us some magic tricks to keep us entertained.

And the waiter who served our food? winner! hahahaha! He was just so funny! We were asking for more chicharon and he just said he’ll try to find it in his bag hahaha! I just wish all waiters are like that 😛 I can’t help but ask if he can take a picture with us.

Finally, our turn came and it was already 9:30PM! But who am I to complain? Chiz haven’t even had dinner yet that time!! And he still greeted us wholeheartedly without even showing a bit of tiredness.

He was continuously smoking, I think he already finished 1 whole pack of cigarettes. He asked us if we could share what our name was one by one. And when I told Chiz that my name is Rochelle, he just reacted! hahahaaha! He told us that his ex-girlfriend’s name is Rochelle! And it has been a looong time since he uttered that name so he was picking on me the whole time during our discussion hahaha!

So the discussion started with Chiz’ lovelife ehhehe 😛 He told us he had 2 girlfriends, started 2nd year college with the 1st one, went on for 9 years (that was Rochelle :P). The next one went on for 5 years and he eventually married her and they are happily married now 🙂

I asked Chiz if we could ask him about politics (the organizer asked us not to ask any political questions), he told us that we can ask him about anything. 🙂 Then we started to ask questions…

here are what I remembered (not exact words, I really can’t remember everything hehehe):

We noticed that you smoke a lot, how many do you smoke in a day?

Weekdays – almost 2 packs, Weekends about 3 pieces (I don’t smoke at home)

What are your hobbies?

I used to shoot before. But I do wish to learn to play the guitar before I die.

Do you plan & want to run for presidency?

Yes. I want and plan to run for presidency. I have not submitted my application yet but I intend to do so. If I lose the election, I plan to quit politics altogether, that is my promise to my wife.

Why do you want to be the president of the Philippines?

I want to serve the country while I’m still strong enough and while I’m still young. I feel bad about people telling me that I’m too young to run for presidency or I don’t have enough money to run a campaign. I want to show them that I can and will be able to change the lives of the filipino by serving them right. I believe I can do it within 6 years. I will make use of technology in order to reach out to people and get their opinion. When I ran for senate before, I only had 1.5M but at the end of the campaign, we spent 65M with the help of sponsors. I was #2 in the race though I spent just a small amount compared to the other candidates.

Who do you want to be your vice president?

Noynoy Aquino. Because I know he has the purest intention for the country. His heart is at the right place. If I’m not to run for presidency, I would want Noynoy to be our president.

Chiz is smart, funny, witty, engaging & charming. We really had such a great time talking to him. It was like talking to a friend. I really hope we were given more time. I’ll still be able to see him on saturday for the OFW talk. I’m excited to meet him again.

Regarding his plan to run for presidency, all I can say is he’s determined to rule our country and to change the way things are. He mentioned this lots of times during our discussion “Aim High, Shoot Low.”

More pictures here.

Facebook Eyeball vs Con-Ass

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On July 13, 2009

I attended the 1st Facebook Eyeball versus Con-Ass last June 6, 2009. This was brought about when the House of Representatives happened to pass the Con-Ass resolution # 1109.

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The main purpose of the event is to raise awareness by using internet media like facebook & blogging. The weather was pretty bad that day but it was still well-attended. Paranaque Congressman Roilo Golez was the special speaker in this eyeball. He narrated to us what happened that night, we asked some questions and the discussions went on with the attendees.

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The event was also covered by TV media like ABS-CBN, GMA & TV5.

Basically, Resolution # 1109 aims to amend/revise the constitution. A lot of people are against this as election is upcoming and there is a big chance that the government might use this to their advantage. We still want to have elections to go through next year right?

After the discussions, we were asked to sign on the freedom wall. Just a message that we want to share with the congressmen who voted for the resolution.

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By the way, the event was organized by Ople Center. If you share the same advocacies & ideals of Ople Center, you can sign up as an Ople Center volunteer by calling their hotline at (02) 833-5337.

More pictures here.

OFW Illegal Recruitment & Human Trafficking

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On May 24, 2009

I attended the round table discussion last May 12, 2009. It took me quite a time before I can finally write about this… Knowing & hearing the stories first-hand really is soo hard to absorb… It is just sad that Illegal Recruitment & Human Trafficking is really happening in our country considering that OFWs are actually the heroes of this country.

Several bloggers (including me) were invited so we could meet some of the bus drivers that Blas F. Ople Policy Center helped bring home here from Dubai. They are some of the 137 stranded bus drivers who are victims of illegal recruitment & human trafficking by a licensed (take note) recruitment agency and a private lending company.

It is just sad that only thing the bus drivers wanted is to give a better life to their families. They gave up their day jobs here in the Philippines just to be able to work abroad. The agency offered them a job as drivers with a monthly salary of $1,500 at Dubai. The agency had asked them to take out Php150,000 loan from a lending company (recommended by the agency) & made them sign & issue undated checks worth Php 1,906,123 (that’s like more than 1,000% interest!!).

Coming home penniless, jobless and traumatized from the experience, the bus drivers are now being pressured to pay up by the lending company. How can they pay? While in Dubai, they were all waiting for the 1-month training & immediate hiring by the Dubai Roads & Transport Authority but turned out to be hoax! Because they don’t have money, they ended up eating just tomatoes & rice everyday and sometimes don’t eat at all!

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With the help of Atty. Reynaldo Robles & Blas F. Ople Policy Center, A civil case was filed to seek nullification of all financial transactions, loans & written contracts signed by the drivers under duress & without the benefit of proper explanation or an appropriate time for consultation & review.

It doesn’t take a genius to analyze & understand what is happening here. And I just hope we all be informed of this reality. This is really happening… Illegal Recruitment & Human Trafficking even by a CERTIFIED employment agency.

What can we do now to help?

Spread the word. We need to let everybody know that this is happening. We either blog about it, write an email to friends about it, share stories of other similar cases that is happening. We need to make people aware of this.

Here is a video prepared by Blas F. Ople Policy Center about Illegal Recruitment & Human Trafficking:

Provide Employment Opportunities. Most of the drivers still don’t have a job and most that have children would be forced to drop out oform school unless their financial burdens are reduced. So while we continue to fight the civil case, let’s help provide them jobs. If any of you are looking for drivers, please do contact Blas Ople Center at blasoplecenter@gmail.com or call +63-2-833-5337 or +63-2-833-9562 and look for Lynn or Estelle Ople Osorio.

Sharing some pictures from the Roundtable Discussion (click here).