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Mamatay para mabuhay

May mga natatanggap akong tawag at e-mail na nagtatanong ng contact numbers ng BlackwaterUSA at Triple Canopy,mga kumpanyang Amerikano na nagpapadala ng Pilipinong armadong trabahador sa Iraq at Afghanistan.

Hindi ko sila ini-encourage na ituloy ang kanilang balak pumunta sa Iraq at Afghanistan dahil delikado doon. Hindi maatim ng aking kunsyenya na maging instrumento sa kanilang kapahamakan.

Mula noong isang linggo, ibinabalita ng Malaya na nandito na sa Pilipinas ilang kumpanya na tinatawag Private Military Contractors (PMC). Mas kilala sila sa tawag na mga “mercenaries”.

Ang “mercenary” ay isang tao na gumagawa ng isang trabaho dahil lamang sa pera. Hindi pumapasok ang moralidad o prinsipyo. Basta bayaran, gagawin niya. Ang mga “mercenaries” ay mga taong lumalaban sa giyera hindi dahil sa kapakanan ng bayan o para ipagtanggol ang isang idolohiya kungdi para sa pera.

Ang mga PMC ay kinuntrata ng U.S Department of State at Department of Defense o Pentagon para protektahan ang kanilang mga opisyal, mga opisina at mga pasilidad. Security guards kaya armado.

Ang Blackwater USA at Triple Canopy ay dalawa lamang sa maraming PMCs na nago-operate sa mga lugar na may giyera katulad ng Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia.

Dahil pribado silang kumpanya, maaaring kumuha ang mga PMC ng tauhan kahit saang bansa. Kailangan nila ang mga dating sundalo at pulis dahil may karanasan na sila sa paghawak ng baril at sa bakbakan.

Malaki ang sweldo kumpara sa ordinaryong trabaho ng OFW. Noong 2004, ang binibigay ng Triple Canopy sa Iraq ay $1,000 sa isang buwan, deretso sa pamilya sa Pilipinas. Ang Pilipino sa Iraq ay binibigyan ng $150 sa isang buwan na allowance, libre lahat. Baka tumaas na yan dahil 2006 na tayo ngayon.

Ang Blackwater USA naman sa Afghanistan (walang travel ban doon) ay nagbibigay ng P1,750 isang buwan. Kapag mamatay ka raw doon sa Afghanistan, ang iyong asawa ay makakatanggap ng $1,000 bawat linggo habambuhay basta hindi lang siya mag-asawa. Ang lahat na anak na hindi lampas sa 22 gulang ay makakatanggap rin ng $1,000 bawat linggo.

Ang BlackwaterUSA ay nag-aaply ng permit sa Subic para gawing training facility sa mga ipapadala nila sa mga lugar na may kontratra sila sa State Dept. o Pentagon.

Ang negosyo ng PMC ay kontrobersyal dahil giyera ang pinupuntahan ng mga tao. Marami na ring mga tauhan itong mga PMCs na namatay dahil kahit guma-gwardiya lang raw siya, napapasabak rin sila sa giyera kapag inaatake sila.

Maraming Pilipino ang interesado dahil nga sa hirap ng buhay dito. Sabi nga ng isang tumawag sa akin, kaya raw siya pupunta sa Iraq o Afghanistan para raw mabuhay ang kaniyang pamilya. Mamamatay naman siya.

Itong pasok ng mga mercenary companies dito sa Pilipinas ay isa na namang pruweba kung gaano kahirap ang buhay dito.

Published inWeb Links

132 Comments

  1. goldenlion goldenlion

    Hay!! buhay!! Paano na Ellen ang ating gagawin para matulungan ang ating mga kababayang naghahangad kumita para mabuhay lang ang kanilang mga pamilya? Masyado nang malaki ang kasalanan ni gloria sa taong bayan. Kung iyon ba naman pera na ginugugol niya sa pesteng cha-cha, people’s initiative, at kung anu-ano pang proyektong pansarili lamang ay gamitin niya sa pagtatayo ng income generating projects, hindi siguro magkukumahog ang ating mga kababayan na magpunta sa Iraq or Afghanistan???

    Pigilin natin silang umalis, ano ang maipapalit natin sa kanilang inaasahang kikitain doon? Kung hayaan natin silang umalis at ipagsapalaran ang kanilang buhay sa Iraq paano natin sila tutulunan para hindi mapahamak?? Sabagay, sabi nga, kahit nasaan ang tao, kung oras nang mamatay, walang makakapipigil.

    I will pray for them. Ano kaya ipadala din natin si gloria sa Iraq, doon siya magtaray at magsinungaling, mandaya at magnakaw, para mapugutan na siya ng ulo. Saka ang PNP ipadala din para doon sila magpasabog ng mga mahihinang bomba.Bago sila umalis ay pabasbasan natin sa mga bishops na kaalyado ni gloria. hay! sarap ng buhay kung hindi ko na makikita sa TV ang malditang engkantada na asawa ni Mike the Pooh.

  2. ystakei ystakei

    Ellen:

    This reminds me of an expose by Senator Biazon and Congresswoman Marcos regarding some guns allegedly being shipped along the Ilocos shoreline and hoarded somewhere in Subic or Clark Air Base.

    I wonder if these guns are part and parcel of this modus operandi being camouflaged as some illegal recruitment of Filipino mercenaries to Iraq despite the ban on travel there, but is in fact designed to annihilate all anti-Bansot proponents as gruesomely described in another loop by M. Buencamino.

    By all means, this should be exposed! Too bad, there are not just too many journalists of your calibre willing to help expose this kind of anomaly! Tama na, patalsikin na, now na!

  3. ystakei ystakei

    Goldenlion:

    Isipin mo na lang kung lahat ng mga walang trabaho sa Pilipinas ay sumama sa recruitment na ito? Aba, ubos ang mga pilipino!!! Baka iyan nga ang talagang pakay ni Bansot! Maubos na ang mga walang trabaho sa Pilipinas para masabi niyang na-solve niya ang “unemployment crisis” ng Pilipinas!
    Yuck!

    Ang nakakatakot ay kung gamitin sila para ipaglaban sa mga galit kay Bansot! Iyan ang masama! Lalong ubos ang mga pilipino! Sila lang ng isa pang tabatsoy at iba pag mga tabatsoy ang matitira! Nangkupo! Tangna talaga! :-p

  4. vic vic

    The Blackwater Insurance Benefits, so tempting and so large for such a dangerous mission. My question is; who underwrites these benefits? (Insurance entity(s)). I’m pretty sure, whether what’s our individual stand on this issue, there will be many who will be junping for this oppurtunity. My worry are for those who go or who have already gone and started working for these outfits without making sure those benefits are enforceable and collectible, when unfortunate events occur. Nothing unprincipled worth giving a life for, but as most Pilipinos are so Philosopical in every which way, I’m not surprised why so many asked you for informations how to go about applying for the job. Afghanistan, is a very dangerous theater right now. Our Canadian Forces are taking injuries and casualties, considering that they very well-equipped and very well-trained for such mission. And the support of the Nation for a U.N. sanctioned and our own way of performing our committment to NATO. So to all who would be mercenaries, before you go, make sure that those contracts are not drawn by your own local Politicians, or worse by Malacanang itself.

  5. jinxies6719 jinxies6719

    15 June 2006

    PLease forgive my ignorance, I was out of the country for a week on official mission in PROC, anyhow, I am not familiar with the “BLACKWATER”, but according to what I read it somehow depicts the training and deployment of mercenaries from the Philippines, tsk, tsk tsk, kakatakot ito!!!! and to add more the relationship of a syndicate in the DFA (???) regarding the non-stamping of the the restriction in the passport. WOW, is there again a syndicate in the DFA???
    its a very lucrative business for the opportunists in the DFA, what is sec romulo doing???

    Anyhow, if the case is tru against Blackwater, damn the organizer, why cant they do it in their country, anyway the US of A is the major producer of mercenaries, why do they have to do their business here in the Philippines.

    ANother question that may arise is, what if, and only if???the leprecahun uses these mercenaries??? to her enjoyment and protection from the so called destabilizers (fave words of raul gonzales)what will happen to us??? if the US can do it, i have this eerieeeeeeeeee….. feeling that the leprecahunm her cohorts and her clowns will use the mercenaries to protect them and for longer stay in power. what is the famous mike, the gonzaleses, lomibao and senga , etc.., etc are saying on this??? I bet NONE!!!! for they will benefit from it in the future.

    jinx

  6. Jinxie, malaya and this blog has been running the stories on mercenaries for almost a week. Please take a look at the stories in the past days.

    Vic, you are right in raising the issue of enforceability of insurance benefits. A DFA official I talked with also raised that issue. he said, if the PMC (Private miltiary company) reneges on its promises, where will the Filipino go or file the case? Would he have the resources to fight it out in a US court?

  7. Nakakaiyak na nakakatawa ang arguments ng mga gustong pumuntang Iraq. Sabi ng isa, “Kaysa naman sasama kami sa Kidnap for ransom gang o kaya sa bank holdup, di pupunta na kami ng Iraq?

    Are the choices for these people that limited? I want to cry.

  8. ystakei ystakei

    Susmaryosep! Do they really have no other choice? Bakit puro pagpatay ng tao ang option ng mga pilipino ngayon?

    This reminds me of the Filipino prostitutes I interpreted for at the police. They knew they were being recruited to fill up vacancies abandoned by emancipated Japanese women, but they said that when they answered to the ads for such jobs, they had planned to escape and work elsewhere without realizing that the recruiters were wiser and were no fools and would make sure that they could not escape! Labas nila, mga puta tuloy!

    I guess, it is the same with these mercenaries who are taking the risk to die for America. Who knows, but someone must have been telling them that once their tour of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan is over, they can get special preference to migrate freely to the US! That is, of course, kung hindi mapugot ang mga ulo nila!

  9. ystakei ystakei

    Ellen,

    If you need the video of the beheadings (I have more than 10 in my file since the start of this carnage in Iraq), I can send it to you via post. I can burn you a CD. You may try to show them to these wannabe pugot-ulos.

    I wonder if these people in fact have been wanting to commit suicide in their desperation but are being prevented to do so by their religion, and are now finding justification for what they have been intending to do through this kind of recruitment.

  10. Someone from Congress called me up this morning asking for more information about the mercenaries. That might help them. I’ll send you my address. Thanks Yuko.

  11. trabahapi trabahapi

    All:

    Don’t be too quick to brand the work as MERCENARY WORK!!! Sobra naman yatang OA ang dating ninyong lahat niyan. Meron mga anti US merong mga anti bansot. Tigil niyo na muna ang pagtira o pag akusa lalo na kung hindi niyo naman alam.

    KALIGTASAN:
    Alam niyo ba ang mga mas delikado ang tayo na hindi ninyo napaguukulan ng pansin sa dyaryo? Ang mga aping domestic helper na nagtratrabaho sa Middle East. Mas delikado pa po doon kesa sa Iraq. Bakit ko alam??? Galing na po ako doon sa Iraq ng ilang beses bilang isang MERCENARY!!! Ilang taon na po akong MERCENARY kahit dito pa lang sa Pilipinas mercenary na ako eh.

    Mercenary = Ang “mercenary” ay isang tao na gumagawa ng isang trabaho dahil lamang sa pera. Hindi pumapasok ang moralidad o prinsipyo. Basta bayaran, gagawin niya.

    Kung yan ang defenition ng mercenary, matagal na po akong mercenary kasi punta ako ng Middle East noong 90’s pa tapos nagtrabaho ako doon dahil lamang sa pera!!! Hindi naman ako punta doon para trabaho ng libre. Eh di kami palang mga OFW eh mercenary na rin!!! Wag muna tira ng tira kung wala naman kayong trabahong maibibigay. Mamaya lumipat ng bansa ang Blackwater and Triple Canopy saan naman kami trabaho.

    Saka hindi nila pilit ang tao.

    INSURANCE:

    Kalokohan naman ang mga benefits na naka post sa BLOG na to tungkol sa benefits na makukuha!!!

    DFA:

    Kahit pa TATAKAN po ninyo ang PASSPORT namin ng NOT VALID FOR TRAVEL TO IRAQ, hindi po ito pinapansin sa IRAQ!!! Kaya wag na po ninyong pagaksayahang kalikutin ang walang silbing DFA na yan. At OO corrupt po ang DFA.

    TRABAHO:

    Noong nandoon po ako sa Iraq, trabaho ako bilang maintenance, at naging security guard dahil sa may experience po ako bilang guwardiya. Maganda po ang trato ng kompanya ko doon kumpara noong nasa Saudi ako trabaho at sa Kuwait. Walang hiya ang mga amo ko doon kumpara mo naman sa mga Briton o Amerikano na ang trato sa akin ay TAO!!!

    MALAYA

    Nabasa ko ang post sa Malaya at yung tao ay nag rereklamo na sya ay trabaho sa Triple Canopy at sahod niya ay $1000 tapos hingi sila dagdag. Nang hindi binigyan eh nagmaktol. Kung hindi naman pala unggoy ang source mo Ellen, alam mo ba na ang sahod namin doon sa IRAQ ay $600 lang per month??? Angal pa siya!!! Tapos noong huli gusto rin naman pala niya bumalik sa Iraq.

    Ako apply ako sa Triple Canopy noong nasa Iraq na ako last year, hindi po nila ako kunin dahil sa magaling na desisyon ng gobyerno nating napakatalino!!!! Bwiset talaga!!!

    O ayan na nasabi ko na ang opinyon ng isang taong GALING na at nagtrabaho na doon. Hindi ko na sasabihin sa inyong babalik ako doon kasi baka PIGILAN pa ninyo. Hindi po ganun ka delikado doon. Mas takot pa ako sa Pilipinas kapag napapaligiran ako ng PNP nating magagaling.

    Ako po si Trabahapi na nagsasabi sa inyong, Don’t Worry B Hapi!!!!

  12. trabahapi trabahapi

    Meron pa pala!!!

    SALARY: Salary po sa Iraq ay bumababa na rin. Meron na pong ibang lahi na pumapasok para magtrabaho doon. Ang mga lahing ito ay AFRICANs. Mga taga Uganda at Ghana sila. Galing nila English, marunong pa ng French. Yung mga ibang company doon na po sila kuha ng trabahador.

    Blackwater: Meron akong mga nakilala na ibang lahi ng pinagtratrabaho nila sa security ang sahod ay $1700 din per month, pero sa RED ZONE sila trabaho!!!! Mga taga PERU po sila. Sabi nga lang sa akin sa labas din sila ng red zone nakatira tapos hindi pa kasama ang pagkain nila sa sahod nila. Kaya wag masyadong maniniwala sa mga nababasa lamang po sa mga newspaper!!!!

    Sana po ay wag pasukin ng politika ang desisyon na magpatrabaho ng Pilipino sa Iraq or sa Afghanistan. Delikado po miski saan. Sa aking karanasan, mas delikado pa sa mga bansa tulad ng Qatar, Kuwait at Saudi na kung saan ang trato ng mga Arabo sa amin (aking karanasan) ay parang hayop.

    Opinyon lamang po ni Trbahapi!!!!

  13. ystakei ystakei

    Frankly, these are signs of the last days. Golly, saan ka naman nakakita ng mga baliw na gustong magtrabaho sa lugar na may giyera! Por dies por singko!

    Bakit nagkaganito ang mga pilipino? Kawawang bansa! Utak jueteng kahit sino! Taya ng taya hindi naman yumayaman. Iyon lang pinaka-jueteng boss ang tiba-tiba!

    5M pesos bawat game sa lahat ng jueteng lords, pundo sa Pidal fund! Wow!

    Ang tanong ngayon, magkano ang cut ni Bansot sa transaction na ito?

  14. ystakei ystakei

    Trabahapi, bakit parang intsik ang tagalog mo? Kamag-anak ka yata ni Vicky Toh a! 🙂

  15. Baka naman iba ang kumpanyang pinag trabhuhan ni trabahapi kaya akala niya ay ayos lang. Kung babalikan natin ang interview kay “Sniper”, ibang-iba ang kuwento nilang dalawa. Yung tinatawag na “milk run” or resupply ay iba sa pagbabantay ng airport. Puro ambush ang sumasalubong sa ganitong trabaho kaya armado at may kevlar vest pa silang suot. Lagi silang target at laging nasa panganib. Talagang wala nang moralidad na natitira dito sa ating bayan. Dahil na rin sa pagpapahirap ni prinsesa ay napipilitang isugal ng mga salat sa buhay pati ang kanilang kaluluwa. Kawawang bayan na tinalikuran ng kanyang pamahalaan.

  16. Yuko,

    Sniper said that there are some 2,000 to 3,000 Pinoys in Camp Victory alone? Would it be possible for your contacts to confirm this? Pictures shown on tv shows several blocked faces obviously for anonimity purposes. They are also not allowed to venture out of the camp for security reasons.

    The lure of money and instant riches is so tempting. I just wonder how these recruits will react on their first firefight. To be shot at by an unseen enemy or worst, to be blown up by a landmine would surely wreck havoc on one’s mind. Only seasoned veterans would be able to hold themeslves together but for how long? Atrocities reported or otherwise abound both conducted by bothe sides. Its hard to accept that Filipinos die not for their country but from someone elses war.

  17. Trabahapi, ang impormasyon na linagay ko doon ay galing yan sa interview ko at sa dokumentong nakita ko. Nakita ko ang kontrata ng Triple Canopy. $1,000 isang buwan ang bigay sa pamilya sa Pilipinas, $150 ang allowance doon sa Filipino personnel sa Iraq. Kung $600 lang ang sa iyo, mukhang dehado ka doon.

    Namurahan nga ako sa $1,000 (P53,000) para sa isang trabaho na ang isang paa mo ay sa hukay.

    Ang $1,750 a month na offer ng Blackwater sa Afghanistan ay galing mismo sa kanilang Phil. representative na nakusap ko. Sa kanya rin galing ang impormasyon tungkol sa insurance benefits.

    Tama ka sa sinabing kalokohan lang yun. Dahil kung hindi nga naman sila tumupad at patay na ang Filipino personnel, saan maghahabol ang misis niya. Sa Amerika? Saan siya kukuha ng pambayad ng abogado sa Amerika?

    Sinasabi ko ang impormasyon ang aking nakuha sa interview sa mga tao mismo. Hindi ko inimbento yan.

  18. Trabahapi, naintindihan ko ang kagipitan na nagtutulak sa mga kababayan natin papunta sa mga delikadong lugar katulad ng Iraq. Ipagdasal ko na lang ang inyong kaligtasan.

  19. Dominique Dominique

    Trabahapi, noong 1990 ka pa pala sa Iraq. Walang giyera noon. iba na ang kundisyon ngayon. Masyado ngang mura ang $1,000/ month.

  20. ystakei ystakei

    Hindi ako naniniwala sa sinasabi ni Trabahapi kasi maraming mga kaibigan ko ang papunta-punta sa Iraq at nagdadala ng tulong doon between 1980 and 2003 ang nagkasakit ng cancer, etc. dahil sa pollution ng DUD, etc. gawa ng Gulf War, etc. Isa ay namatay na. Ang isa at dati miyembro ng simbahan namin na nag-Moslem pa para lang maging magaan ang pagpunta-punta niya sa mga bansa sa Middle East. Iyong mga pilipino bakit hindi nagkakasakit ng cancer, etc. sa pagpunta-punta nila sa Middle East para magtrabaho. O marami ang nagkakasakit sa kanila kaya lang ay hindi kino-consider na hazard ng pagtratrabaho nila doon. Sa totoo lang, ito ang isa sa mga dapat na ibinabato sa mga bugaw ng pamahalaan na nagbebenta sa mga pilipino sa ibang bansa maging bilang katulong o puta gaya noong mga pilipina sa Dubai na kilalang-kilala ng mga Arabo.

    In fact, I was told of the Filipino prostitutes in Dubai by an Iraqi whom we invited to Japan to talk on Iraq as part of our people to people activity over here when he found out that I was involved in movements to stop the deployment of foreign prostitutes to Japan, and my work at the Japanese police as interpreter.

    I understand that a lot many of those the Bansot bragged of having saved from KSA prison were in fact imprisoned for such offense as engaging in prostitution. Nakakahiya! Nasaan na iyong “Mabuti pang magdildil ng asin” philosophy ng mga pilipino noong araw! Unbelievable! But then, if they can accept a criminal to lead them, what more principle and morality is there to say?

    Ipagdarasal ko na lang ang Pilipinas na huwag wasakin ng Panginoon like the way the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed!

  21. ystakei ystakei

    Ellen:

    Off topic, but I thought I’d share this story with you regarding journalist’s right not to reveal their sources. At least, over here, the courts still follow the rule of law:

    High court: News sources can stay secret

    The Yomiuri Shimbun

    The Tokyo High Court ruled Wednesday that a Yomiuri Shimbun reporter’s refusal to disclose news sources should be allowed as a journalist’s right, overturning a lower court decision.

    Presiding Judge Nobuo Akatsuka said in the ruling: “Keeping news sources confidential serves the public interest and their right to know the truth. Even if the sources violated their obligation to protect job secrets, a news reporter is allowed to keep the identity of the sources secret.”

    In March, the Tokyo District Court ordered the Yomiuri Shimbun reporter to disclose news sources in connection with a damages lawsuit filed by a U.S. health food company against the U.S. government.

    Wednesday’s ruling annulled the district court decision and unconditionally endorsed the reporter’s refusal to testify in the lower court session.

    In the district court ruling, presiding Judge Ken Fujishita said keeping a news source confidential should not be allowed if the source was a public servant.

    “If a reporter is allowed to refuse to testify about a news source who is suspected to have violated the obligation to keep work secrets, it might help cover up a criminal act,” the judge said.

    Wednesday’s ruling stated the role of news organizations was to serve the people’s right to know the truth in democratic societies, a right protected under the Constitution.

    The ruling said, “For reporters’ news-gathering activities to be free from intervention by people with public authority, sources need to be kept secret.”

    The high court judgment completely opposed the district court position on the relationship between the principles of journalism and public servants’ obligation to keep job secrets.

    “Even if news sources violate this obligation, reporters are allowed to keep the sources secret to ensure the people’s right to know the truth,” Wednesday’s ruling said.

    “If [reporters] cannot keep sources secret, journalism’s function to check the authorities cannot work,” the ruling said, recognizing the reporter was justified in refusing to reveal the sources.

    The ruling also said the reporter was allowed to refuse to answer all related questions in the questioning session held by the district court on behalf of the U.S. District Court of Arizona–not only questions aimed at directly identifying the sources, but also those about organizations to which the sources belonged, the number of sources and about how trustworthy the reporter judged the sources to be.

    The ruling said asking numerous questions, even indirect ones, on various subjects might help identify the sources.

    Court judgments in the past allowed news reporters to keep news sources confidential only after weighing two factors–how to realize fair trials and the freedom of the press.

    But Wednesday’s ruling criticized this conventional view by saying, “It is doubtful whether the two interests can be properly compared.”

    The ruling said that in some civil lawsuits, reporters’ rights to conceal sources should be given priority.

    “News-gathering activities are possible only when built on the trust of sources based on the rule of confidentiality,” a Yomiuri Shimbun spokesman said. “We believe the ruling is a proper judgment based on an understanding of the fundamentals of journalism.”

    The court battle was triggered by a 1997 Yomiuri Shimbun report that Japanese and U.S. taxation authorities had imposed penalty taxes on the U.S. firm after it underreported income to reduce tax payments.

    The U.S. firm filed the damages lawsuit against the U.S. government in the Arizona district court, insisting that imposing the taxation was the wrong decision.

    In the process of the lawsuit, the Tokyo District Court, as a proxy for the U.S. court, questioned people concerned, including the Yomiuri Shimbun reporter.

    In November last year, the reporter refused to answer questions about the news sources during the session at the Tokyo District Court.

    The U.S. firm filed another lawsuit about the refusal and the district court handed down its decision in March. The reporter immediately appealed the ruling.
    (Jun. 15, 2006)

  22. ystakei ystakei

    Schumey:

    I can try asking my friends in Basra to check on the Filipinos working for the US in Iraq, but I am not sure if they have a list of names of these workers. Dapat may listahan ang Pilipinas ng mga pangalan nila.

  23. ystakei ystakei

    Malaya stated in an article that Gordon said the government should warn the Filipinos going to Iraq about the risk there. Golly, why just warn when there is a ban about traveling to Iraq?

    Over here, we also are warned about traveling to Iraq and the government not answering for us in case we got in trouble there. Yes, the parents of the boy who got killed in Iraq last year in fact got a cold reception when they were apealing for help from the government to save him. especially when the kidnappers were demanding withdrawal of Japanese troops from Iraq, and those who were kidnapped and saved were asked to pay the government expenses incurred in the negotiation for their release to the chagrin of supporters of those who got into such scare. That is why there are no Japanese venturing to go to Iraq at the moment.

    On the other hand, the SBMA being into this recruitment makes the Philippine government responsible for these recruits who are in fact going to Iraq at the peril of their lives! They should ask for more benefits to make sure they can even have a plot at some poshy cemetery for their burial!

  24. Ellen,

    I don’t know if the following reasoning below will explain why, in spite of a high potential for getting hurt, maimed, killed, etc., our young men or even older men will not shy away from fighting other men …

    For thousands of years, MAN (the male species) has always been a war animal; he’s been moulded by a culture that’s thousands and thousands of years old with thousands of wars and battles of practice; his genes, basically, dictate that he must fight to live, to survive, to feed his progeniture…

    This is essentially, why the male species have the natureal inclination to fight in a war more than his female partner (who is required to produce his heir). It is on account of his predilection to go into battle, to fight, to kill, to engage in war, that our civilzation TODAY tries very hard to re-educate the male species to be less war like but his genes which have been so moulded by thousands of years of constant war is difficult to obliterate just like that…

    The Filipino male is a result of this thousands of years of culture too. The attraction of fighting or warring is not foreign to him and more so when he is goaded by a need to live (by earning his keep or to keep his progenitures alives); warring or fighting will always seem a natural male exercise to him.

    Hence, I am not at all surprised that no matter what one says or no matter what reasons you may give him so that he won’t fight or go to war, there will always be Filipino males who will want to fight – more so when they are pushed by the need to make their families live.

    It is second nature to him…

  25. About what trabahapi’s points maaring totoo yung tungkol sa mas madaming mabait na among kano at brits kaysa sa sa mga taga middle east pero hindi pwedeng lahatin.

    Trabahapi,I am not an OFW but there are other OFW frequent visitors in this blog to dispute most of your othe claims.

  26. katas nang iraq katas nang iraq

    mam ellen,

    galing din po ako sa iraq noong 2004 nagtrabaho ako for triple canopy sa loob nang isang taon, sampung taon na po akong security guard nang nagapply ako sa kanila walang hiningi sakin kahit magkano walang placement buo lahat nang suweldo na ipinadadala dito. hindi ko matatawag na mercenary kami dahil binabantayan namin ang us embassy site sa basrah tulad nang ginagawa nang mga pilipinong guwardiya na nagbabantay sa us embassy dito sa roxas boulevard. tapos na ang contract namin doon at pinalitan na kami nang mga elsalvadorian may mga kasamahan kasi kami na sakim na gusto ay doblehin nang company ang suweldo namin from $1000 to $2000 hindi pumayag ang companya hindi na nirenew ang contrata namin

    nanghihinayang ako dahil malaki na para saakin ang $1000 na suweldo kumpara sa 7,500 pesos na suweldo ko dito bilang security guard

    kaya sa sinabi na ystakei na kami ay mga baliw para magtragaho sa bansa na may giera hindi po ito totoo dumaan kami sa neuro exam at lahat po kami ay buo ang pagiisip
    hindi po namin hangad ang yumaman pero konting kaginhawahan lang para saming pamilya.

  27. ystakei ystakei

    Anna:

    What I have observed in Filipinos in Japan, especially those I have encountered in my line of work as interpreter for the police, court and prison, is that Filipinos are by and large up to have courage to kill anyone when he has a weapon. Otherwise, he hids in his lungga! In other words, matapang lang kapag may hawak na sandata!!!

    As for the natural man, the Bible talks of those who have sold their soul to the devil so they say, and the reason for the Bible admonition for us to seek for higher attributes than the natural man who is an enemy to God, and thus, the call for us to follow strictly the simple but strict Ten Commandments that puts killing another human being as No. 1 among those commandments applicable to our relationship with our fellowmen.

    It is the reason in fact why we have to have faith in God and in following His admonitions so we won’t remain the savages that the natural man is apt to be in nature, and this by the way can be achieved only in this existence.

    So, why should we allow these crooks to push them back to such savagery, which is what wars reduce men to be? It is for this reason in fact that I am in groups in Japan protesting against the remilitarization of Japan that the US is pushing Japan to do so that Japan can join other savages in killing their fellow humankind with or without UN sanction.

    At least, where I live, the Mayor is an anti-war activist, and he has instigated a movement in fact for us to make sure our district is not included in the US proposal for war zoning complete with all those Chinese and North Korean scare!!!

    Problem in the Philippines is that there is none among the Mayors there strong enough to defy wrong policies of the government from which they should have been free to act against. Those who did lamentably is apt to or must have been now six feet underground!

    Fortunately for us, everyone is literate enough to read between the lines that when the US tried to instigate the Japanese to move against the North Korean in an attempt to precipitate an engagement, Japanese authorities have been wise enough to confirm first on whether the North Korean indeed had fired a nuke toward Japan or not. There was none, and there was no reason for Japan to retaliate openly versus the North Koreans, but the Japanese government nonetheless, through China, attempted to seek a dialogue with the North Koreans because the truth was we could not afford to go to war, and the Prime Minister knew he could not get our nod if he did follow the taunting of the mad man at the White House.

    At least, I’m glad that our friends in the International Action Center are succeeding in convincing the majority that the preemptive attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq (the latter especially despite Sadam) were unjustified and the follies of a mad man. This is not anti-US sentiment. It is a fact!

  28. ystakei ystakei

    I recommend visitors to this blog to visit often the website
    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info where some anti-war activists Americans have posted news that you cannot read or hear at CNN!!!

    You may also be connected, too, there to all the anti-war organizations in the US presently.

    Being anti-war is not being anti-US by the way. Anti-mad man at the White House, yes, maybe!

  29. ystakei ystakei

    I would like to recommend that visitors to this blog visit this website, too, for information you cannot read or watch on CNN:
    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

    There, you may be able to get connected likewise to anti-war organizations around the world.

  30. trabahapi trabahapi

    ystakei:
    Hindi ko kamaganak si Vicky Toh. Kapatid ako ni Ho Tsin Ho.

    Tikoy gusto mo?

  31. ystakei ystakei

    Katas ng Iraq, sorry, but I have difficulty understanding the minds of people who are willing to risk their lives for some comfort that is not even long-lasting as compensation for the risk that you guys are willing to put yourselves into.

    Kung hindi kasiraan ng ulo ang pagpunta ng mga pilipinong ito sa mga lugar na may giyera para lang mamamatay imbes na mabuhay e ano iyan? Kabobohan?

  32. trabahapi trabahapi

    Ellen: I’m sorry kung ang akala mo ay inaakusa kong inimbento mo lang ang article na you posted sa Malaya. Pasensysa ka na kasi shotgun blast ang patama ko kaya baka nahagip ka pero hindi para sa iyo.

    Ang hanap ko lang naman ay mabigyan side ang storya naming galing na doon na walang bahid ng anti US crap (ystache) or anti bansot, jueteng, at kung anu ano pang mga pasaling na walang directang kinalaman kung paano ako o kami makakapagtrabaho.

    SAHOD na $600:

    Yung sahod ko pong $600 sa Iraq noong ako ay nandoon ay ayos lang. Ang isa sa pinakamalaking misnomer is ang sahod ng isang OFW. Alam po ba ninyo na ang average na sahod ng isang nagtratrabaho sa Middle East ay $300-$400 per month? Ito po ay para sa aming mga non-skilled laborers.

    So ang $600 po para sa akin hindi na ako dehado. Mababait pa ang mga amo ko.

    Schumey : Tama ka sa sabi mo hindi lahat ng Briton o Kano ay mabait. Pero po on average kung ikukumpara ko po natin ang labor standards ng UK or US sa Middle East, tagilid po ang tayo ng Pilipino. Kung hindi ka naniniwala, punta ka sa Phil embassy sa Kuwait, tingnan mo ang dami ng Pilipinang nakaupo sa sahig doon na LUMAYAS sa mga amo nila. Yung iba pong babae kapag nakita ninyo hindi po ninyo masasabing mga 18y/o. Mukha lang po silang mga 13 or 14 y/o, Ang iba kasi pinepeke ang edad para lang makapagtrabaho sa Middle East. Pagdating doon ang among kabayo ay nananakit.

  33. trabahapi trabahapi

    Dominique: Wala akong sinasabing noong 1990 pa ako sa Iraq. May gyera na noong nakapunta ako sa Iraq. Matagal na akong OFW sa Middle East simula pa noong 90 sa Kuwait, Qatar, at Saudi.

    Kung mura para sa iyo ang $1000 per month eh di HUWAG kang pumunta. Wala naman yatang pumipilit sa iyo di ba? Ako nga eh hindi ko natikman ang sahod na $1000 per month ng Triple Canopy. Ang sahod ko doon ay $600 lang per month. Pero okey na sa akin yun dahil noon ako’y nasa Kuwai, $350 lang ako per month.

    Ang pagkakaalam ko, wala sa mga PMC’s na ito ang namumuwersa sa mga Pilipinong magpunta kayo doon sa may guerra. Isa pang naririnig ko nga eh walang binayaran miski sinko (storya ng Triple Canopy). Kaming mga OFW para lang makapagtrabaho sa Kuwait, bayad ng kung anu anong placement fee, tapos kaltas ang plane ticket sa sahod ko, tapos ang isang buwan sahod ko kaltas naman ng agency bukod pa sa binayaran kong placement fee!!!

    Tapos naliliitan ka pa sa $1000??? Problema sa inyo sa BLOG na ito hindi talaga ninyo alam ang TUNAY na dinadanas ng isang OFW!!!!!!

    Para sa mga makikitid ang utak, hindi ko nilalahat ha, kasi meron ding mga OFW na hindi katulad namin ang katayuan dahil sila ay may mga skill kaya mas maganda ang sahod.

    Unang taon ko sa Kuwait bayad utang lang sa mga ginastos ko sa Pilipinas, pangalawang taon ko pa lang ako makakaipon, tapos uwi na. Sa trabaho ko sa Iraq, kahit papaano ay nakaipon po ako. Ang goal ko po kasi ay magtrabaho habang kaya ko pa para makauwi sa Pilipinas at hindi ko na kailanganin pang bumiyahe na uli.

    Average pong sahod ng OFW ay $300 -$400 lamang. Kung naliliitan ka Dominique eh di huwag kang pumunta. Dito ka na lang sa Pinas maghanap ng trabaho. Ipagdadasal ka namin ni Mamm Ellen na sana makahanap ka ng trabaho at maging trabahapi karin.

  34. trabahapi trabahapi

    ystache:

    Wag mo namang sabihing kabobohan, sakit mo naman mag salita porket maganda ang tayo mo sa Japan. Tawagin mo na lang itong “kahirapan.”

    Katas ng Iraq: Hindi ka bobo kaibigan, tulad ng sabi ni ystache ng Japan. Ginagawa mo lang ang masmakakabuti para sa pamilya mo.

    Karamihan kasi ng mga bumabatikos sa atin sa Blog na ito ay hindi alam ang hirap na dinadanas natin araw araw. Tawag sa atin ni Ystache eh bobo.

  35. ystakei ystakei

    Lumang istorya na ang sinasabi mo Trabahapi. Ang tanong, bakit hindi marunong madala ang mga pilipinong nagpapaloko sa mga recruiter na siyang yumayaman ng ginagawang pagtataboy sa inyo para kayo maubos na nang tuluyan?

    Anong anti-US crap ang pinagsasabi mo? Sorry, pero hindi ako katulad mong handang magpaalipin sa mga kano sa inaakala mong magandang trato nila sa inyo. Wow, hindi mo pa nakita ang pagkakaiba ng trato nila sa mga pilipinong dyino-dyos sila sa trato nila sa mga hapon na hindi nagpapaloko sa kanila dahil sa totoo lang hindi nila maintindihan ang mga tao dito.

    Pero isang halimbawa na lang ay ang ginagawang pambabastos doon sa biktima ng rape dahil lang kasi may DOJ Secretary kayo na hindi marunong magmahal ng kapwa niya pilipino at siya pa ang unang-una humuhusga doon sa kababayan niya imbes na ipagtanggol niya.

    Sorry, kahit na mga kaibigan kong mga amerikano na walang lahing pinoy ay galit sa loko-lokong nakaupo sa White House dahil inuubos ang pera nila sa giyerang siya lang at ang pamilya niya ang makikinabang! Kaya bakit ako maniniwala sa iyo?

    Puede ba, hindi na teritoryo ng Amerika ang Pilipinas para kumilos pang parang mga alipin ng mga kano ang mga pilipino? At saka, puede ba huwag naman ninyong ipakitang handa kayong kumain ng tae ng mga kano “makaranas lang kayo ng kaunting ginhawa”?! Yuck!

    Dapat diyan, ipinaglalaban ninyo ang inyong mga karapatang hindi gutumin ng mga milyonaryong nakaupo sa inyong pamahalaan. Aba, nagmalaki pa iyong pandak na mayayaman daw ang mga ministro niya habang nagugutom ang mga kababayan niyang handang magpakamatay “makaranas lang siya ng kaunting kaginhawahan!” Ang tindi! Dapat magmartsa kayo araw-araw para mapalitan ng mga matitino ang mga talagang nagpapahirap sa inyo.

  36. ystakei ystakei

    Trabahapi:

    Para kang katulad noong isang pilipinong nakulong dito ng habang buhay dahil lang sa isang lapad na sa totoo lang ay kulang pang makatawid ng gutom sa isang araw.

    Tama si Dominique na kabobohan at kabaliwan ang magpakamatay para lang sa 1,000 dolyar!

    OK, maganda ang katayuan ko kasi hindi ako katulad mo at ng mga pilipinong desperadong handang magpakamatay para lang sa isang libong dolyar. Marunong kasi akong ipaglaban ang karapatan ko ayon sa batas at pag-iisip kong mga karapatan ko! Iyan ang dapat mong matutunan sa aking palagay—huwag magpaloko kahit kanino!

    Nasaan na ang prinsipyo at katinuan ng isip ng mga pilipino na handang magsakripisyo para hindi siya ituring at maging busabos gaya ng ginagawa ninyo sa mga sarili ninyo! Itayo naman ninyo ang puri at dangal ng sambayanang pilipino, hindi iyong para kayong palaging mga pataygutom na handang magpakamatay at dungisan ang inyong karangalan dahil lang sa isang libong dolyar! Yuck!

  37. ystakei ystakei

    Related topic for the information of those who still are willing to be forewarned:

    Father’s Day: The Dangerous Notions of Michael Berg

    Part I: A Serviceable Villian and an Idealist Son

    By Chris Floyd

    06/15/06 “Information Clearing House” — — After last week’s killing of terrorist chieftain Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (or someone just like him) in Iraq, remembrances of his most celebrated alleged victim surfaced briefly in the press: Nicholas Berg, the American businessman whose horrific beheading was publicized in a video fortuitously released less than two weeks after the first revelations of U.S. torture at Abu Ghraib.

    It was this video – which featured five surprisingly chubby terrorists, masked, one wearing a gold ring forbidden by extremist Islam, another reading in halting Arabic – that made Zarqawi the Pentagon poster boy for the insurgency. Pentagon documents unearthed by the Washington Post this April revealed that the elevation of Zarqawi’s profile was a deliberate, multimillion-dollar propaganda campaign aimed at the American people to foment the lie that the insurgency was largely an al Qaeda terrorist operation, not a native rebellion against the occupation. As one Pentagon general told a group of deception commandos: “The Zarqawi Psy-Op program is the most successful information campaign to date.”

    Zarqawi – a Jordanian thug who, like so many others, had been radicalized by the American-backed anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan – was a White House tool from the beginning. Before the war, his two-bit terrorist wannabe organization in the Kurdish-held Iraqi north had been targeted for destruction by U.S. Special Forces. But as the Atlantic Monthly reports, George W. Bush prevented at least three separate operations that would have eliminated the Zarqawi group – because such a strike would have interfered with that earlier psy-ops attack on the American people: the selling of the Iraq invasion on false pretenses. Although Zarqawi’s gang was in U.S.-controlled territory where Saddam had no power, the Regime’s war-peddlers used it to “prove” the non-existent link between Iraq and al Qaeda.

    Spared by Bush, Zarqawi proved a serviceable villian after the invasion, always there to be blamed for a new terrorist spectacular whenever a spate of bad war news hit the Homeland press – despite, once again, being in the crosshairs of American forces on several occasions. On at least three occasions in the past year, Jordanian intelligence had pinpointed Zarqawi’s location in Iraq and passed the intelligence to their close compadres in the American security organs; but every time, the Americans somehow “arrived too late,” as the Atlantic reports.

    However by this spring, with no amount of psy-ops able to halt Bush’s plunge in the polls – and with the horrific sectarian civil war unleashed by Bush’s aggression eclipsing all other violence – the “Zarqawi program” was obviously faltering: not enough PR bang for the buck. And so they did his quietus make – not with a bare bodkin but a thousand pounds of bombs: a little bit of “shock and awe” to goose the news cycle. Bush could have stopped him long ago; he could have spared the Iraqi people the ravages of his favored freebooter; but he chose not to.

    Who can say if the beheading of Nicholas Berg – which made Zarqawi a “star” and adroitly demonized the whole Iraqi resistance at such a critical moment – was part of that “most successful information campaign to date”? One can only hope not; one can only hope that in this, as in so many other instances, the Bush Regime was just lucky. After all, who can forget that incredible stroke of good fortune on September 11, 2001 – just one year after a group led by Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and Jeb Bush declared that only a “new Pearl Harbor” could “catalyze” the American people into accepting their radical militarist program of conquering Iraq, establishing bases in Central Asia, waging “pre-emptive” wars, weaponizing space, gutting nuclear treaties, and larding the war-related industries with pork beyond the dreams of avarice. As Bush himself said while the Twin Towers were still smoldering: “Through my tears, I see opportunity.”

    Nicholas Berg, on the other hand, was remarkably unlucky. More of an idealist than a chest-thumping corporate predator like ex-CEOs Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, Berg, 26, had developed a method for helping underdeveloped areas build safe, affordable structures where steel is hard to come by, as Wikipedia reports. Progress, not profit, was his motivating force. He was also an idealist in another way: he believed in his government. The president said Iraq had been liberated – “mission accomplished” – and that American companies needed to help the Iraqi people rebuild their land. Berg didn’t realize that the president was a liar. Iraq had not been liberated but delivered into a new hell. Mass deaths, house raids, airstrikes, societal collapse and torture had spawned a fierce armed resistance. Bush’s invasion had also loosed the most brutal, ignorant religious extremists – like Zarqawi – to prey upon the land. Meanwhile, “reconstruction” was a sick joke: it was just a pipeline for Bush cronies to drain Iraq, and the U.S. Treasury, bone-dry.

    Berg came alone: no bodyguard of bristling mercenaries, no Halliburton subcontracts, no Beltway cronies. Work was promised, but without that insider grease, fell through. He decided to go home. Six days before his scheduled departure, he was suddenly seized by Iraqi police and turned over to U.S. forces. For reasons still unclear, he was held for 13 days – during which time the Abu Ghraib revelations ignited the land, and the tinderbox of Fallujah exploded when four mercenaries were killed in retaliation for the American shooting of Iraqi protestors a few days before.

    Berg was released into this heightened turmoil one day after his family filed a lawsuit against his illegal detention; he disappeared four days later. His remains were found one month later near a Baghdad highway; the gruesome video appeared three days after that. Abu Ghraib disappeared from the front pages; it was not an issue in the presidential election that year.

    Zarqawi – or “Zarqawi” – was the fake emblem of a fake war, the “war on terror” that the Bush Regime is pretending to fight while it goes about its long-planned business of exploiting “opportunities” like 9/11. Nicholas Berg was no emblem; he was just another human being literally ripped to shreds in that dark maw where high politics and low murder feast on the same lies, the same flesh.

    Part II: A Dangerous Man
    But despite the central role that Berg unwillingly played in the concoction of the Zarqawi legend, he was largely airbrushed from the lurid coverage of its grand finale. That’s because any new story on Berg would naturally center around his most outspoken survivor, his father Michael. And Michael Berg is a man with a dangerous message, a radical subversion of every value that the Bush Administration is fighting to preserve.

    In many ways, of course, it’s an ancient danger, a destabilizing notion that has threatened the guardians of civilization for thousands of years. Its advocates have always been relegated to the lunatic fringe, ignored and forgotten, except in rare cases when their subversion has taken hold, usually among the lower orders. In each such case, however, down through the ages, the civilized world has, like a healthy body, acted swiftly to remove the carriers of disorder. Still, in every generation the bacillus emerges once again, and Michael Berg, no doubt weakened by his grief, has become seriously infected.

    It’s no wonder, then, that his media appearances last week were so brief and circumscribed. For there he was, father of a victim murdered in the most gruesome fashion imaginable by the terrorist Zarqawi (or someone just like him), a survivor fully entitled to exult in the revenging fury and violent self-righteousness that are among the chief values of the Bush Imperium – and all Berg could talk about was mercy and forgiveness, peace and restoration. He would not even take pleasure in the death of Zarqawi, whom he called a “fellow human being.” Instead, he grieved for Zarqawi’s family and wished that the brutal killer could have been subjected to “restorative justice” – made to work in a hospital with children maimed by war, for example – setting him on a path where his human decency might have been restored.

    Nor would Berg praise the guardian of civilization, George W. Bush, for finally ending the career of the terrorist he had used so cynically to justify aggressive war. Instead, Berg blamed Bush for unleashing mass death on the people of Iraq, and instigating the cycle of violence that had consumed his son. But even for the authors of war, for the state terrorists who kill on an industrial scale, by remote control, ensconced in safety, comfort, privilege and wealth, Berg called for restoration, not revenge: they should be removed from power and compelled to some compassionate labor that might redeem their corrupted humanity.

    It goes without saying that Berg’s comments were instantly condemned throughout the vast engine of bile-driven groupthink known as the rightwing media. He was reviled as a traitor, a fool, a terrorist-lover, “less than human,” a monster whose son will slap his face in the afterlife. He was derided for his quixotic Congressional campaign as the Green Party candidate for Delaware: what place do such weapons of the weak – mercy, forgiveness, non-violence – have in the halls of power? For the mainstream, he was just a blip, a quirky diversion in the flood of triumphant stories on Zarqawi’s demise.

    And to be sure, it is foolish to oppose the cherished values of our 21st century civilization: violence, bluster, ignorance and fear. It’s foolish to take upon oneself the responsibility to break the cycle of violence at last, to say: “Let it end with me, if nowhere else; let it end now, no matter what the provocation; let something new, something more human, some restoration take root in this bloodstained ground.”

    But what if such folly is the only way for humankind to begin climbing out of the festering pit we have made of the world?

    Copyright Chris Floyd. Visit his blog http://www.chris-floyd.com

  38. Just one comment re Trabahapi’s post tungkol sa MERCENARY. Totoo na bayaran ang mercenary; walang prinsipyo na involved pero ang tunay na mercenary ay handang pumatay kaya ang mga OFWs na hindi handang pumatay ay hindi puwedeng tawagin na mercenary.

    Naintindihan ko ang dahilan mo na tumanggap ng trabaho maski dangerous ang work zone at maski mercenary ay papasukin ng isang taong gustong kumain lalo na kung may pamilya.

    Ang galit ko at sa palagay ko ang galit ni Yuko, ay kay Gloria na dahil sa tangnang bansot na ito, ang mga Pinoys ay kumamkapit sa patalim at handang maging alipin (babae o lalaki) sa Saudi Arabia, sa Middle Eastern countries para mabuhay lang ang kanilang mga pamilya. Sana kung iilan lang, puwede pang sabihin na exception pero, ang nangyayari ay generalized culture dahil ang pagbebenta ni Gloria ng mga Pinoys ay systematic at walang pagkakaiba sa mga forced labor pag panahon ng guerra. Iyon nga lang, may suweldo sila pero sa tunay, walang pagkaiba kaya ang tawag ay “modern slavery”.

    Hinahangaan ko ang mga Pinoys na handang magsakripisyo kahit buhay nila para lang mapakain ang kanilang pamilya.
    Wala akong masasabi kundi ingat lang at good luck sa inyo.

  39. Katas ng Iraq, thanks sa impormasyon na iyong binigay. Tumutugma doon sa mga papeles na aking nakuha at sa impormasyon ng isang kasama nyo na nakausap ko. Tingnan mo mo ang istorya noong June 13.

    Hindi ko minamasama ang inyong desisyon na makipagsapalaran sa iraq kahit delikado. Naintindihan ko kasi alam ko rin ang hirap ng buhay dito sa atin. Kaya nga binabatikos namin ang masamang palakad ng pamahalaan na nagre-resulta ng paghihirap ng bayan.

    Ang dapat talaga, pagbutihin ang pamamalakad ng gobyerno, walang kurakutan. gamitin ang pera ng bayan sa pagpabuti ng buhay ng mga Pilipino para hindi na kailangan makipagsapalaran sa delikadong lugar para lang maghanapbuhay. Dapat hanap ng mabuting buhay. Hindi kamatayan ang pinupuntahan.

    Inuulit ko, kasama na rin si Trabahapi, naintindihan ko ang inyong kalagayan. At kasama ako ng inyong pamilya sa pagdasal para sa inyong kaligtasan.

  40. Dominique Dominique

    Uy, hindi ko sinabing kabobohan at kabaliwan ang mamatay para lang sa $600.

    ang sinabi ko, mababa ang $600 a month. Trabahapi, ang sa akin lang naman ay you are taking a big risk. Hindi naman yan ordinaryo na guwardiya ng opisina. War zone ang pinupuntahan nyo kaya dapat malaki ang bayad sa inyo.

    Ang sa akin lang naman ay dapat mataas ang bayad sa inyo.
    Ang inyong kapakanan ang nasa isip ko.

  41. Look at this comment of Joe de Venecia in Malaya’s June 17, 22006 issue:

    In Bacolod, Speaker Jose de Venecia said it was unfair to label Filipinos hired as security guards in other countries as “mercenaries.”

    “Why is it that if they work in Afghanistan they are mercenaries? If they work in Los Angeles, they are not called mercenaries,” he said.

    “They are just trying to earn a living,” he added.

    He can’t see the difference between Afghanistan and Los Angeles? Let’s remind him that there are Talibans in Afghanistan, who are attacking US facilities.Which makes Afghanistan still a war zone.

  42. ystakei ystakei

    Hindi ba recruiter din iyang si De Venecia? Last year, they sent Congressmen who were apparently recruiters because they were being dined and wined by the promoters with Yakuza connection that no decent Japanese parliamentarian will dare do in Japan! Ang kakapal ng mga mukha na wala namang ginagawa kung mapatay ang mga kababayan nila. Palusot pa nila may “ban sa Iraq kaya wala silang pakialam!” Yuck!

    Ang alam ko kaniya-kaniya pang mga teritoryo ang mga ungas katulad ng kapatid ni Ramos na siya raw in charge sa deployment ng mga pilipino sa Taiwan. Iyong deployment sa China, Iraq, Spain and Malaysia palagay ko gustong swapangin ni Pandak kasabwat iyong isang adviser niya kuno tungkol sa Iraq na alam kong dito sa Japan dating nag-a-apply ng visa para sa Iraq! Padala ng padala ng mga pilipino pero hindi naman nila kayang pangalagaan at kontrolin para hindi masangkot sa krimen ang kanilang ibinubugaw sa ibang bansa!

  43. Ang tanga naman ni de Venecia…Nonsense ang sinasabi para lang ma i-dyaryo siya. Tumatanda ng baligtad…

    Ano ba naman itong gobyerno ni Gloria, iyong iba sira ulo, iyong iba sunungaling, may bobo pa…

    Paano naman aasenso ang tao kung ang gobyerno ay ganyan.

  44. Anna,

    JDV is a classic example of a man devoid of any decency. Walang bahid ng prinsipyo and taong yan. He is the cause of the collapse of my friend’s livelihood just because my friend wouldn’t sell his land to him. Kung anu-anong pressure ang ginawa niya kaya nagsara nalang yung negosyo nung American friend ko. All those pain for a piece of land.

  45. ystakei ystakei

    Tama ka, Ellen, kahit na anong sabihin ng mga ito, giyera ang pupuntahan ng mga niloloko nila na hindi naman nakakahalata lalo na’t akala nila ay tiba-tiba ang ibabayad sa kanila lalo na kung may kasama pang green card sa US. Hindi nila alam na kapiranggot iyon ng ibinabayad sa mga kumukuha sa kanila! Yuck talaga!

    Bagay ang impression, mahina sa kuwentahan ng pera ang mga pilipino kaya niloloko tulad noong mga pilipinong 24-hour duty sa amo nila bilang mga domestic helpers. Kung ang sueldo nila ay less than 300 dollars a month e parang a dollar a day lang sila. Daig pa sila noong nagtratrabaho sa MacDonald. Dito nga, iyong tagaprito doon, more than 10-dollar an hour ang sueldo.

    1000 dollar a month with no guaranty of fringe benefits? Bale $33 a day walang bakasyon?! Maliit pa iyan sa minimum wage dito sa Japan hindi pa delikado ang buhay! Doon sa Iraq o kahit sa Lebanon, where we have heard of Filipino women being pushed from the windows by their employers to their death after being sexually molested pero walang magawa ang mga kumag sa DoLE kaya takbo ang mga kamag-anak sa mga NGOs, delikado ang buhay nila! Hindi worth sa totoo lang!

    Kundi iyan kabaliwan or kabobohan, ano iyan recruitment na iyan sa Iraq na delikado kahit ngayon na patay na si Zarqawi na hindi naman Iraqi dahil hindi hihinto ang mga Iraqi sa pagtatanggol ng kanilang kalayaan laban sa mga dayuhang sumasakop sa kanila? Kagaguhan, katarantaduhan o kawalanghiyaan na?

    Now, as for JdV, mukhang may nangangalingasaw sa pananalita ng taong ito. Baka siya ang big boss sa mga transaction na ito? Kaya pagbutihin sana ni Senator Biazon ang pag-imbestiga niya ng recruitment na ito para mapaalis iyong mga Amerikanong gustong magsamantala at mang-alipin sa mga pilipinong gutom!

    Suya ako sa taong (JdV)iyan na wala ng hiya na ipinapain ang mga kababayan niya sa panganib tapos kahit kriminal tatawagin niyang bayani gaya noong ginawa niya para kay Flor Contemplacion na pumatay ng isang kapwa niya pilipino niya at isang walang kamuwang-muwang na batang Singaporean.

    Iyong Migrant Act ginawa pa niyang tribute sa isang kriminal. Gosh, nasaan ang delikadeza ng mamang ito?! Bagay, pangit ang mukha kaya pangit din ang kaluluwa! :-p

    Ang dapat talagang gawin ay PATALSIKIN NA, NOW NA! SIPAIN DIN IYONG MGA TONGRESSMEN AT SENATONG NA NAGPAPAHIRAP SA MGA PILIPINO! ANG DAPAT NA GAWIN AY MAGMARTSA PARA PATALSIKIN ANG MGA ULUPONG AT PALITAN NG MGA TUNAY NA NAGMAMALASAKIT SA BAYAN AT NANG DI NA SILA, MGA TRABAHADOR NA PILIPINO, AALIS NG PILIPINAS PARA MAKATIKIM NG GINHAWA!

    NOW, KUNG SASABIHIN NAMAN NG MGA MAKULIT NA WALA SILANG TIWALA SA MGA IPAPALIT NILA SA MGA NAKAUPO NGAYON E, TALAGANG WALA NA NGANG PAG-ASA! POR DIES POR SINGKO!

    Sabi ng isang kakilala kong senador sa Pilipinas tungkol sa ibinalita kong pagdisiplina sa mga militar sa Japan nang madiskubre ang anomalyang ginawa nila tungkol sa isang private bidding: SIMPLY UNDOABLE IN GOOD OLD RP!
    KAHIT ANG EXPRESSION – ‘WALANG HIYA’ HAS LOST ITS MEANING. CORE VALUES OF DECENCY, HONOR AND EVEN DELICADEZA OF YORE ARE GONE. TOUGH LUCK FOR OUR PEOPLE? INDEED, THAT’S HOW IT LOOKS. ANYWAY, WE JUST HAVE TO KEEP ON FIGHTING EVEN FOR WHAT APPEARS TO BE LOST CAUSES. OTHERWISE, WE ARE LOST.

    Nakakalungkot! Kawawang bansa!

  46. “Hindi ko kamaganak si Vicky Toh. Kapatid ako ni Ho Tsin Ho.” – Trabahapi

    Trabahapi, ok ka pare ah. Hindi nawawala ang iyong sense of humor. ‘Yan ang gusto ko sa Filipino.

  47. DJB DJB

    I sure hope this line of reporting does not result in Filipino OFWS getting the reputation of being MERCENARIES. It could be dangerous to their health.

  48. ystakei ystakei

    Ellen:

    It sure is. One thing good about what we do here in Japan re Iraq is that we are able to hear the real story from real victims of this war.

    Iyong si Berg, I suspect that he was killed by his own people, who wanted to benefit from his death by pretending that he was kidnapped by Zarqawi’s group that the Americans in fact have failed to link with Sadam, who did not like the group of Bin Laden as a matter of fact.

    For more information not publicized on CNN, I recommend
    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

    BTW, if the OFWs in the Middle East do not want to be in danger or put in danger, they should protest against this recruitment of Filipinos to war-zone, Iraq! Kagaguhan na iyan as a matter of fact!

  49. ystakei ystakei

    Ellen:

    There are other such information at
    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

    Kudos to you and the Malaya Staff for the expose on this recruitment of Filipino mercenaries, which they are no matter what they say.

    Don’t know how they can they not be distiguished to the legitimate OFWs, who are actually not that safe even with their own employers, many of whom maltreat them.

    I just actually just got some report from friends in KSA regarding what they have even titled “From Saudi with Tears” that Senator Pimentel is now pushing the OWWA and POEA to attend to.

    Over in Tokyo, at least, we are on alert for victims of the new kind of recruitment the Philippine government is apt to do in defiance of some Japanese ban on Filipino bar and club entertainers, aged 18 and below! We understand that even with the ban, the Philippines deployed over a thousand Japayukis to Japan in 2005. Ganoong katindi!

    It is no longer STOP JAPAYUKI that we are advocating here. It is more like “STOP THE BUGAWS (PIMPS) POSING AS PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS!”

  50. ystakei ystakei

    Ellen:

    For more information on the real situation in Iraq, etc., I recommend http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

    I don’t see how the OFWs in the Middle East can be in a much worse situation now with this expose on the Filipino mercenaries bound to Iraq that they are now.

    I just received a message from my contacts in KSA titled “From Saudi with Tears!” regarding OFWs there who run to the NGOs for help from their abusive employers. So, who say that Filipinos can be safer than what they are not even in their own country by yours and Malaya’s exposure of this mercenary recruitment amidst the ban of travel to Iraq!

    Over in Japan, an activity like this will merit full police investigation since travel to Iraq is presently banned even here. Some people just got to be made answerable for this.

    I hope Senator Biazon will be able to find and do something to stop this lunacy.

    Over in Japan, we are on full watch and alert for victims of the post-Japayuki recruitment that we are told the Philippine government is not stopping even amids the ban for this kind of deployment of youngsters from the Philippines being made to work in bars and clubs as hostesses. What we advocate here in fact is no longer “STOP JAPAYUKI” but “STOP THE BUGAW (PIMPS) POSING AS PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS”!

    Keep up the good work, Ellen. I know God is preserving
    you because your country and people need you.

  51. ystakei ystakei

    For more information on the real situation in Iraq, etc., I recommend http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

    I don’t see how the OFWs in the Middle East can be in a much worse situation now they are even in their own country with this expose on the Filipino mercenaries bound to Iraq.

    I just received in fact a note from our contacts in Iraq regarding the Filipino runaways there titled as “From Saudi with Tears.” In fact, a member of our group in this advocacy for the OFWs died without seeing any favorable result of the investigation on the cases of Filipino women who were sexually molested and thrown from windows in Lebanon.

    In other words, even without these exposes on this illegal recruitment amidst a ban against travel to Iraq, Filipinos are in danger, and the pimps sending them away are not at all perturbed by what they are making their recruits to do overseas. In fact, they make them helpless victims of exploitation, but we do not hear them complain because they think it is what these recruitments, etc. are supposed to be—risky but nothing doing! “Para sa kaunting kaginhawahan, OK ngarud!”

    Over here in Tokyo, we are on alert regarding report of deployment of 1,000 or more Japayukis even after the Japanese government scraped the special quota for entertainers granted the Aquino government and the post-Estrada pimps took advantage of doubling and filling up with teens, both male and female, who worked in Japan as hostesses (no host)! We have stopped saying “STOP THE JAPAYUKI!” It is now “STOP THE BUGAW (PIMPS) POSING AS PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS!

    We hope Senator Biazon will be able to make full inventory of this mercenary recruitment and make those responsible for it legally answerable.

    Keep up the good works, Ellen. I know God has preserved you because your country and people need you!

  52. DJB, it’s not the reporting that is endangering Filipinos in Iraq. Why, if Malaya does not report it,are they safe?

    They are in an unsafe situation because of some mad people who waged wars. Why are Filipinos there, miles away from the Philippines? Blame should be on the government that plundered government resources and created a situation that forced Filipinos to go to dangerous aeas just to make a living.

    As journalists, we are just reporting the situation. We are just writing the truth. Not writing about it won’t make those Filipinos safe.

  53. ystakei ystakei

    Sorry, for the posts above. I keep on posting because I thought they were not being posted. May nag-ha-hack siguro!

  54. Yuko, some of the posts were directed for moderation and sometimes, it’s quite a while before I check on the blog.

    Thanks.

  55. katas nang iraq katas nang iraq

    ellen:

    maraming salamat sa iyong pagintindi sa kalagayan naming mga ofw na nais magtrabaho, at maraming salamat sa iyong mga panalangin

    ystakei:

    nakakatawa ka talaga at first bilib ako sayo kala ko matalino ka but nang sinabi mong “handa kaming magpaalipin sa kano” bakit ikaw gaanong katagal ka nang nagpapaalipin sa japon? you are anti american but at the same time you are pro japanese. and you are preaching about nationalism,karangalan and delicadeza, give me a break

    “handa kayong kumain nang tae nang kano yuck!” bakit ikaw gano karaming tae nang hapon ang nakain mo during your stay in japan?yuck!

    bottomline po kanya kanyang racket ang tao para mabuhay,some people go to other countries to become prostitutes and slaves, our goverment calles them entertainers and domestic helpers it all depends on the way you want to look at it.

    everything is about money kaya nagtatrabaho ang lahat im sure na si ystakei is working in japan dahil din sa pera impossible namang ginagawa niya ito dahil nationalistic siya

    thanks ellen

  56. ystakei ystakei

    Katas ng Iraq, you are talking shit!

    I am my own boss for your information. And I work for pleasure not for the money as a matter of fact, because FYI I believe and abide by the admonition of the Saviour “…That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” (Mark 4:4, Luke 4:4) You do that, at baka mas lalong guminhawa pa ang buhay mo!

    As for being intelligent, who cares what and how you size me up! I know me to be bothered by what you are apt to say. Still, I can have sympathy for you for allowing yourself to fall into the trap of helplessness and despair.

    FYI, I have not been recruited by any crook to work in Japan. I have been here long before the Japayukis started coming in to fill up vacancies left by emancipated Japanese women. I chose to be here because I have actually considered myself a Japanese eversince I learned from my father that we had Japanese blood! I opted to be here rather than stay with my family in the USA, because I could not stand discrimination of any kind!!!

    In short, I am not just being pro-Japanese but being a good and law-abiding citizen of this country, unlike you who are willing to kill another human being for money even at the peril of your life for a country not even your own! Sorry, I don’t share that philosophy!

    Eating Japanese shit? No need to do that over here as far as I am concerned, because I am not a slave to anyone! Besides, Japan is a democracy where everyone is fair and equal under the law! Even Filipinos can take advantage of that if they behave and abide by the law!

    “Some people go to other countries to become prostitutes and slaves, our goverment calles them entertainers and domestic helpers it all depends on the way you want to look at it, ” you say? My Gosh, where is your sense of right and wrong? You are definitely talking shit when you condone this government that deploys Filipinos overseas disguised as entertainers and domestic players but let them be exploited in fact as prostitutes and slaves!

    This, for your information, is what my friends and I are advocating against even just to bring back sanity, honor and dignity to Filipinos who are being indocrinated to feel and be the scums of the earth!

    Nakakaawa ka! Dahil lang sa pera nawala na ang pagmamahal mo sa sarili mo, puri’t dangal!

  57. Ellen,

    This is really a dilemma – poverty pushes even the honorable people to do things, to sacrifice their lives in order for their family to live.

    I don’t doubt for a second that our hapless compatriots do this – at the cost of putting their personal safety and risk on their life so that their loved ones may survive; I don’t believe they are doing it to save themselves alone.

    This is an extremely difficult dilemma.

  58. ystakei ystakei

    Now, as for this “racket” (Kaniya-kaniya raket, Katas ng Iraq has described it) of deploying Filipinos to Iraq as mercenaries amidst the travel ban, this should be stopped!

    The fact that it is a racket is reason enough for me to support efforts by those who still have their sanity and propriety intact to investigate and expose this racket for what it is.

    This should be stopped by all means! Those willing to be lured to this racket I suppose need to be counseled well.

  59. ystakei ystakei

    The problem, Anna, is that not all countries with better economies than the Philippines can afford to absorb all unemployed in the Philippines, or make the lives of those with jobs better with salaries not enough to feed one or two families statistically speaking.

    The problem lies in the government that pads up its incompetence with lies and deceits, even rackets of smuggling these workers overseas even to countries where they are not welcome wholeheartedly, or shady deals like these deals with these American companies shun even by Americans I suppose so that they are forced to scout elsewhere for hungry people to use as bullets for their ammunition, especially in countries noted for their corrupt governments as the Philippines and El Salvador!

    Nevertheless, I don’t see any justification for this recruitment of Filipinos to work overseas as mercenaries and be trained to kill resistance fighters defending their country as the Malaya report has decribed this recruitment to be.

    The arguments given by those who are willing to be birds of prey of these foreign companies are just too unbelievably bereft of reason and propriety!

  60. They are recruited as security guards. They secure US personnel, offices and facilities. But as the recruits of Triple Canopy said, there were times when the facilities were being attacked.

    If you recall the Fallujah incident, the Blackwater personnel were supposed to be escorting delivery of food.We all know what happened to them.

    We just have to pray that no misfortune will fall on those Filipino armed personnel in Iraq.

  61. Re Yuko’s

    “Nevertheless, I don’t see any justification for this recruitment of Filipinos to work overseas as mercenaries and be trained to kill resistance fighters defending their country as the Malaya report has decribed this recruitment to be. ”

    Totally agree… When I say dilemma, I was referring to the heart and mental breaking dilemma our OFWs are faced with; poor folks who are prepared to go and take enormous risks just to earn and feed their family…Very difficult indeed. Given the conditions in the Philippines, I would find it difficult to tag them as unprincipled people.

  62. ystakei ystakei

    Anna:

    I bet the conditions during the war years in the Philippines were much worst, but my mother says they were more decent then to even think of putting their lives at stake for a pittance. That is more to me what having principle is all about.

    I would rather say they have become avaricious that they cannot even now value precious lives, including their own! The words a former customs official in the Philippines I met in the police used were “gahaman” and “ganid” to describe what induced him to try to smuggle guns and deliver them to some Yakuza members he befriended in the Philippines. He got 6 years for his crime.

    At least, he can still go home. These mercenaries most likely will not!

  63. katas nang iraq katas nang iraq

    ystakei:

    hay naku ang suwerte mo naman that you are just working for pleasure,that can only mean na napakayaman mo.good for you.
    thats is why you have so much too say about us poor filipinos goin to work abroad for whatever reason.you have probably never worked a day in your life and you cant even relate to what ofw’s are goin through, your comments and info comes from news and internet sites no personal experience whatsoever

    if you have to site passages from the bible to prove a point
    then by all means go ahead if it makes you feel any better

    you have japanese blood wow! that is something to be proud of so kaano ano ano mo ang mga hapon na sumakop, nagpahirap, nanggahasa at pumatay nang libo libong pilipino way back when? “you have considered yourself a japanese”
    wow that is so typical of filipinos goin abroad

    wala akong magagawa if the goverment condones the deployment of filipinos overseas to work as prostitutes and slaves im sure ikaw wala ka rin magagawa, im not talkin shit im simply stating the truth and has nothin to do with what is right or wrong

    you and your friends want to bring back “honor, dignity and sanity to filipinos” sabog ka ba sa ipinagbabawal na gamot?
    maybe you should come back here sa pilipinas kumandidato kang presidente malakas ang chance mo manalo dahil meron kang puri at dangal.

    ystakei for president!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  64. trabahapi trabahapi

    Dominique Says:
    June 16th, 2006 at 9:24 pm

    Uy, hindi ko sinabing kabobohan at kabaliwan ang mamatay para lang sa $600.

    ang sinabi ko, mababa ang $600 a month. Trabahapi, ang sa akin lang naman ay you are taking a big risk. Hindi naman yan ordinaryo na guwardiya ng opisina. War zone ang pinupuntahan nyo kaya dapat malaki ang bayad sa inyo.

    Ang sa akin lang naman ay dapat mataas ang bayad sa inyo.
    Ang inyong kapakanan ang nasa isip ko.

    Dominique,

    Maraming salamat sa pagalala mo sa dapat naming sahurin, sana nga mas malaki pa. Pero ang 600 po ni kinita ko doon ay mas malaki pa sa 300 na kinita ko sa Kuwait monthly.

    Galing na po ako doon kaya alam ko na rin ang RISK na sinasabi ninyo. HUWAG po kaagad maniwala sa mga nakikita ninyo sa TV tungkol sa Iraq.

    Kung gusto po ninyong makatulong eh suportahan na lang ninyo ang pagpapatrabaho sa amin ng mga security companies tulad ng Black Water. Tulad mo ng sabi ni Mamme Ellen SECURITY GUARDS po kami doon.

    Yang katatawag ng MERCENARIES sa amin ang nagpapa sensationalize ng issue na ito

  65. trabahapi trabahapi

    Yuko Tache:

    Tagal ako nawala kasi kailangan ko trabaho para pamilya ko. Hindi kasi ako tulad mo na work for pleasure lang. mabuti ka pa.

    Katas okey ang mga posting mo kay Yuko Sabay Tache;

    Tama ka, she has never worked a day in her life and was born with a silver spoon in her mouth.

    Yuko Tache:

    May tawag ang mga lolo ko sa katulad mo at mga kaibigan mo noong panahon ng gyera dito sa Pinas (WW2), MAKAPILI. Ikaw ang Modern Day Makapili!!!

    Noon ang mga Makapili may bayong na nakasaklob sa ulo. Kayo ng grupo ninyo, ano ang nakasaklob sa ulo ninyo? Arenola? Kaldero? Timba?

    MAY JAPANESE BLOOD ka pala and you consider yourself Japanese. Siguro your ancestors were raped by Japanese soldiers kaya may Japanese blood ka. Bukkake!!!

  66. trabahapi trabahapi

    Yuko Sabay Tache ng Japan:
    Puede ba, hindi na teritoryo ng Amerika ang Pilipinas para kumilos pang parang mga alipin ng mga kano ang mga pilipino? At saka, puede ba huwag naman ninyong ipakitang handa kayong kumain ng tae ng mga kano “makaranas lang kayo ng kaunting ginhawa”?! Yuck!

    Dapat diyan, ipinaglalaban ninyo ang inyong mga karapatang hindi gutumin ng mga milyonaryong nakaupo sa inyong pamahalaan. Aba, nagmalaki pa iyong pandak na mayayaman daw ang mga ministro niya habang nagugutom ang mga kababayan niyang handang magpakamatay “makaranas lang siya ng kaunting kaginhawahan!” Ang tindi! Dapat magmartsa kayo araw-araw para mapalitan ng mga matitino ang mga talagang nagpapahirap sa inyo.

    Puro ka dakdak wala ka naman pala dito sa Pilipinas para danasin ang hirap. So anong alam mo sa mga nangyayari talaga dito? Wala kang karanasan sa mga paghihirap na idinadakdak mo.
    Mabuhay ang Modern Day Makapili!!!

  67. trabahapi trabahapi

    Ellen:

    Marami pong salamat sa iyong pangunawa na malawak tungkol sa paghihirap namin.

    I understand na ang tinitira ninyo ay ang mis-managed government natin kaya ang mga katulad namin ay kailangang magtrabaho sa delikadong lugar.

    Pero kung hahantayin po naming maayos ang gobyerno natin ngayon din, makakalagpas naman ang opportunidad naming makapagtrabaho para sa mga companies na ito na nangangailangan ng security guards.

    Sundalo – underpaid, deployed sa Mindanao, deployed sa NPA infested areas. Ang pumapatay ay mga armas din na ibinenta ng sariling opisyal sa kalaban. Pag namatay ka, ang insurance mo, katiting. Kung retired ka masuerte ka na kung may retirement ka pang makuha o pakinabangan.

    Security Guards sa Pinas- Under paid, 12 hours per day, napapatay sa holdapan ng mga banko. Ang mga holdaper ex military o di kaya ex police. Ang holdapan ng mga banko sa Pilipinas ay tuwing malapit na ang election sa atin.

    Mamme Ellen, saan ako lalagay sa pagiging security guard dito o sundalo o ang pagiging security guard para sa dayuhang kompanya? Kahit anong gawin ko ay hindi ko po kikitahin ang sinahod kong $600 / month sa Iraq dito sa Pilipinas.

    Tawagin na akong nakakadiri ni Yuko Tache ng Japan, pero may anak po ako at asawa na kailangang buhayin. Hindi po katulad ni yuko Tache na posibleng single, overweight, and an old maid. Kaya ang tingin niya sa aming mga nangangailangan ng trabaho ay nakakadiri at bobo.

    Salamat po uli sa mga dasal ninyo Ms Ellen. At para sa iyo Katas ng Iraq, sana magkita na lang tayo doon at maging hapi hapi sa ating mga trabahapi!!!! BABAYUUUUU

  68. ramkor ramkor

    Kung hindi kasiraan ng ulo ang pagpunta ng mga pilipinong ito sa mga lugar na may giyera para lang mamamatay imbes na mabuhay e ano iyan? Kabobohan?

    ystakei:Isa ako sa sumulat lastweek na nagtatanong ng karagdagang detalye tungkol sa pag re-recriut ng 1 US outfit ng mga Fils na willing mag merc sa Iraq o sa alin mang bansa na pagdadalhan sa kanila. Para atang mahirap ipaliwanag sa iyo ate(di ka pala kuya,sori akala ko lalaki ka sa asta ng pananalita mo…)na may mga taong ang linya ay sa armas.
    Ang mga taong ito ay mga,sundalo,pulis,security guards at bodyguards,at etc. Wag na nating alamin kung bakit itong line of work na ito ang napili ng taong humawak ng arams para lang may kitain para sa sarili at sa pamilya.
    Talamak ang kasamaan at kaguluhan saan mang panig ng mundo. Anu kaya ang mangyayari sa mga mamamayan, at kasama ka riyan ate Yuko, kung wala itong mga taong ito na handang mamatay para may ikabuhay, at dahil sa trabaho nilang iyan ay nabibiyayaan din ang karamihan ng kapayapaang tinatamsa nating lahat,makakapag-log in ba tayo dito araw-araw para tawagin silang bobo? Makakatulog ba tayo ng maayos?
    Dati akong sundalo. Umalis ako sa serbisyo,ilan taon na ang nakakaraan. Sinubukan ko ang ibang trabaho pero sa kasamaang palad ay di pa rin kasya ang kita kaya heto at nag hahangad akong mag apply at sumubok sa Blackwater. Di ko pa rin alam kung paano ko ito mapapasok sa ngayon.
    Paki-usap lang,wag nyong husgahan ang mga taong nasa ganitong linya ng trabaho. Paki-uasp din lang,wag nyong sabihin lagi kayong tama…

  69. trabahapi trabahapi

    RAMKOR: Gud luck sa iyo pare ko. Sana nga eh itigil na ng mga unggoy na katulad ni Yuko Sabay Tache ang paghusga sa atin. Baka mamaya sa sobrang over reaction ng mga politicians natin eh UMURONG ang Blackwater, mawalan na naman tayo ng chance na makapagtrabaho.

    Ano ba naman ang maipapakain sa atin ni Yuko sabay tache eh sobra na ang yaman niyan at hindi na nga siya nagtratrabaho para sa pera. Para lang daw for pleasure. Kungdi pala siya katulad din ng mga nakaupo sa gobyernong may SAPAK SA ULO.

  70. Ramkor,

    Puwede bang matanong kita?

    Saan kang service sa AFP? Ilang taon ka sa serbisyo at kailan ka umalis?

    Army, Navy o Air Force? Ano ang rango mo noong sundalo ka? enlisted o NCO?

    Puwedeng matanong kung bakit umalis ka sa serbisyo?

    Salamat ng marami at Good luck sa iyo.

  71. ystakei ystakei

    Ramkor:

    Hindi kita maiintindihan kung bakit ipinagpipilitan ninyong gusto ninyong pumatay ng kapwa nilalang ninyong tao.

    I work at the police in Tokyo (Ang mga sundalo dito ay hindi nakikialam sa pagpapanatili ng peace and order sa Japan, at bawal sa kanilang mamaril kahit na sino hanggat walang tumitira sa Japan sa isang digmaan!), and never once have I heard a policeman here say that he has to use his gun to keep peace and order in Japan. Hindi pa mga Kristyano ang mga tao dito pero may pagpapahalaga sa buhay ng iba.

    Walang justification sa mga pinagsasabi ninyong pagnanais ninyong pumatay ng ibang tao na hindi naman ninyo kaaway. Kaya siguro pinaparusahan ng Diyos ang Pilipinas dahil sa marami na pala sa inyo diyan ang mamamatay tao para mabuhay!

    THOU SHALT NOT KILL ang isa sa mahalagang utos ng Diyos. Walang justification sa gusto ninyong pagpapatay ng ibang tao para may maipalamon kayo sa mga pamilya ninyo. Patawarin kayo ng Diyos sa mga uri ng pag-iisip ninyo!

    Sundalong kanin ang tingin ko sa mga sundalong pinoy ngayon lalo na iyong nababayaran. Ibang-iba doon sa mga nagbuwis ng buhay nila noong nakaraang digmaan.

  72. ystakei ystakei

    Nakikita ang mga kaiklian ng isip ninyo Trabahapi. Bakit hindi ninyo alam na ang ibig sabihin ng Makapili ay Maka-Pilipino na iyan mga taong iyan ay hindi naman basta-basta sumapi sa mga hapon kundi matagal nang nakikipaglaban para sa kasarinlan ng Pilipinas.

    Hindi ako Makapili, gago! Dahil hindi pa ako ipinapanganak noon. At kahit na lahing hapon kami, hindi naman sumama ang tatay ko at mga kapatid niya sa sandatahang hapon. Doon sila sumama sa mga gerilya! Baka isa pa nga sa mga malapit mong kamag-anak ang nagsusuplong sa mga katulad nila para mapatay ng mga hapon! Dahil ang mga tipo ninyo ang maaaring ipagbili ang bayan at kababayan ninyo kapag nagutom!!! Pwe!!!

  73. ystakei ystakei

    Sariling history ng mga ito, hindi pa alam. Palibhasa hanggang doon na lang ang kaya nila. Pumatay para magkakuwarta! Ang tawag diyan mga criminally inclined.

    Diyos mahabag! Kaya pala nagpuputukan na ang mga bulkan sa Pilipinas! Sino kaya ang inuubos?

  74. ystakei ystakei

    Sira rin ang ulo ng nagsabi Ystakei for President! Hindi pa nasisira ang ulo ko para gumaya doon sa magnanakaw ng boto! Bakit kailangan bang maging politiko ka para makagawa ka ng mabuti sa kapwa mo? Siguro diyan sa Pilipinas, but not in Japan. Dito ay malaya kaming sumali kahit na sa anumang organization lalo na kung mabuti. At saka sumali man kami sa mga protests dito walang tumatawag sa aming komunista, o leftist kami.

    Ang kitid naman ng mga utak! Palibhasa puro pagpatay na lang ng tao ang iniisip! Dito iyong mga walang magawang matino nagpapakamatay na lang.

  75. Please, hindi si Yuko ang isyu sa problema ng bayan. Si Gloria Arroyo!

  76. Ramkor, hindi ko makunsyensya na itulak kita sa iyong kapahamakan.

    Huwag sana mangyari na isang araw mabalitaan namin, mayroon na namang isang Pilipino na makidnap o masawi sa Iraq o Afghanistan.

    Kung makuha mo ang address ng Blackwater sa ibang paraan, isama kita sa pagdasal na hindi kayo lahat mapahamak.

  77. trabahapi trabahapi

    Ellen: Ang isyu ninyo kay Gloria as sa inyo na lang muna ni Yuko sa Tache.

    Ang isyu namin ay ang makapagtrabaho ngayon as security guards. Hindi lahat ng tao ay kasing swerte ni old maid, over weight, and lives alone na si Yuko sa Tache ng Japan.

    Ramkor, Katas and myself have to work for a living. Security Guards po kami, nagbabantay ang pinapasok namin. Hindi pumapatay ng tao like how the Japanese Leftist portrays us.

  78. trabahapi trabahapi

    Ellen: Suggested issues na pwede mong gamitin para tirahin si Gloria:

    1. Corruption in every level mula sa baranggay tanod
    2. Education ng kabataan.
    3. ACCOUNTABILITY ng lahat ng gastus ng govyerno.
    4. AIRPORT nating bulok at ang bago na hindi mabuksan buksan.

    Etc, etc, etc,….

    Pero to start another issue with us wanting to work, kahit anong dasal ang gawin mo, hindi makakatulong yan sa amin at sa gusto mong patalsikin na si Gloria. Back to square one na naman kayo.

    Gaano ba talaga kalaking issue ito kumpara sa Garci? Presidential Elections? Disgruntled na grupo ni Trillanes? Why has all the issues on that one died down? Si Gen Garcia, yung general na may Green Card? Bakit ang tagal namang bitayin? Baka may kinalaman sa pagsupport sa presidency?

    Tigilan nyo na lang ang pagalala sa katayuan namin kung ano ang mangyari sa amin. Daming DH sa Kuwait at Saudi na sagana sa bugbog at parang hayop kapag tinitrato bakit hindi yun ang hingiin ninyong lagyan ng ban???

  79. trabahapi trabahapi

    Yuko Sabay Tache:

    Sundalong kanin? What do you know about soldiering? What you’ve seen sa movies, internet, and books???

    Have you even served a day in the military? What do you know about sacrifice???

    Ah alam ko na!!!! Ang sacrifice para sa iyo, ang kumain ng isang bandehadong SOBA and not be constipated for a whole week.

    Ellen: Yuko sabay Tache is part of the problem. Mga taong ganito na makikitid ang utak na lumalait sa amin at ang tingin sa amin ay pumapatay ng tao kasi kami ay mga dating sundalo o security guard na nais magtrabaho sa Iraq o Afghanistan. Her self serving fat ass should just stay in Japan .

  80. trabahapi trabahapi

    Bato bato sa Langit tamaan wag magalit walang butas ang puwit.

    Sino ang ipapalit ninyo kapag bumaba o napatalsik na si Gloria???

    Anong solution ninyo para hindi na umulit ng umulit ang mga issues tungkol kay GMA??? Edukasyon, pagtaas ng unemployment, etc…?

    Napakadaling pumuna pero hindi naman makapgbigay ng solusyon. Wala pa akong nakikita sa post na ito kungdi Gloria, kasalanin ni bansot. Hindi ako makabansot!!!! Wala akong pake kung sinong magnanakaw ang ipalit.

    Ang pake ko sa ngayon ay MAKARAOS KAMI NG PAMILYA KO SA PANGARAW ARAW. Pag may trabaho, hapi na si trabahapi.

    Yuko sabay Tache: wag ka ng sumagot sa tanong kasi puro na naman sa Japan ng sa Japan ang babanggitin mo. Dyan ka na lang at maghanap ka ng SAKANG na malabo ang mata na papatal sa iyo.

  81. trabahapi trabahapi

    Yuko Sabay Tache said:

    Dito (Japan) iyong mga walang magawang matino nagpapakamatay na lang.

    Bakit di ka pa sumama sa kanila???
    ?

  82. Hello everyone, hi Ellen, (finally got my personal comp and renewed my password!)

    Ang aking request sana ay dahan dahan sa insulto mga Sundalo!

    Hindi dahil sa babae si Yuko kung hindi kailangan bigyan din ng saysay ang kanyang mga kritiko dito dahil nagmamalasakit lang siya.

    Kung talagang maganda ang inyong kinabukasan sa pagtratrabaho sa Iraq, kayo lang ang makapagsasabi nito.

    Ganoon pa man ay hindi natin maiaalis sa ibang taongbayan ang magtanong kung tama o hindi ang pag-bigay ng ating gobyerno sa banyagang mercenary operators, para-military recruitment at training centers sa ating bayan. Hindi lang kayo ang pinagmamalasakitan – kundi ang maraming Pinoy din liban sa inyo.

    Sa maraming Pinoy ay hindi tama na ang mga banyagang kumpanya ay gumawa ng para-military operations para i-deploy sa ibang bansa na may guerra ng mga tao na galing sa ating bayan, maski na sila ay Kano, Arabo, Hapon, Aleman, Intsik o iba pa.

    Ganoon pa man din, nasa inyo ang huling desisyon kung kayo ay ibibilang sa mga recruits ng mga foreign para-military operators para i-deploy sa Iraq o sa Iran at sa iba pa. Walang makapagpipigil sa inyo. Tama kayo, maski magdasal siguro lahat ng kaibigan ninyo, pamilya at iba pa, walang magagawa ang dasal kung kayo a desidido na.

    Kaya nga lang, ngayon na alam natin na kayo ay matapang at desidido, konting lamig na lang – huwag insultuhan – hindi iyan ang pagkakakilala ng tapang sa isang tao.

    Salamat.

  83. trabahapi trabahapi

    Anna:
    Ibinabalik lang naman ang insulto sa umiinsulto.

    Ang ganang amin lang naman ay ang pagkakataon naming kami naman ang makapagtrabaho doon.

    Galing na po ako doon at hindi po katulad ng nakasaad sa mga post na kami ay pumapatay ng tao. Guardiya po ako ng installation doon sa Green Zone. Security Guard. Hindi po katulad ng pinoportray ng media na kami ay mga mercenaries / militaries for hire.

  84. Hello Trabahapi,

    Si Anna ito (hindi ko computer ito kaya logged on ako sa ibang ID).

    Salamat sa pagsagot mo.

    Naniniwala ako sa sinasabi mo na ang ibang lugar sa Middle East ay hindi naman puro guerra.

    Nagpunta ako sa Afghanistan (Kabul) noong 11 buwan nakaraan (halos isang taon na) at hindi naman masyadong magulo at nasa dinig ko ay may gulo s.

    Ngunit di pa ako nakapunta sa Iraq at hindi ko alam ang kalagayan doon maliban sa nakikita natin sa

  85. telebisyon.

    Ngayon ko lang nasabi sa blog na ito na ako ay nagpunta ng Kabul dahil pinagbwalan kami na sabihin at hintayin ang 10 buwan makalipas na panahon bago puwedeng sabihin ang pagbisita doon.

    Gusto ko ang Kabul pero napakahirap pa rin ang buhay ng mga Afghans. Maski ang mga pagkain ng mga NATO expats doon ay galing pa rin sa Europe kaya ang Kabul ay naghihirap pa rin dahil imbes na pagtrabahuhin ang mga Afghans ay kuha pa rin sa Europe ang lahat ng kailangan at ayaw ng NATO na ibigay ang trabaho sa mga Afghans na magproduce ng mga kakailanganin. Siguro, magbabago na ito very soon.

    Ang maipapayo ko para sa gusto o desidido na magpunta sa Iraq ay negotiate ninyo ang kontrata ninyo ng mahusay. Kung kayo ay desidio na magtrabaho sa Iraq, kailangan talaga na kayo ay mayroong magaling na risk premium at mahusay na proteksyon para sa katauhan ang hingin ninyo. Ang nadinig ko ay medyo kulang ang mga foreign hires ng personal protection.

    Ang problema ng mga kompanya ngayon na nagre-recruit ng foreign hirs para sa Iraq ay malaki ang hinging bayad sa kanila para sa insurance o high risk premimums – iilan lang na kompanya ang nagbebenta ng insurance coverage sa mga foreign hires sa Iraq at napakamahal pa. Kaya ang ibang US companies ay walang risk cover para sa mga recruits nila.

    Kaya siguraduhin ninyo na hawak ng pamilya ninyo ang “high risk insurance policy” na covered ng tunay na insurance company. Maraming bogus.

    Isa pa, kailangan sigurado na nagbabayad ng premium ang nag-recruit regularly dahil kung hindi bale wala ang policy document na hawak ninyo.

    Good luck sa inyo.

  86. At Trabahapi,

    Naniniwala ako na iilan lang sa mundo ngayon ang talagang professional private Filipino mercenaries (na binabayaran para pumatay). Ang isang pinakilalang Pinoy na mercenary (at may kompanya pa siya) ay Filipino-American na laging nasa Africa.

    Kaya kung sinasabi mo na ikaw ay hindi mercenary, puwede kitang paniwalaan.

  87. Anna, thanks for the advise on insurance. The people in the DFA said that’s important because if the US company reneges on its insurance commitments, its very hard for the beneficiary to go to court in the US.

    That’s Malaya’s point in coming out with the story on these Private Military companies’ recruitment here in the Philippines. First, we have to recognize that it is happening so adequate protection can be instituted.

  88. ramkor ramkor

    HILLBLOGGER: Army,Infantry Div. One and a half year akong active. 6 mos. basic training, and 1 year. na 2nd class at 1st class trainee(6 mos. each).Yung last year ko ay solid sa hot spot nuon sa Isabela at Kalinga. Di na ko nag-pa enlist. So ang ranggo ko ng ako’y umalis ay reservd private.
    Personal ang dahilan pero foremost ay ang kagustuhan ko rin namang makakita ng mas mapayapng paraan ng pag kita ng ikabubuhay.Pero,talagang mahirap realistically, sa mga walang natapos or skill na makipagsapalaran lalo na’t may pamilya na tayo.

    trabahapi: ty pre. me bakante pa ba dyan sa kumpanya nyo?

    ystakei Says:

    June 18th, 2006 at 6:13 pm

    Ramkor:

    Hindi kita maiintindihan kung bakit ipinagpipilitan ninyong gusto ninyong pumatay ng kapwa nilalang ninyong tao.

    —Ate Yuko, bakit di mo maintindihan na itinuturing naming “marangal” na trabaho ang ganitong line of work, sundalo (o mercenary),pulis ,sikyu at bodyguard? Ang paniniwala ko,kami’y humahawak ng armas sa aming trabaho para mapanatili ang kaayusan at kapayapaan. Wag nyong sabihin na lahat ng gumagawa ng krimen ay mga taong nasa ganitong linya. Wag nyo ring sabihin na walang kabutihang nagagawa ang mga taong ganito lalo nasa sa usaping pangkapayapaan?
    May paniniwala kayo. at meron din naman ako. Alam ko ang aking sinasabi at alam ko ang binabalak kong pasukin.O baka naman sabihin nyo pang ganyan talaga ang paniniwala ng kriminal?
    At oo pala, di rin ako baliw…
    Trabaho po ang hanap ko at hindi ang pumatay. I won’t say more, mag galangan na lang tayo ng opinyon…

    Ellen Says:

    June 18th, 2006 at 10:54 pm

    Please, hindi si Yuko ang isyu sa problema ng bayan. Si Gloria Arroyo!

    Ellen Says:

    June 18th, 2006 at 10:58 pm

    Ramkor, hindi ko makunsyensya na itulak kita sa iyong kapahamakan.

    Huwag sana mangyari na isang araw mabalitaan namin, mayroon na namang isang Pilipino na makidnap o masawi sa Iraq o Afghanistan.

    Kung makuha mo ang address ng Blackwater sa ibang paraan, isama kita sa pagdasal na hindi kayo lahat mapahamak.

    —Sori ate Ellen pero kami ang ginawang isyu ni ate Yuko ng tawagin kaming bobo,mangmang at di marunong sa math.
    Naiintindihan ko ang posisyon nyo sa usaping ito. Sumulat lang ako sa paghahangad na makakita ng “kontak” dito at di makipag-debate. Salamat sa pang unawa at salamt sa dasal sa mga “andun” na at sa mga darating pa.

  89. Salamat Ramkor. Aking payo: mag apply ka ng trabaho kung gusto mo ng trabahong ganyan sa ibang bansa – deployment Afghanistan (Khabul) at kung may technical qualification ka ay mas mahusay. May outsourcing din ang NATO doon pero kailangan hanapin mo ang kompanya na nag-outsource ng foreign hires.

    Re Ramkor’s: “Wag nyong sabihin na lahat ng gumagawa ng krimen ay mga taong nasa ganitong linya. Wag nyo ring sabihin na walang kabutihang nagagawa ang mga taong ganito lalo nasa sa usaping pangkapayapaan?”

    I get the gist of what Ramkor is saying and I understand where he is coming from.

  90. ystakei ystakei

    You said it, Anna and Ellen. Dapat sa mga suicide na ito ay siguruhin nilang insured sila. Hindi iyong urong ng urong gaya noong mga Japayuki na isinasadlak sa Japan before the Japanese government decided it’s time to end the madness lalo na’t dumadami ang mga bastardong anak ng mga pilipinang nawalan na ng hiyang nagpapabuntis sa mga hapon para maka-stay ng Japan.

    Anong kapayapaan ang sinasabi ng mga ito? Pinatay na ng mga Amerikano ang 250,000 Iraqis, wala pa ring kapayapaan sa Iraq o kahit na sa Afghanistan. I went there two years ago as a matter of fact before the attack on Iraq. Hindi kami pinapasok sa Kabul. Hanggang border na lang kami kasi delikado pa.

    Karapatan lang ng mga Iraqi na ipagtanggol ang bansa nila na sila lang ang nakakaalam kung papaano nila susupilin ang kanilang lipunan lalo na’t iba’t iba ang mga tribo nila.

    Di komo nakapunta na ang isang mangmang doon ay alam na alam na niya ang katayuan doon. Dito nga sa Japan, may mga pilipino overstay dito for more than 10 years wala pa ring alam tungkol sa talagang Hapon kasi they live in their own world. Ang mga hapon “malihim” lalo na sa mga dayuhang hindi naman nila kilala ang mga pagkatao.

    Magmura na iyong mangmang wala akong pakialam. Hindi naman ako ang mamamatay! And BTW, kahit na hindi ako magtrabaho hindi ko kailangang magpakamatay para mabuhay!

    Ano ba ang pinagpuputok ng butsi ni Trabahapi daw. Golly , kinokopya na nga hindi pa rin makopya ng tama ang ID ko! Ang bobo naman!

    Nakakatakot ang mga ganitong uri ng mga taong ipapadala sa Iraq para sa kapayapaan daw. Dito pa lang sa Internet, nakikipagguerra na hindi pa ako ang talagang kaaway. Ano na kung iyong magpupugot ng ulo ang kaharap na nila! Bagay, ang sabi nga ng mga maginoong pilipino, ang pumatol sa babae ay binabae siguro!!! :-p

  91. ystakei ystakei

    Speaking dito sa Japan, ang mga pilipina pumapasok sa mga gusot na kasama ng mga putol ang daliri (Yakuza) tungkol sa mga insurance. Easy money ang nasasaisip palagi. Pero pag tunay na bayaran ng talagang insurance ayaw magbayad. Kaya hindi sila makapagpagamot ng tama. Nagta-travel sa ibang lugar hindi nagpapa-insure. Ang daming inaatake sa eroplano, bababa tuloy ang eroplano at dadalhin sila sa isang ospital para buhayin, pero walang insurance at hindi mabayaran ang hospital bills. Takbo sa Philippine Embassy o Consulate pero sasabihan naman na walang pera ang bansa. Labas tuloy nangongolekta ng abuloy sa mga pilipinong kapareho din nilang nagpapakahirap mabuhay sa ibang bansa.

    Kaya para sa akin, kung gusto talaga ng mga pilipinong tumino ang buhay nila, unahin muna nilang paalisin si Pandak at mga galamay niya at mga walang kuwentang mga nagpapalakad ng bansa nila at mga dayuhang nagsasamantala sa mga pilipino. Baka magkaroon pa sila ng tunay na pag-asa at ginhawa.

    Nakakaawang nakakaiyak di ba? Bakit kailangang magpakamatay ang mga ito para guminhawa?

    BTW, hindi ako naniniwalang tunay na isang nagigipit itong bastos na hindi marunong mag-spell ng ID name ko. Mukhang kilala ko ang ungas na iyan na kaparehong-kapareho ng writing style noong isang bastos na miyembre ng Internet Brigade ni Pandak na sumasabak sa mga ganitong egroup para manggulo. Buti na lang beterano na tayo sa mga ganitong provocateurs!

  92. ystakei ystakei

    Speaking dito sa Japan, ang mga pilipina pumapasok sa mga gusot na kasama ng mga putol ang daliri (Yakuza) tungkol sa mga insurance. Easy money ang nasasaisip palagi. Pero pag tunay na bayaran ng talagang insurance ayaw magbayad. Kaya hindi sila makapagpagamot ng tama. Nagta-travel sa ibang lugar hindi nagpapa-insure. Ang daming inaatake sa eroplano, bababa tuloy ang eroplano at dadalhin sila sa isang ospital para buhayin, pero walang insurance at hindi mabayaran ang hospital bills. Takbo sa Philippine Embassy o Consulate pero sasabihan naman na walang pera ang bansa. Labas tuloy nangongolekta ng abuloy sa mga pilipinong kapareho din nilang nagpapakahirap mabuhay sa ibang bansa.

    Kaya para sa akin, kung gusto talaga ng mga pilipinong tumino ang buhay nila, unahin muna nilang paalisin si Pandak at mga galamay niya at mga walang kuwentang mga nagpapalakad ng bansa nila at mga dayuhang nagsasamantala sa mga pilipino. Baka magkaroon pa sila ng tunay na pag-asa at ginhawa.

    Nakakaawang nakakaiyak di ba? Bakit kailangang magpakamatay ang mga ito para guminhawa?

    BTW, hindi ako naniniwalang tunay na isang nagigipit itong bastos na hindi marunong mag-spell ng ID name ko. Mukhang kilala ko ang ungas na iyan na kaparehong-kapareho ng writing style noong isang bastos na miyembre ng Internet Brigade ni Pandak na sumasabak sa mga ganitong egroup para manggulo. Buti na lang beterano na tayo sa mga ganitong provocateurs!

    Laking bayad daw ng mga ito kay Pandak!

  93. ystakei ystakei

    Ellen:

    Here’s a response from my friends at RAWA to “The Afghanistan Miracle”published in The Seattle Times (October 4, 2005) by Diane Tebelius

    The “Miracle” or a Mockery of Afghanistan?

    Ms. Diane Tebelius, Republican congressional candidate and observer in the Afghan elections sponsored by the International Republican Institute, is perhaps the first election observer in Afghanistan who wasted no time to communicate her impression in The Seattle Times of October 4, 2005.

    A few days ago Ms. Tebelius returned to the United States from Kabul, I am writing these notes as a response to her dreadful article from inside my trampled country. As a member of RAWA, I had to be in several provinces to meet as many people as possible regarding the elections. Tebelius can enjoy the luxury of sitting in her house and so easily call the disgusting mockery of an election “the miracle of Afghanistan”, while I am crying from among the people in the hell of the Taliban and Northern Alliance (NA) terrorists and their “westernized” accomplices. Tebelius and other election observers with their bullet-proofs and body guards were in the hands of the American soldiers and Afghan agents. She might have been told about “swift spreading democracy”, “prosperity”, “complete security” and other “miracles” in our land of warlords and payees of foreign powers. On the other hand since she was selected by the U.S. government that brought Karzai and the Northern Alliance to the scene, it comes as no surprise she is not calling a spade a spade.

    One of her miraculous statements is: “The Afghan people see Americans as liberators.”

    A distorted proclamation! As we have repeatedly asserted and shown, all of the fundamentalist bands including Taliban were created, funded, and trained by the CIA turning a blind eye to the higher interest of the Afghan people and to the consequence of such sinister support to the fate of freedom and democracy in our country. Thus, the US war on the Taliban is nothing but a family fracas between the father and his rogue children. The US started the fracas by not replacing religious tyranny with democracy, by not relying on the people, but rather by siding with the NA, the very worst enemies of our people. It goes without saying that Afghans will not see as their “liberators” those who drove the Taliban wolves through one door and unchained the rabid dogs of the NA through another. How a nation “sees as liberators” those who have blown to shred not the terrorists but thousands of innocents? How can simple Afghans “see Americans as liberators” while the “liberators” are going to woo their men in the government and in the parliament to approve the establishment of the US bases on our soil for decades, which obviously goes contrary to the independence of the country? Our people say that if Americans were their liberators, they should have not allowed about 200 criminals and arch enemies of democracy to pave their way to the parliament and provincial council. After four years the people see that the “liberators’” promises for them were all lies. And bear it in mind, Ms. Tebelius, that our ruined people have no doubt that those with the disgraceful stories of Abu Ghraib cannot be their “liberators”. Do we need to recite abuses of the “liberators” in Afghanistan?

    Even high-salaried government spokespersons do not have the courage to utter such nonsense openly before the people of Afghanistan. But Ms. Tebelius as a U.S. agent and good friend of one of the two most corrupt governments in Asia can and has to throw dust in the eyes of Americans.

    Now let’s see more of her “miraculous” words: “I am convinced, now more than ever, that spreading of democracy is the only long-term strategy to defeat global terrorism.”

    Nice maxim! But were Americans or Karzai & Co. “spreading democracy” since 2001? After 9/11 when the U.S. resorted to bomb our wounded country and take the lives of several thousands innocent civilians it helped the bloodthirsty NA seize power. The NA is comprised of those millionaire rapists busy in the opium trade under the very nose of the US troops. They are the people behind the insecurity, kidnappings, embezzlement of billions of dollars of foreign aids, injustices, anti-women constraints, covering up of the day light murders, and so on and so forth.

    They include the likes of Dr Abdullah, Younis Qanooni, Zia Massud, Karim Khalili, Burhanuddin Rabbani, Mohaqiq, Sarwar Danish, Ms. Mosouda Jalal, Nematullah Shahrani, Ismail Khan, Ms. Sediqa Balkhi, Rasul Sayyaf, Ikram Masoomi, Rashid Dostum, Mullah Fazil Hadi Shinwari, Ms. Amena Afzali and others are stained with the blood of tens of thousands of Kabul residents. All of these ladies and gentlemen have the disgraceful scar of inhuman brutalities against our people in the blackest years of 1992-1996. They are “our” ministers, vice presidents and advisors to the president. Most of the Afghan ambassadors, governors, secretaries and other high ranking officials are also affiliated with NA mafia.

    Don’t you know them, Ms. Tebelius? Just months ago The New York Times and The Los Angles Times named some of them including one of Karzai’s brothers. Of course Human Right Watch (HRW) and other organizations have disclosed many more names. However, you Ms. Tebelius are making painstaking efforts to portray these criminals and spies as honorable persons under whose rule “democracy” will “spread” and an electoral “miracle” has already been performed! In any case, as one living in Afghanistan I shall mention the following parts of the “miracle” which obviously show only the tip of the iceberg:

    – For the presidential election about 70 percent of eligible voters went to the polls. The real figure of the turnout at the “miraculous” elections however is less the 40 percent and in some areas even lower than 30 percent.

    – A report by the HRW stated: “In addition to fear of Taliban and other insurgent forces, found primarily in the south and southeast, many voters and candidates voiced concerns to Human Right Watch about their sense of vulnerability at the hands of warlords forces, de facto or official militia forces ostensibly allied with the government:

    “Across the country, candidates and political organizers complained to Human Right Watch of cases in which local commanders or strongmen, or local government officials linked with them have held meeting in which they have told voters and community leaders for whom to vote. In some cases, candidates and their supporters allege that direct threats have been communicated.” [1]

    – Filthy figures of the Taliban including their foreign minister and the head of their dreaded religious secret police, notorious for executing and abusing thousands of men and women, criminals figures of the infamous terrorist band of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, high level members of the Soviet backed puppet regime were allowed to stand as candidates, a major factor of disappointment of people to go to the polls.

    A conservative EU observer mission said shortcomings during the campaign included intimidation, intervention by officials, inadequate voter lists and “deplorable” killing of candidates and election workers.

    – The so-called Electoral Complaints Commission received hundreds of notes about crimes of the fundamentalist leaders, but except some scapegoats, none of them were disqualified. And you know Ms. Tebelius who is the head of the Commission? Bismullah Bismil, an infamous fundamentalist and close relative of Ismail Khan!

    – Different kinds of rigging were so blatant that even pro-government and pro-fundamentalist papers couldn’t help but to hint at them.

    – In many districts no women could participate in the elections due to security problems. Nevertheless thousands of votes of the women were somehow managed to be cast into the ballot boxes.

    – Anti-fundamentalist and anti-government candidates of the parliament and provincial councils of Kapisa Province issued a joint statement condemning irregularities in the elections, desisted from campaign.

    – In all areas under the warlords, tens of thousands of ballots have been marked in favor of certain candidates and youth under the age of 18 were brought to vote.

    – Ballot boxes were kept for 48 hours or more before being transferred to the polling stations.

    – Ms. Shokria Barekzai a participant from Kabul alleged that just in front of her own eyes, ten votes for her were cast for another candidate.

    – In Kunduz province, 260,000 votes were cast, but 6,000 of them were excluded in favor of a pro-fundamentalist candidate.

    – In some ballots, voters had written words like “he is a murderer”, “he is a bandit”, “he is a foreign agent”, “He is a Talib”, etc. against some candidates, but they were all counted as valid votes.

    – Thousands of votes for independent candidates were burnt and thousands of fake votes were cast for the pro-fundamentalists/ pro-Karzai candidates.

    – Supervisors and vote counters were forbidden to carry pens. But during a check in a polling center in Nangarhar province, more than 200 pens were found from the mentioned workers. When I asked a middle-aged teacher which candidates is her favorite, she replied: “How can I vote for Engineer Ghaffar, or Hazarat Ali and the like who have blood on their hands?”

    – In a constituency in Paktia province, the number of voters was ten thousand, but at least twenty thousands ballots were cast there.. A 30- year-old man from Paktia who was not willing to vote told me: “When I see a traitor like General Shahnawaz Tanai that is so openly is active in election campaign, I can understand how anti-democratic and ridiculous the present election is.”

    – In Farah province, Naim Khan Farahi, the biggest landlord of the province, directly backed by the government, by the United Nations’ UNAMA and his gunmen became the “first winner” by committing every kind of irregularity. A nephew of this person is the head of UNAMA in Farah. In Farahrod district another nephew of his (Zabet Jalil) was forcing people by use of his armed henchmen to vote for his uncle.

    – Most of the people in Farah are of the opinion that if there were not so much fraud in the elections; Malaali Joya would have garnered at least fifty percent of all votes.

    – As in Herat and Nimroz provinces, the regime of Iran had also a hand in Farah. Its intelligence agencies gave 100 millions Toman (about $117,000) to Haji Taimor Shah. His huge color posters were unmatched by others.

    – nmatched nt, UNAMA and his gun The stink of the elections spread so wide that even the terrorist Al-Zawahiri talked about them in his statement of 20 September: “The election have been conducted under the terror of [Afghan] warlords. The elections were a masquerade more than anything else, as various regions of the country are under the control of highway men and warlords, and international observers …even the ballot boxes remained in the hands of warlords, bandits and the US agents before they were deposited at the polling centers.”

    To get another idea about the scale of corruption and the Karzai regime, we draw your attention to a confidential document recently disclosed by Dr. Ramazan Bashardost. As soon as Dr Bashardost was assigned as the minister of planning he tried to stop activities of 2,000 suspicious and money-maker NGOs, but was soon forced to resign. According to the document, presidents’ spokesperson, ministers and high ranking officials, in addition of other allowances get up to $36,000 annually from a British company. Whereas the disabled get $6 and ordinary government employees get $60 per month only.

    The overwhelming corruption has risen to the highest organs. “The President had asked me to assume the responsibility of the Administration of Fight against Corruption,” says Bashardost, “I however told him that I would undertake it provided to start from the Presidential Palace.”

    In an interview with Reuters on Aug.30, 2005, he says:

    “Government members, the NGOs, the big embassy staff, the United Nations staff … they made a mafia system and you can see the result.” [2]

    “We received about $12 billion since three years, where is the money?” he said, referring to international aid since the overthrow of the Taliban in late 2001.”

    “The Afghan people are against warlords, why does the international community, why does the Afghan government supports warlords?”

    “In the provinces, all governors are former warlords, all chiefs of police, and the Afghan people don’t accept this situation.”

    – And so on.

    It is not difficult to predict what will be the result of the “miracle” election about which you take comfort. A parliament filled with the most cruel, misogynist, anti-democracy, and reactionary fundamentalists headed by such disgusting drug traders as Sayyaf, Qanoni, Rabbani, Mohaqqiq, Pairam Qul, Hazrat Ali, and their likes. These U.S. backed religious fascists will never “spread democracy”, but rather try to “legitimate” and perpetuate their bloody domination on our people by sitting in the legislature as “lawmakers”.

    Ms. Tebelius, anybody who wants to be regarded as a friend of the people of Afghanistan and not of the present regime, she/he has to expose the fundamentalists and their dangerous agenda and avoid to dance to the tune of the US government or its blue-eyed boys in Afghanistan. As Aldous Huxley wrote, “The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human”. Please don’t play the role of a propagandist.

    Moreover by naming the most scandalous elections in the world “the miracle of Afghanistan”, you have insulted millions of Afghans who didn’t vote for the murderers of their beloved ones. Can’t you feel how painful and disgusting it is to propagate such nonsense?

    We hope to recognize you in the future as a sincere friend of our people.

    Mehmooda Shekiba, RAWA
    Kabul
    October 25, 2005

    Mehmooda Sheikiba is an activist of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) who has worked in the publications committee of RAWA during the past five years.

    ———————-

    1- Human Rights Watch Backgrounder, “Key Areas of Concern. The Threat from Taliban and other Insurgent Forces” (August 2005)

    2- From Robert Birsel, “Afghan Former Minister Takes Aim at ‘Mafia System’,” Reuters (August 30, 2005 at 3:53 AM ET) at http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=ISL51261

    The Afghanistan Miracle

    The Seattle Times (October 4, 2005)
    by Diane Tebelius

    Having just returned from Kabul, where I served as an election observer from the United States to Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections, I am convinced, now more than ever, that spreading democracy is the only long-term strategy to defeat global terrorism.

    I have witnessed firsthand the “miracle” of Afghanistan. The Afghan people see Americans as liberators and welcome our support, but our delegation never left the hotel without a security detail or our 30-pound bulletproof vests. And that is the picture that is painted in Afghanistan — the hope of democracy, shaded by the uncertainty of terrorism.

    For the historic parliamentary elections, men and women, old and young, defied the ongoing threats from Taliban holdouts and voted for a future free from oppression and violence. Nearly 6,000 candidates ran for the 249 seats in the National Assembly and for the 34 provincial councils.

    Because the illiteracy rates are high — 80 percent of the women, due in part to the Taliban’s policy of denying women access to education, and 50 percent for men — the ballots included the picture of the candidate and a symbol for that candidate. And because there were more candidates than recognizable symbols, the candidates had symbols such as “one lion”; “two lions”; and even “three lions.” Posters spread about the city before the election identified each candidate by their respective symbol.

    What struck me about these candidates were the issues they talked about: the same issues we find in our own public debates in Washington state. Transportation, safety and jobs headlined the different campaigns. However, unlike our state, where we debate millions of dollars to expand freeways or add bus lanes, Afghans just want the roads paved.

    Infrastructure, economic opportunity, public safety and education must exist within the context of a free society. A prosperous and free people will not strap bombs to themselves and blow up innocent women and children for any cause.

    In debating the “roots” of terrorism, you can talk about programs. to help the poor, or debt relief, or diplomatic relations. But if the words “we the people,” or “the emancipation of women,” or “respect for the rule of law,” have no meaning, then there is only tyranny.

    The women selling their wares on the streets of Kabul can now walk freely about without fear of being beaten if they are not covered from head to foot. The women who once were prisoners in their own homes because it was against the law to be seen in public without a man now joyfully take their daughters to school.

    There, too, lies a key to fighting terrorism. Surveys of Muslims that were conducted after the July bombings in London found that women, by a large margin, were much less sympathetic to the ideology of terrorism than were the men.

    Free the women, and you begin to safeguard future generations from the snares of Osama bin Laden and his culture of hatred and death.

    But building democracy and the institutions that serve the common good and protect individual rights, means you can never escape the uncertainty.

    The story of Afghanistan, and other emerging democracies around the world, should inspire us to stay the course. America and the free countries of this world must continue to provide aid and, yes, even military support to the peoples of Afghanistan.

    My most memorable moment involved meeting a young lady who had lost her father in the civil wars. She and her mother and brother had fled to Pakistan, and then returned when the Taliban took control. They were forced to leave again when she was told she could not attend school or even work. I asked her why she and her family chose to return after the Taliban’s ouster, despite the uncertainty. “Because I love my country,” was her heartfelt response.

    This is the hope and future of Afghanistan. With the world’s continued support, Afghans will succeed, terrorism will be defeated in that country, and the world will be safer.

    Diane Tebelius, a former federal prosecutor and Republican congressional candidate, is an attorney in Seattle. She served as an observer in the Afghanistan elections under the sponsorship of the International Republican Institute, a nonprofit organization promoting the growth of freedom and human rights globally. IRI is not affiliated with the Republican Party; it receives some funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

    *****
    Filipinos should listen to the people of the countries they are going to be deployed to to try to capitulate with the foreign invaders posing as peacemakers! But, yes, as Anna has stated, how do you tell that to people who themselves are willing to be invaded and subjugated by foreigners?

  94. Yuko,

    Invited kami ng SACEUR chief noong nagpunta kami sa Khabul (NATO aircraft ang ginamit) at ang tulog ay sa loob ng kampo ng NATO doon – nakapunta pa nga kami sa palengke at nakapamili ng souvenirs pero well guarded kami.

  95. ystakei ystakei

    BTW, Ellen, maraming mga pilipina dito nasasangkot sa mga insurance scam dahil sa kasakiman at pagkagahaman.

    Iyong mga pilipinong pupunta ng Iraq at Afghanistan, gaya ng sabi mo, ay talagang dapat na siguruhing may makukuha sila kapag napatay sila doon. Baka may insurance nga sila hindi naman mga pamilya nila ang beneficiary kundi iyong mga recruiter na involved sa pagre-recruit sa kanila. Lumang raket na, hindi pa rin nadadala! Sorry, pero plastik naman yatang tawaging katalinuhan iyan? Yuck!

    Remember the guy who died in Iraq before and the family lamented the fact that the Philippine government refused to provide assistance, etc. because of the fact that he went there without travel permit. Tignan nga natin ang magiging reaction ni Pandak kung mapugutan ng ulo ang isa sa mga susugod sa Iraq ngayon na wala daw nilang permiso!

    Isa na namang publicity stunt ni Bansot ito kapag nagkataon gaya nang makaligtas si Angelo dela Cruz!

    BTW, bakit itong si dela Cruz hindi siya nagsasalita para matauhan itong mga kababayan niya at ipaalam niya ang naramdaman niyang takot, pangamba at siphayo nang muntik na siyang mapugutan ng ulo sa Iraq? Hindi ba iyan ang sinabi niya doon sa mga kumidnap sa kaniya—Hindi na siya babalik sa Iraq at sasabihan niya ang mga pilipinong huwag pumunta doon na kasama ng mga Amerikano! Dugong aso din ba iyan?

  96. ystakei ystakei

    Anna:

    Sabi ko nga na nagpunta kami doon because of our advocacy at magdala ng mga paa para sa mga naputulan ng mga paa 2 years ago. Delikado kaya hindi na kami lumayo sa may border na malapit sa Islamabad sa Pakistan. Medyo kabado ako kasi hindi ko sinabi sa Mr. ko na doon ang punta ko at magagalit dahil nga delikado.

    Tama ka na delikado pa rin doon kasi iyong mga kaibigan kong Afghan na refugee sa Islamabad ay hindi na umuwi sa kanila. They tried, pero wala raw pagbabago kaya balik sila sa Islamabad.

    In other words, Anna, ang pakikisapalaran na ito ng mga pilipinong gustong yumaman agad ay dahil na rin sa kamangmangan kaya sila madaling malokong OK na OK ang magiging trabaho nila!

  97. popoy popoy

    Tache, isa ako sa mga yucky na OFW na mangmang na nag babakasali sa makapag trabaho sa Iraq. Hindi mo maiintindihan kung bakit madaming katulad ko. Masyadong mataas na kasi narating mo pati si Bill Gates walang sinabi sa yaman mo. Ni hindi mo yata naranasan magtrabaho so how do you expect to understand what regular people in the Philippines go through. Dami mong reklamo kay pandak, when was the last time you were here? Anong mga kapalpakan ng gobyerno(agree ang lahat na madami) ang directly naapektuahan ka? nang pumunta ka dito, bumaba ka ba sa palasyo mo? naranasan mo na ba buhay dito sa Pilipinas? Sinabi ni dela cruz na hindi niya masisisi ang mga gustong pumunta/bumalik sa Iraq. Bakit? Alam kasi niya ang reality ng buhay. Hindi niya alam yung “work for pleasure” karaniwang tao siya katulad naming mga OFW!

  98. ystakei ystakei

    WOW NAHULI RIN SA WAKAS! SABI KO NA MGA INTERNET BRIGADE NI PANDAK ANG MGA ITO KASI GUSTO NILANG MAPATUPAD ANG BALAK NILANG RAKETIN ANG MGA PILIPINO NA SUMAMA SA RAKET NA ITO NA KINAKALAP ANG MGA PILIPINO PARA IBALA SA MGA KANYON NG MGA AMERIKANO SA MURANG HALAGANG HINDI MATATANGGAP NG MGA MISMONG MGA AMERIKANO. KUNYARI PA ANG MGA LOKONG ITO NA ISINUSUBO ANG MGA KABABAYAN NILANG MAGPAKAMATAY PARA MAUBOS NA SIGURO ANG LAHING PILIPINO NA PAPALITAN NG MGA ASS (DONKEY) SA ENCHANTED KINGDOM NI PANDAK!

    HULING-HULI ANG MGA UNGAS NA RECRUITER NA ITO NA GALING SA PALASYONG KATABI NG MABAHONG ILOG! PUEDE BA TAMA NA ANG PAGPAPANGGAP NINYONG OFW KAYO! LAKI NG BAYAD NI PANDAK SA INYO!

  99. ystakei ystakei

    For the record, hindi ako OFW, dahil hindi ako dumaan sa OWWA, POEA o DoLE! Na-involve lang ako sa mga OFW nang humingi ng tulong ang Philippine Embassy sa akin noon kung puede kong patuluyin sa bahay ko ang isang runaway domestic helper! Wala pang masyadong maraming Japayuki noon. At medyo may hiya pa ang maraming mga pilipino noon. Ngayon mukhang pera na karamihan! Ang saklap!

  100. nelbar nelbar

    Meron akong na-meet na mga guwardya na mararangal naman ang trabaho na hindi tulad nila trabahapi at mga kasama nya!

    Iyong guwardiya na kilala ko nagja-janitor sa kumpanyang pinapasukan nya!Sa pagja-janitor nya, namumulot(iniipon niya) sya ng mga basura tulad ng plastic, carton na pwedeng pagkakitaan.
    Kapag may pagkakataon na nagkakakwentuhan kami tinatanong ko sya bakit hindi na lang sya magtrabaho sa Saudi o Middle East?Sagot nya sa akin, “Mas gusto ko na kasama ko ang pamilya ko”
    Ibinalik naman nya ang tanong sa akin. “Ikaw?Bakit ayaw mong mag abroad na lang?”
    Sagot ko naman, ‘nakapagtrabaho na ako noon, at HINDI AKO MUKHANG PERA’
    At isapa sinabi ko sa kanya, duon sa abroad hindi ka makakapagbasa ng mga dyaryo na hindi tulad dito na palagi nating ginagawa.

    Hanap natin ay maging cool na hanapbuhay at hindi magpa-alipin!

  101. ystakei ystakei

    Thanks, Nelbar, sa istorya mo! Iyang ang matalinong pilipino! Hindi nagpapaalipin at hindi mukhang kuwarta!

    Anyway, this is the best news I’ve heard this week that confirms the strength of the citizenry versus wrong policies pursued by our politicians here. At least, bababa na si Koizumi at hopefully, ang papalit sa kaniya ay hindi humahalik sa puwit ng mga kano!

    I wish such will be case in the Philippines someday:

    Japan Orders Pullout of Troops From Iraq
    By JOSEPH COLEMAN

    TOKYO (AP) – Japan ordered the withdrawal of its ground troops from Iraq on Tuesday, declaring the humanitarian mission a success and ending a groundbreaking dispatch that tested the limits of its pacifist postwar constitution.

    Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said the 600 non-combat troops – deployed in early 2004 – had helped rebuild infrastructure in the area where they were based, and he pledged further aid to Iraqi reconstruction.

    “Today we have decided to withdraw Ground Self-Defense Forces from the Samawah region in Iraq,” Koizumi said in a nationally televised news conference. “The humanitarian dispatch … has achieved its mission.”

    The withdrawal was decided in consultation with the United States and other allies, Koizumi said. Defense chief Fukushiro Nukaga told reporters earlier in the day that the pullout would take “several dozen days.”

    Koizumi has been a vocal supporter of U.S. policy in Iraq, arguing that the deployment was needed to aid reconstruction, secure oil supplies and bolster ties with Washington. He travels to Washington for a summit with President Bush later this month.

    Japan, which hosts 50,000 U.S. troops under a security treaty, will continue to stand with Washington, said Koizumi, who steps down in September.

    “Japan’s policy to cooperate with the United States based on the importance of the Japan-US alliance has never changed and will not change,” he said.

    The operation constituted Japan’s largest and most dangerous overseas military mission since the end of World War II. While concerns for the troops’ safety were high, the region they were based in was relatively peaceful. As security deteriorated, they were largely confined to their base.

    Tokyo will now consider expanding air operations in Iraq to include transport of medical supplies and U.N. personnel, following a request from U.N. General-Secretary Kofi Annan, said Takenori Kanzaki, head of the ruling party’s coalition partner, the New Komei Party.

    “Even after the withdrawal from Iraq, we must continue the efforts to support Iraq,” Kanzaki told reporters.

    The troops’ top tasks were purifying water and repairing schools, but he soldiers also patched roads and strengthened medical services. Koizumi said their work created jobs for the local economy.

    Although the mission is strictly non-combat and humanitarian, the deployment broke new ground as a symbol of Tokyo’s more assertive military policy.

    The move to withdraw followed the announcement on Monday that Britain and Australia would hand over responsibility for security to Iraqi forces in southern Muthana province, where the Japanese troops are based.

    That apparently was the signal to Tokyo that is was time to go. Japan has been concerned that its troops could be drawn into the fighting in Iraq.

    Nukaga ordered the withdrawal to begin later Tuesday. The Yomiuri newspaper reported the target for completing the pullout was the end of July.

    Polls showed half or more of the Japanese public opposed the mission, and many were concerned about the safety of troops in Iraq and the possibility that the dispatch would make Japan a target of terrorists.

    Critics also said the dispatch violated the U.S.-drafted 1947 constitution, which foreswears the use of force to settle international disputes. The Iraq mission followed a dispatch of Japanese ships to offer logistical support for military action in Afghanistan.

    Koizumi defended the deployment on Tuesday.

    “I believe we made the right decision,” he said.

    While no Japanese soldiers suffered casualties, other citizens in Iraq were targeted by militants demanding a Japanese withdrawal. Seven Japanese have been kidnapped in Iraq since the deployment, and two of them were killed.

    Japanese backpacker Shosei Koda, 24, was kidnapped and decapitated in Iraq in October 2004. Militants claimed to have abducted Akihito Saito, 44, a Japanese security manager employed by the British company Hart GMSSCO. A later statement said he died of wounds suffered in an ambush.

    Throughout, Koizumi was steadfast in his insistence on continuing the dispatch, despite polls that showed most Japanese were against it.

    The harshest test of the policy came in April 2004, when three Japanese aid workers were kidnapped and threatened with death unless Tokyo withdrew. Koizumi refused, and all three were later released unharmed.

    Still, opposition to the dispatch was strong. A poll published in the national Asahi newspaper late last year showed 69 percent of respondents opposed to continuing the mission. Nevertheless, Japan’s government in December extended the dispatch for another year.

    06/20/06 06:41 © Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained In this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

  102. ystakei ystakei

    Another news on the US soldiers in Iraq who were reportedly beheaded:

    Missing GIs found dead

    Iraq’s al-Qaida claims responsibilty for brutal `slaughter’ of U.S. soldiers

    By Associated Press
    June 20, 2006

    Updated 3:23 p.m. BAGHDAD, Iraq – U.S. forces today recovered the bodies of two American soldiers reported captured by insurgents last week. An Iraqi defense ministry official said the men were tortured and “killed in a barbaric way.”

    DEVELOPMENTS IN IRAQ

    Fierce election-year debate on Iraq spilled over into a second week on Capitol Hill with Senate Democrats lining up behind a proposal to start U.S. troop withdrawals this year and Republicans chastising them for espousing a “cut-and-run” strategy.

    U.S.-led forces killed 15 terrorist suspects and detained three others during raids today in a village northeast of Baghdad, the military said. Residents said 13 civilians also were killed. The military said the raid targeted individuals linked with a suspected senior al-Qaida in Iraq member, but it did not identify him.

    A parked minivan exploded in a busy outdoor market in a Baghdad slum today, killing four people and wounding 16, police said.

    A suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt blew himself up today in a home for the elderly in the southern city of Basra, killing two people and wounding three.

    No more than a single Iraqi battalion of about 800 soldiers is capable of battling enemy insurgents without American assistance, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the Senate Armed Services Committee’s top Democrat, said Monday. But, he added, the Pentagon has made strides in training Iraqis to fight alongside American forces and lead skirmishes against the enemy.

    Japan ordered the withdrawal of its ground troops from Iraq today, declaring the humanitarian mission a success and ending a groundbreaking dispatch that tested the limits of its pacifist postwar constitution. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said it would take “dozens of days” for the 600 noncombat troops to leave.

    Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for killing the soldiers, and said the successor to terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had “slaughtered” them, according to a Web statement that could not be authenticated. The language in the statement suggested the men were beheaded.

    U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the remains were believed to be those of Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore.

    He said U.S. troops – part of a search involving some 8,000 American and Iraqi forces – found the bodies late Monday near Youssifiyah, where they disappeared Friday.

    Troops did not recover the bodies until today because they had to wait until daylight to cordon off the area so an ordnance team could check for mines, Caldwell said.

    The checkpoint attacked Friday was in the Sunni Arab region known as the “Triangle of Death” because of frequent ambushes there of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi troops. Caldwell said troops encountered a lot of roadside bombs and other explosives during the three-day search, including in the area where the bodies were found.

    The cause of death was “undeterminable at this point,” and the two bodies will be taken back to the United States for DNA tests to confirm the identities, Caldwell said.

    The two soldiers disappeared after an insurgent attack Friday at a checkpoint by a Euphrates River canal, 12 miles south of Baghdad. Spc. David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass., was killed in the attack. The three men were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Ky.

    The director of the Iraqi defense ministry’s operation room, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed, said the bodies of the American soldiers showed signs of having been tortured. “With great regret, they were killed in a barbaric way,” he said.

    The claim of responsibility was made in the name of the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of five insurgent groups led by al-Qaida in Iraq. The group posted an Internet statement Monday claiming it was holding the American soldiers captive.

    “We give the good news . . . to the Islamic nation that we have carried God’s verdict by slaughtering the two captured crusaders,” said the claim, which appeared on an Islamic militant Web site where insurgent groups regularly post statements and videos.

    “With God Almighty’s blessing, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer carried out the verdict of the Islamic court” calling for the soldiers’ slaying, the statement said.

    The statement said the soldiers were “slaughtered,” suggesting that al-Muhajer beheaded them. The Arabic word used in the statement, nahr, is used for the slaughtering of sheep by cutting the throat and has been used in past statements to refer to beheadings.

    The U.S. military has identified al-Muhajer as an Egyptian associate of al-Zarqawi also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri.

    The killings would be the first acts of violence attributed to al-Muhajer since he was named al-Qaida in Iraq’s new leader in a June 12 Web message by the group. Al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike on June 7.

    Al-Zarqawi made al-Qaida in Iraq notorious for beheading hostages and was believed to have killed two American captives himself – Nicholas Berg in April 2004 and Eugene Armstrong in September 2004.

    Caldwell said Iraqi and American troops involved in the search for the missing soldiers killed three suspected insurgents and detained 34 in fighting that wounded seven U.S. servicemen.

    Also, just hours before the two soldiers went missing Friday, a U.S. airstrike killed a key al-Qaida in Iraq leader described as the group’s “religious emir,” he said.

    Mansour Suleiman Mansour Khalifi al-Mashhadani, or Sheik Mansour, was killed with two foreign fighters in the same area where the soldiers’ bodies were found, the U.S. spokesman said. The three were trying to flee in a vehicle.

    Al-Mashhadani was “a key leader of Al Qaida in Iraq, with excellent religious, military and leadership credentials” and tied to the senior leadership, including al-Zarqawi and his alleged replacement, Caldwell said.

    U.S. forces captured Mansour in July 2004 because of his ties to the militant groups Ansar al-Islam and Ansar al-Sunna, but the military let him go because he was not deemed an important terrorist figure at the time.

    A witness to the attack Friday said on Sunday insurgents swarmed the checkpoint, killing the driver of a Humvee before taking two of his comrades captive.

    Ahmed Khalaf Falah, a farmer, said three Humvees at the checkpoint came under fire from many directions. Two Humvees went after the assailants but the third was ambushed.

    He said seven masked gunmen, one carrying a heavy machine gun, killed the driver and took the two other U.S. soldiers captive. His account could not be verified independently.

    Kidnappings of U.S. service members have been rare since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, despite the presence of about 130,000 forces.

    The last U.S. soldier to be captured was Sgt. Keith M. Maupin of Batavia, Ohio, who was taken on April 9, 2004 after insurgents ambushed his fuel convoy. Two months later, a tape on Al-Jazeera purported to show a captive U.S. soldier shot, but the Army ruled it was inconclusive and Maupin remains listed as missing.

    Caldwell said in addition to the two soldiers, a dozen Americans – including Maupin and 11 private citizens – are missing in Iraq. In addition, Capt. Michael Speicher, a Navy pilot, remains listed as missing in Iraq since the 1991 Persian Gulf War, he said.

    Copyright 2006, The Albuquerque Tribune. All Rights Reserved.

  103. popoy popoy

    Tache, Nahuli ko na kung bakit galit na galit ka sa mga OFW. Lalo na sa mga Japayuki. NAIINGIT ka ano?

    Tama si Trahapi, Ikaw talaga ang bagong MAKAPILI. Ang hilig mo pa sumali sa pulitika dito, eh hindi ka naman kasali.

  104. popoy popoy

    And for the record, natu-tuwa ako na hindi mo kino-consider sarili mo na OFW. Kinahihiya kasi namin mga MAKAPILI na katulad mo. Naway kunin ka na ni Lord.

  105. Ronnie Mabini Ronnie Mabini

    Napansin ko lang s lahat ng topic ay manipulated ni Ystakei [i hope u don’t mind ha?] take note; bukod p un mga pag-paste nya ng iba’t ibang artikulo n nakuha nya s iba’t ibang newpapers or internet sites. Kung gusto mong makuha ang simpatiya ng mga readers dito ay magpakahinahon ka, ng sa gayun ay hindi ka nababastos or naiinsulto. Meron sariling personal na dahilan ang bawat OFW n gustong magtrabaho. Elite ang personalidad mo at hindi mo talaga maiintindihan ang damdamin naming mga masang mahihirap.

  106. Ronnie Mabini Ronnie Mabini

    To Nelbar; magpakatotoo ka naman sa kwento mo, gawin mo naman malapit s katotohanan para kapani-paniwala. Yun guwardiya na kilala mo ay nagjajanitor para dagdag kita at ayaw mag-abroad dahil ayaw iwan ang pamilya? At Sabi mo hindi ka MUKHANG PERA, meron pa palang tulad mo dito sa mundo, dib Ate Yuko, kaya nga ayaw mong umalis ng Japan, kasi sarap ng buhay mo parang paraiso? Hindi tulad sa ‘pinas n halos magpatayan ang mga Pilipino, siraan dito, siraan dun. Pagalingan at ayaw magpatalo!!!

  107. nelbar nelbar

    To Ronnie Mabini:

    Sa tono ng pagpo-post mo dito ay hindi mo pa kayang tumuntong sa lupa kahit naka tsinelas ka pa lang.
    Isa magandang pagkakataon para sabihin ko sa inyo dito na kahit na nakasuot na ako ng mamahaling sapatos ay kaya ko pa rin na maglakad sa lupa na nakayapak lamang!

    Hindi dapat tayo mag away away dito at magsiraan. Isang malaking paghamon ang mga pino-post ni ystakei dito tungkol sa mga kasiraan, kasakiman, ganid at mababahong mentalidad ng mg Pinoy lalong lalo na iyong mga nakahawak lang ng kaunting pera ay akala mo kung sino na?
    Sa pamamagitan ni ystakei nahuhubaran niya ang mga tunay na pagkatao ng mga Pilipino na walang pagpapahalaga sa moralidad at dignidad. Nakakahiya ang mga Pilipino na ipinagmamalaki pa nila na sila lang ang Kristyanong bansa sa Asya pero ang dino-diyos pala nila ay mga materyal na bagay.
    Ikumpara mo ang populasyon ng mga bansang sumakop sa atin?Tayo ay 84M na?
    Sinabi mo: “Hindi tulad sa ‘pinas n halos magpatayan ang mga Pilipino, siraan dito, siraan dun. Pagalingan at ayaw magpatalo!!!”

    Kung ganyan nga ang pananaw mo ay nararapat lang na huwag na talagang dumami pa ang lahing Pilipino.

    Nasaan na ang values natin bilang isang Kristyano?

    At isapa, ano bang klaseng kalibre ng elite ang sinasabi mo?Pseudo elite o elite-elitan lang?Nagbanggit ka pa ng “masang mahihirap”?Papaano mo ba sinusukat ang mga Pinoy/Pinay na katulad mo?

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