A dire situation for the Philippine family in Qatar

[Zkribbler]

All the more reason that official organizations should be contacted immediately. The employment agency will say, "All the girls voluntarily signed the contracts." And the counter-argument will be, "Then how come we suddenly began getting all these calls saying the girls were being starved, threatened and beaten?"

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
Damn, re-reading my post, I just realized we're talking about two agencies here:

Philippine Citizen Services = good agency.
employment agency = bad agency

That was my bad, I think. My preference would be to describe the OFW Welfare division of the Philippine Department of Labor as an "agency," and the private employment brokers as "pimps" -- but I didn't want to appear to be insulting poor Crispina.

[Mrs. Tuberski]

Im glad to hear crispy is fine but there must be somehting that can be done to take out the agency(the work) and free all the ladies. I know nothing of the countires they are in but god this is un believable that any other outside coutry can watch this and turn thier noses up.

[SlowwHand]

Lancer's problems illustrate what life outside the United States is really like. I don't mean to say all countries are like Qatar, but more are like them than are like the United States.
Thank Whomever before you go to sleep tonight that you're where you are.

[Straybow]

Originally posted by Lancer
Good news! Crispina is released! She arrived in Manila today, very skinny but alive. There's still nine other girls stuck in Qatar and if I can get any timely info from Lucina or Crispina I'll try to help them.

We're sending Lucina the $300 so Crispy can have some space to relax and fatten up a bit.

Thanks all for your concern and advise. I'll post here on any news of the other nine girls. Apparently it was Lucina's efforts with the Philippine gov's OFW organization that did the trick, so there is hope.

That's great!
But we can still run the rescue mission, and then make a million off the book and the movie rights. Of course, we gotta succeed and survive to spend the money. Still working on that part of the plan.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Mrs. Tuberski
Im glad to hear crispy is fine but there must be somehting that can be done to take out the agency(the work) and free all the ladies. I know nothing of the countires they are in but god this is un believable that any other outside coutry can watch this and turn thier noses up.

Most countries in the world can ignore something like this. The Gulf States are especially bad because the concept of human rights is completely foreign to them; plus, they desperately need foreign workers to do all their menial labor. Believe me, as bad as these girls are being treated now, it's probably not much worse than they would be treated if they were actually working for Qataris.

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Im glad to Lancer's problems illustrate what life outside the United States is really like. I don't mean to say all countries are like Qatar, but more are like them than are like the United States.
Thank Whomever before you go to sleep tonight that you're where you are.

QFT

[Lancer]

Hi guys! The wife's here. I'm taking over since the husband is in bed now. I'm still waiting for Lucena's email. I'll send all the info as soon as I got it.

I'm so thankful to God Crispy is home now..but so sad and so sorry to my fellow Filipinas, the 2 Shri Lankan and 4 Endosian women who are still in the hands of the evil people I can't emagine myself to be in their place.

Thank you all for the reply


Hi Mike!

[Zkribbler]

Good morning, Dolores.

Thanks for the update.

[Arrian]

Oh, I missed that she's home safe & sound! Huzzah!



It does make one feel grateful for having been born in a country like the US. I hope the others get released too.

-Arrian

[SlowwHand]

Hundreds feared dead in Philippine landslides
Typhoon Durian sends tons of mud, boulders crashing into villages


MSNBC News Services
Updated: 8:55 a.m. MT Dec 1, 2006

MANILA, Philippines - Typhoon Durian may have killed up to 400 people in the central Philippines after heavy rains and winds sent tons of mud and boulders the size of cars crashing onto villages, the head of the local Red Cross said on Friday.

Durian, which packed winds of up to 140 mph, moved into the South China Sea after lashing the Philippines since early Thursday and was expected to weaken into a tropical storm before hitting Vietnam on Monday.

Communities close to Mount Mayon, an active volcano about 200 miles south of Manila, were buried after Durian dislodged mounds of debris from its slopes.
Story continues below ↓

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15959573/

[Lancer]

Well, that's terrible. I remember when Florida was hit by three hurricanes and that same year Manila was hit by four. These people have so little but they pull it all together and go on. Also they really remember their dead. The death aniversary of the 400+ killed in this typhoon will be remembered for years to come in ceremonies at the grave sites by the family. Small, very personal gatherings.

Anyway, what we can do something about...

Dolores and I are composing an email to the Phil embasy in Qatar. We're passing on the information regarding the treatment of the girls and their names which we now have from Lucina. We're also informing them that the International Organization for Migration will be infored by us as well as Phil communities in LA and San Diego, by Zkribbler. We're hoping this will get them off their butts by making them realize their will be followup as well as political repercussions.

I'm going to post the girls names in the next post. The names hit me for some reason.

[Lancer]

Ang mga pinoy naa didto si Mildred Manabogon, Jamilla Pangasate, Zandria Kasim, Virginia Sison, Elsie Eyo, Raida Bayao, Precy pero wala ko kahibalo sa apelyido, ug si damdamin apelyido ni niya wala ko kahibalo sa iyang pangalan. tapos naay duha ka sri lankan ug 3 indonesian.

Now I have to catch up on your posts.

[Frozzy]

If you're going to run to any media organisation with this story, I'd take the BBC in a heartbeat over anyone else. They tend to have a knack for exposing this exact kind of story, especially if it branches out to other nationalities too. It's probably better equipped too. Can't think of many other media organisations who could do the job justice or are equipped to make it worthwhile running it.

Best wishes to the other girls, however.

[Lancer]

We have all sorts of info on the agency in Qatar, email, phone #s, location. I'm not going to post it for now until we find out if our efforts have any results.

[Lancer]

Originally posted by Frozzy
If you're going to run to any media organisation with this story, I'd take the BBC in a heartbeat over anyone else. They tend to have a knack for exposing this exact kind of story, especially if it branches out to other nationalities too. It's probably better equipped too. Can't think of many other media organisations who could do the job justice or are equipped to make it worthwhile running it.

Best wishes to the other girls, however.

This is a last resort. I recall trying bto get the Karen Mills story on the Canadian news in an effort to find her father and meeting total disinterest. Frustrating. If Karen was blonde and blue eyed it might have been different...