OFFBEAT MAIL

The streamer speaks for itself.  This is to call the attention of the immediate relatives or beneficiaries of a certain Mr. CAYETANO I. PESIGAN, a Fil-Am WWII veteran who previously lived in Carson, California. The Jackson National Life Insurance Company in Texas has sent a letter to Mr. Richard Ongsotto, Jr. in Carson, California, asking him for some information on the whereabouts of the above-named person, a former housemate of Mr. Ongsotto, concerning a pending insurance claim under his name. In the final request of information dated Dec. 4, 2013, Ms. Debie Brumley of the company's Claims Services said that the insurance firm has requested items necessary to proceed with its review of the pending claim on the above-named person. The required items being requested by the company include: a) the enclosed Claimant Statement completed and signed by the named beneficiary. If the beneficiary has had a change in name, the company requires a copy of the applicable marriage lic...

Kids learning computer operations. Photo: tech-kidz.com Just how vulnerable innocent children are in cyber age has made it mandatory for concerned parents to take extra-precautions in allowing them to have access to the internet. Reason? Parents, especially those who are always busy at work, may not have the time to be always on guard when their minor children are given access to the internet at home. But is this possible? It depends. One thing any concerned parent must do is to regulate or impose discipline among their children in the use of the internet at home is to introduce a password that only one of the parents should have access to. In this way, children who are doing their research assignments in the internet should have the leeway to veer away from what they're researching about by stumbling on a pornographic materials that will accidentally pop out in the computer screen. Any computer for that matter is installed with a pop-out blocker which can be turn OFF and O...

Stranded Filipino domestic helpers in Saudi Arabia. In an unprecedented move by the Saudi government to cleanse its country of foreign undocumented workers in response to its impending plan for complete Saudization of its labor force has created unexpected shivers to the spines of those illegally working in the kingdom. Recently, the Saudi government has threatened to arrest foreign workers who are working without the necessary working permits from the Saudi government. But how did it come to this point? This question is even made more complicated at the way foreign workers, especially domestic helpers, are treated at the work places, where most of them had experienced cultural shocks and physical abuses by their employers. Hence, some of them were left without any choice but to run away. And there are instances when their problems were made even more serious when they encounter inept and maniacal embassy officials who ignored the pleas of these hapless Filipino female workers....

Onlookers watching a dead journalist. Photo: Inquirer.net The killing of journalists, especially the hard-hitting personalities, has become a habit in the Philippines. In fact, the Union of Journalists of the Philippines has recorded 19 killings since President Benigno Aquino III took over the helm of power. The latest casualty was Rogelio Butalid, 46, a block timer for 107.9 FM Radyo Natin and a host of an hour-long program "Kamatuoran" (The Truth) in Tagum City. Butalid was the third casualty in two weeks time. According to witnesses, he just stepped out from the radio station after his radio program when a man wearing dark glasses approached him and fired several shots at him. The other journalists killed include radioman Michael Milo in Tandag City, Surigao del Sur province; Joas Dignos of Valencia City in Bukidnon province. Another radio reporter, Jonavin "Jhey-R" Villalba, had suffered gunshot wounds when he was fired upon by an unknown assailant i...

Supertyphoon Yolanda as it hits the Philippines. Many US-based Filipinos are calling on the Philippine government to act in the soonest possible time over the US government's impending plan to put the Philippine nationals under the Temporary Protected Status (TPS). But without a letter of request from the Philippine government, the TPS can't be granted by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The TPS will, once and for all, allow many Filipinos in the United States to be covered by the TPS to come out from the shadows and work legally for undetermined number of years. The Philippines is qualified to be covered by the TPS considering that it has been hit by the worst super typhoon in the world history. Currently, at least a million Filipinos are scattered all over the United States. Some of them are working without the necessary permits in order to survive. Once the TPS is approved, many of them will be able to work legally and continue sending remittan...

MILF fighters on foot patrol in Mindanao. Despite the call of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) to re-think its position concerning the inking of peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Philippine government is hell bent on pursuing the peace plan  with the MILF early next month. Already the third framework on power-sharing had been signed in Malaysia this week. MNLF vice chair Hashim Habib told media that the proposed peace pact is a violation of  the Tripoli Agreement which created theAutonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) after then President Fidel V. Ramos and MNLF chairman Nur Misuari agreed to ink the peace deal. As this developed, MILF vice-chair Ghadzali Jaafar has expressed elation over the trust that the government put on the MILF, which in effect, could once and for all, establish a Bangsamoro sub-state in Mindanao. Once approved, the MILF can pursue political and economic developments which could trickle down for th...

House of Representatives, Philippines A lawmaker from the Second District of Valenzuela City in Metro Manila has proposed a bill that will ultimately give a tax-exemption privilege to eight-division boxing champion Manny Pacquiao. Initiated  and authored by Valenzuela City Cong. Magtanggol Gunigundo, the bill is meant to free Cong. Pacquiao from paying his tax liabilities to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). This issue has cropped up after BIR Commissioner Kim Henares slapped Pacquiao, who beat American-Mexican Brandon Rios in Macau for the WBO Welterweight Belt last Nov. 23, 2013, with a P2.2 billion in tax liabilities after he failed to settle them for the period covering tax years 2008 and 2009. Unable to compose himself, Pacquiao had resorted to ventilating his grievances through the media, saying that his lawyers already presented documents to prove that he paid his income tax liabilities in the United States.   But the BIR official didn't honor the document...