OFFBEAT MAIL

Containers at the Manila port. Credit: Marnews.net Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has finally came out with the photo of a certain Davidson Tan Bangayan as the man behind the biggest rice smuggling activities which bleed the Philippine government of at least 1.3 trillion pesos in revenue losses. Previous reports claimed that David Tan was based in Davao City, which is the reason why Mayor Duterte rose up to the occasion of investigating the whereabouts of this alleged rice smuggler. Finally, Duterte showed the media the identity of the said smuggler during a press conference so that the public may know his real identity. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said in a media interview that David Tan may have been operating a single rice cartel. This is the reason why the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is digging deeper into the case to find out more details. Rice smuggling has become a hot issue in the Philippines, after groups of farming cooperatives have complained of s...

Napo Beach Resort in Maripipi Island, Biliran province. Every time the spirit of Christmas hovers around the corner, I feel the surge of excitement rushes through my spine. And the anxiety is more felt as I look back at the years I was with my loved ones during the Yuletide Season. I'm used to being away so many times before because I knew right from the start that I'd be able to withstand the pains and the rigors of the long detachment. I felt a little of remorse that I wans't one of those whose families were devastated by Supertyphoon Haiyan (Yolanda) that transformed the areas of Eastern and Western Visayas in the Philippines into vast carpet of wastelands. Consequently, more than 6,000 people, including children, died. Alone, Tacloban City, once a bastion of commercial business in Eastern Visayas, being its booming capital, is now a ghost town and so with other areas in the suburbs of Leyte province. I was raised in one of the paradise islands close to Biliran ...

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...