100 OFWs with kids seek repatriation: Migrante

MANILA, Philippines - More than a 100 undocumented overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) with children have been seeking repatriation since January.

This is according to John Leonard Monterona, regional coordinator of Migrante-Middle East, an alliance of Filipino migrants’ rights group providing assistance to distressed and stranded OFWs in Saudi Arabia.

Monterona obtained the information from an official of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO), who asked not be named.  He added that this number includes only the OFWs who have sought assistance from Riyadh and nearby cities in the central region of Saudi Arabia.

“The undocumented OFW mothers and children are temporarily staying at their friends and fellow OFWs’ rented houses,” Monterona added. The undocumented OFWs cannot stay in the embassy-run Bahay Kalinga, a Philippine government facility where female OFWs can seek refuge while waiting for repatriation.

Monterona was told by the POLO official that as a matter of policy, the Philippine Overseas Labor Office-Overseas Workers Welfare Administration cannot admit the undocumented OFW mothers and their children to Bahay Kalinga.

“This is an outright disservice to undocumented mothers and children. If they could not be admitted to Bahay Kalinga, then the Philippine embassy should work for their repatriation and plead to the host government to treat their case as special for humanitarian consideration,” Monterona suggested.

According to the POLO official, OFW mothers and their children can avail of a special deportation process pending the approval of Saudi authorities. Monterona said, however, that this process is not being maximized as a means of sending undocumented OFWs back to the Philippines.

Monterona called on the Aquino government, specially Vice President Jejomar Binay, to attend to the concerns of undocumented OFWs and their children.

“One mother told us that her children have not been to school and they are growing fast,” Monterona said

Pinoy seaman dead after pirate attack

MANILA, Philippines - A Filipino seafarer was found dead aboard a Marshall Island-flagged ship, 4 days after it was attacked by pirates on the coast of Benin, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Tuesday.

Christopher Cortez Ceprado was found dead on May 11 after his vessel, the chemical tanker MT Sea King, was boarded by heavily armed pirates on May 7 at the anchorage of the port of Cotonou in Benin, the DFA said, quoting the vessel’s local manning agency.

Seventeen Filipinos man the vessel.

The pirates ransacked the vessel, stole its equipment and the personal belongings of the crew. No other crew was reported injured. 

The DFA did not say if pirates killed Ceprado.

The victim's remains were brought to a mortuary in Cotonou for autopsy, the DFA said. 

The ship is currently anchored in Cotonou, while authorities investigate the attack.

The DFA's Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers' Affairs (DFA-OUMWA) said it is coordinating with the ship's local manning agency on the repatriation of Ceprado's remains and the provision of benefits. 

It has also instructed the Philippine embassy in Abuja to coordinate with authorities there on the investigation of the incident and help repatriate the Filipino seafarer's body.

The local manning agency said it has contacted the victim's family and is coordinating with the vessel's principal and agent in Cotonou, maritime authorities, and the Protection and Indemnity (P&I) Club representatives.

The risks of oral sex

MANILA, Philippines - The chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, is now under fire for his alleged sexual assault of a chambermaid in the United States.

Several publications reported over the weekend that Strauss-Kahn forced her to give him oral sex.

"According to the official, the man chased her, grabbed her and shut the door, locking it. He then pulled her toward the bedroom, the official said, and tried to attack her there," The New York Times said, citing a police source.

"He dragged her to the bathroom, the official added, and forced her to perform oral sex. The police said the woman eventually escaped from the suite and reported the attack to other hotel personnel, who called 911."

With his arrest in relation to the so-called sex scandal, some are saying that the Strauss-Kahn's dreams of power have been "terminated." Before the incident, opinion polls had shown that the IMF chief was likely to win the French presidency next year.

Indeed, humiliation and a tainted reputation are the price one has to pay when a well-known figure gets involved in a sex scandal.

Such is also the case for former US President Bill Clinton, who was said to have received oral sex from then White House intern Monica Lewinsky despite his marriage to now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The 1998 incident turned into a full-blown scandal, one of the factors that eventually led to Clinton's impeachment.

Another example is actor Hugh Grant, who was caught receiving oral sex from a prostitute in a car in Los Angeles.

Health risks

Oral sex, a sexual act that involves the stimulation of the genitalia using the mouth, is frowned upon in many cultures yet is commonly practiced by straight and gay couples across the globe.

It comes in many forms, and is said to be done even by animals.

Aside from the risk of getting humiliated, oral sex can also pose a number of threats to human health. US scientists said early this year that there is strong evidence linking oral sex to head or neck cancer due to HPV or the human papilloma virus.

The same virus causes cervical cancer, which is the second largest cause of female cancer mortality in the Philippines for the past 60 years. Worldwide, a woman dies from the disease every 2 minutes.

Aside from HPV, oral sex (and other forms of sexual contact such as vaginal sex, genital touching and the use of sex toys such as vibrators) can lead to a variety of sexually transmitted diseases such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, genital herpes and HIV.

Some of these STDs are curable and not life-threatening. But if left untreated, some of these may lead to pregnancy problems or even death.

Why men like oral sex

About 40% of 77,895 women and men surveyed by Elle and MSNBC.com in 2006 said they "rarely or never give oral sex." This as 58% of males said their partner does not like receiving oral sex, while nearly half of females said they do not like doing such.

Almost all men, however, said that receiving oral sex "boosts their sexual satisfaction."

So what do men see that women don't?

Men associate oral sex with different things, from intimacy to the feeling of being in control.EMandLO.com, a blogger at the Yahoo! Shine page, asked this question to different kinds of males -- straight, gay, single and married.

Here are some of their responses:

"What seems to separate the men who like to give oral sex from those who dread it depends on one mitigating factor: good hygiene."

"It's a chance to get to know you without distraction and, in a way, it's even more intimate than intercourse."

"It involves all our senses -- sight, sound, hearing, taste, touch and scent. It's sensual and pleasurable."

Pinoy on China death row hopes for commutation of sentence

KIDAPAWAN CITY — An overseas Filipino worker jailed in China for drug trafficking has expressed the hope that his death sentence would be commuted to a 15-year jail term.

In a letter to Cotabato Rep. Nancy Catamco, Richard Bianan — who has been incarcerated since 2008 — said the Chinese court might commute his death sentence and lower his years in detention for “showing good behavior."

Bianan also said he was glad upon learning that the Cotabato government is making inquiries into his case. “Upon hearing the news, I and other Filipinos [here] rejoiced, for we see a glittering hope to our hopeless situation here."

Bianan’s letter reached the congresswoman’s office on May 12. 

Attached in Bianan’s letter were some documents from Pu Tian City Men’s Prison Administration Foreign Group Unit, including the criminal order from the Higher Peoples’ Court of Fujian Province of the Peoples’ Republic of China.

The Fujian Province court found Bianan guilty of drug smuggling. 

Heroin capsules

In July 2008, authorities extracted from Bianan’s body 91 oval capsules filled with heroin. The amount of the prohibited drug found on Bianan weighed 1,009.3 grams.

The court said the quantity of drug smuggled to China was “so large" that a death penalty had to be imposed. However, Bianan showed good behavior inside his prison cell, allowing the court to grant him a two-year reprieve.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos Jr., in a letter to Catamco dated May 5, said the death sentence with two-year reprieve imposed on Bianan means that his sentence has been suspended for two years.

Bianan’s sentence could then be commuted to life imprisonment should he continue showing good behavior inside the prison cell.

Conejos said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has already made necessary representations with Chinese authorities regarding Bianan’s request to lower his sentence to fixed-term imprisonment, instead of life imprisonment.

“The DFA is still awaiting the feedback of the Chinese authorities on the matter. The Philippine Consulate opined that since the two-year suspension period of his sentence has yet to expire, the Chinese authorities might not be able to give concrete responses to the representations," Conejos said.

“Mr. Bianan is reminded to do his part in making the government’s representations feasible by showing good behavior, avoiding committing another offense in prison, and getting along well with jail guards and inmates while serving his sentence," he added. — AY/JE/VS, GMA News

It is impossible to predict doomsday — CBCP

Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) spokesman Msgr. Pedro Quitorio III has refuted the May 21, 2011 end-of-the-world prediction a California-based Christian ministry has spread through the Internet and in the streets of Manila.

Quitorio said the end of the world cannot be predicted, recalling that, “In the Bible, it says nobody knows when the end of the world is, except God the Father."

“How can they predict the end of the world when no one can even predict an earthquake accurately?" the CBCP spokesman added.

From the Great Flood

Harold Camping, leader of Family Radio Worldwide, claims his reading of the Bible led him to one conclusion. "Beyond the shadow of a doubt, May 21 will be the date of the Rapture and the day of judgment," Camping said.

Some Family Radio volunteers have recently been walking the streets of Manila and giving their Judgment Day pamphlets to people they meet. Their ministry has head offices in Oakland, California. 

Camping caught the media’s eye many times before. One recent instance was via an article published in The Washington Post last March 24. 

In that report, it was explained that Camping got the May 21, 2011 date of Judgment Day using passages from the story of Noah’s Ark in Genesis and the Second Epistle of Peter, mixed with his interpretations of those passages. 

Camping had a previous doomsday prediction, which he made in his book entitled 1994?— With Earl Rosero/VS, GMA News