Are you thinking of working abroad? Then be smart. Here’s the Top 10 POEA guide on how to avoid illegal recruiters.

1. Do not apply at recruitment agencies not licensed by the POEA.
2. Do not deal with licensed agencies without job orders.
3. Do not deal with any person who is not an authorized representative of a licensed agency.
4. Do not transact business outside the registered address of the agency. If recruitment is conducted in the province, check if the agency has a provincial recruitment authority.
5. Do not pay more than the allowed placement fee. It should be equivalent to one month’s salary, exclusive of documentation and processing costs.
6. Do not pay any placement fee unless you have a valid employment contract and an official receipt.
7. Do not be enticed by ads or brochures requiring you to reply to a Post Office (P.O.) Box, and to enclose payment for processing of papers.
8. Do not deal with training centers and travel agencies, which promise overseas employment.
9. Do not accept a tourist visa.
10. Do not deal with fixers.

Good news as reported by gmanews.tv

Eleven days before trial starts for 10 Filipino nurses and their lawyer in New York, the state’s health department came out with its findings in an inquiry that residents of the nursing home “were not placed in jeopardy” when the health workers quit their jobs in April 2006.

The Filipinos, who are holding immigrant visas, are scheduled to face trial starting January 28 in a Suffolk County district court on charges of conspiracy and endangering patients in a pediatric ventilation unit at Avalon Gardens Rehabilitation and Health Care Center.

New York-based Newsday reported in its online edition on Thursday that the health department was the second major government agency to support the nurses’ claim that the patients’ lives were not placed in danger when they quit.

The state’s education department, which licenses nurses, said in 2006 that the Filipino nurses did not abandon their patients.

Facing trial are Elmer Jacinto, Juliet Anilao, Harriet Avila, Mark dela Cruz, Claudine Gamiao, Jennifer Lampa, Rizza Maulion, James Millena, Ma. Theresa Ramos, and Ranier Sichon, and their lawyer Felix Vinluan.

They were indicted on March 22, 2007 even after the state’s education department cleared them in September 2006 of any wrongdoing.

Jeffrey Hammond, spokesman of New York’s health department, said the nursing home was fully staffed when the Filipino nurses resigned en masse, contrary to the claim of its owners that they abandoned their patients who were children and a disabled who were hooked on mechanical ventilators to breathe.

They quit after complaining for months about breaches in the contract they had with Sentosa Care’s recruitment agency in the Philippines involving pay differences, working hours and benefits.

“The shifts were covered and patients were not placed in jeopardy,” Newsday quoted Hammond as saying.

Source: GMANews.TV

An 18-year-old Filipino waitress in Dubai who was raped by her Tunisian supervisor in August faces deportation after spending almost four months in jail.

Rowena (not her real name) ended up in jail when she reported the rape to the police. She found out later that her abuser had gone to the police ahead of her and reported that she was mauled by fellow Filipinos.

Rowena found herself charged with having an illicit affair with her Tunisian supervisor, drinking and giving false statements. Late last month, she was found guilty of these offenses, for which she was sentenced to three months in jail.

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A Pa. doctor and his wife are fighting deportation to the Philippines after more than 20 years in the US. The story of the Servanos started when they were sweethearts in the Philippines. After he graduated from medical school in 1979, Pedro Servano went often into remote areas to see patients, and Salvacion, a nurse, sometimes accompanied him.

While they were waiting to receive visas to the U.S., her father told them people were talking about their trips together, so the two eloped and married in 1980. Salvacion came to the U.S. in 1982, and Pedro followed two years later. He practiced medicine in Philadelphia, and she continued nursing. They had a formal marriage ceremony in 1987.

They moved to California to be close to Salvacion’s family, and in 1990 they applied for U.S. citizenship. During the process, an immigration official accused them of having misrepresented their marital status.

Photo by {Philly.com}

It’s good to know that there were no Pinoy seaman crew in a South Korean container ship which collided with a Bay Bridge tower that resulted to thousands of gallons of oil spill into the San Francisco Bay. According to Yahoo report the all-Chinese crew was being detained at the Port of Oakland by the Coast Guard as part of on-going investigations.

A language barrier between the vessel’s pilot, Capt. John Cota, and the ship’s all-Chinese crew was not likely a factor in the crash, since the ship’s captain and officers are required to speak English, officials said.

TechCrunch, the tech blog giant reported that ABS-CBN Interactive managed to ink a deal with social network Multiply. Maybe ABS-CBN is starting to take noticed the online behavior of Pinoys specially the OFWs that’s why they’re jumping into social networking. Im thinking now maybe GMA-7 will follow this time with Facebook?

The Philippines is one of the most pronounced examples of their large international following. Alexa ranks Multiply as the 5th largest site in the Philippines - with more than 2 million unique monthly visitors. We had earlier reported that 39% of the site’s traffic comes from the Philippines. Therefore it’s no surprise that they’ve managed to land a multi-year ad deal with one of the Philippine’s largest networks, ABS-CBN. ABS-CBN has 67 televisions stations, 19 radio stations, 30 websites and reaches 97% of the Filipinos with televisions. Under terms of the agreement, ABS-CBN interactive will sell advertising and mobile services for Multiply’s Filipino users, with the two companies sharing revenues.

An online petition to save the life of Marilou Ranario, an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) facing death sentence in Kuwait. The appeal for Ranario is addressed to Kuwait’s Amir. Ranario, 35, left a teaching job in the Philippines to work as a domestic helper in Kuwait in 2003.

She was jailed and convicted in January 2005 for the murder of her female employer. Kuwait’s Court of First Instance sentenced her to die by hanging eight months later. The Court of Appeals upheld the sentence last February.

The case is on final appeal before the Cessation Court, Kuwait’s highest court, and the final verdict is expected to be out in January or February 2008.

Please see the complete online petition here.

The Philippine Peso Wednesday gained a fresh seven-year high of 43.60 to the dollar on the news that interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve and more remittances coming in from overseas Filipino workers (OFW) and foreign investment inflows into the stock market piling up this long weekend.

OFWs and exporters are asking the Philippine government for dollar rate intervention but no avail. Ohh Bhoy!!

Another online petition urging Filipinos in the U.S. Call for GMA to Resign. The online petition is different from the other petition drafted by Sen. Trillianes calling for the immediate resignation of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Vice President Manuel “Noli” de Castro Jr.

To: The Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Filipino People

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has lost all credibility to serve as President of the Philippines.

We, Filipinos in the United States, are greatly outraged by the bankruptcy of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration. We demand her immediate resignation and support the mounting call for her ouster, if she refuses to step down.

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An article published in gmanews.tv website about the growing number of Filipino women marrying foreigners whom they meet through the Internet.

A religious congregation providing counseling services to overseas workers has expressed concerns over the growing number of Filipino women marrying foreigners whom they knew only through the Internet.

Sr. Bernadette de Guzman of the Religious of the Good Shepherd’s Center for Overseas Workers said her group provides counseling and pre-departure orientation seminar (PDOS) to some 16,000 Filipino women leaving the country every year to marry foreign nationals.

There are at least 12 million Filipinos scattered around 197 countries across the globe.

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