If we are oppressed, or if we feel oppressed and feel poor, is it fair to swindle others? Below is one of the many notable responses to my posts. If you want to view the original posts, responses and the whole story, simply CLICK HERE.

Hi, As a foreigner married to a Filipina, I can sympathise with you, the young guy in Canada. I know Canada to be a place of relentless work for low pay, and cold-hearted company policies driven my the N American corporate moral-lacking ethic.

1. -It is not those who are in poverty that I mind helping, it is finding out that the Phil family medical bills were based on ailments that were never treated, despite the med money sent over.
2. -It is the spending of cash sent over, after a desperate plea for medical help, on a phone bill that is ten times what I pay in N America.
3. -It is the second request for med money after the first has been spent on the phone, or other items, and the medical situation is used again to extract money.
4. -It is the assumption that as I am a foreigner, I am rich, and therefore a bottomless pit that is used for money.
5. -It is the guilt trips put upon my wife to get her to send her earnings over there, instead of paying bills here. In a 12 year marriage that has been a delight in all other respects, I have seen the following:

• -A $200 a month budget for family assistance exceeded by up to $400 a month as a regular thing.
• -The Phil family quit work of any kind, then manipulate to get the $200 budget increased by regular "emergencies" to maintain their retirement
  

-My family here in N America increase its debt load by over 50,000 bucks, then file bankruptcy.

-My personal pension fund get ransacked to the tune of over $30,000 dealing with bills created by budget overruns.

-I have seen photos of DVD players in the background, when they were $400 items, and I could not afford one.

-I have seen photos of parties, at times when I cannot afford a birthday gift, or even flowers, for my wife.

- I have had a miserable Pinay individual who works at a local Walmart and who is a drug and alcohol user accuse me of being unreasonable as I married a Filipina, and part of that is that Filipinas have to send money home.

-I have had the same individual accuse me publicly and at her workplace of being unreasonable for not liking the small of burning fish, and complaining about it, this being when relatives paid me the continual insult of selecting fish as a toasted offering inside my house at times when I had a day off, yet never when I was away at work.

-I have today heard of a Filipina friend who currently on a visit home has had to go to her sisters house away from the city to avoid the relatives demands for money in large amounts, like amounts enough to buy cars, and then they get annoyed when refused.

-I can with all honesty say that in the years I have been involved, there has not been one single transaction involving money that has been honestly presented.

-Every demand or request for help has been later found to be based on a lie.

-About a year or so ago I attempted to assist with finance for the starting of a business, and all that transpired in the end was that a PC was purchased, and then the relative involved informed me that the Internet Cafe business was no longer any good, and so he would not be going ahead with it. This was coupled with a photo a few weeks later of the same relative working at his PC, a dual-core Intel processor with illuminated Neon case. Meanwhile, I am STILL using a PC that is 7 years old.

-This was followed some weeks later by the father of that same relative crowing about how well his son has done, and how his son has a better computer than we do.

- We some years ago paid for a university course on computers for the same individual, in order to qualify him as having had continuous education since high school, and he decided it was better to take the course money and spend it. He then needed to pay the course (another 700 bucks the wife sent that I advised was throwing good money after bad) to get the paperwork, but by that time had been refused immigration. Tough, Eh? It would be interesting to contact the university and see how much the 700 outstanding tuition really was. Probably another theft of funds from the rich americans

-I hate to say this, but if I had to do my life over again and went for a similar deal, I would make it clear: There will be no funds sent over at all, not a single penny, not for Christmas, none at all. No gifts that others, the recipients, decide what they are either. There would be a fund that will buy a second house in N America, and the rent once the house is fully paid for the rental income will be providing all sole funds after rental expenses. That way, right now, my wife would own a spare house that she can later rent out for her own retirement.

-We borrowed the airfare from a friend so that the family could come over here to live, against my advice and judgment. I was wrong on one thing. They do actually work now that they are forced to, having come out of the Philippine retirement that I (my wife even more so) financed for all those years. But they find the work in North America hard, and so they will be returning. Not on my money they won't. They now have a problem, they owe a load of airfare money for getting here, and drink and smoke too much to save for their return. And no doubt I will be left maxxing out my credit card again, and taking more pension out to pay it down, just to pay off the airfare that was spent getting them here. But the goose has laid it's golden egg, and will lay no more.

Can you imagine that? How such a person can write that long only as a response to some posts? We can be poor but with dignity but that is not the case, because I myself see how my countrymen are. If they see a lighter color or anyone from outside the country, all they cna see is money. As long as someone is out of the Philippines, Pinoys think it's money. A big shame. A bad attitude!

Philippines Abortion Rate is Among the World’s Highest in 2007

A fetus was found dumped inside Malacañang comfort room, and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a stern supporter (some would say puppet) of the powerful Catholic Church, expressed sadness. It is interesting to note that she’s not surprised. That is because Arroyo knew all along that this dumping of fetus at her palace is not a special case. In a country where abortion is illegal, dumped fetus is common. Abortion in the Philippines is a national secret, widely practiced, seldom discussed.

Indeed, the above is very true. When I was still in my province in the Philippines. there was no week that there was no report about a dumped fetus. Others were even found to be alive, dumped in garbage places and trash cans or floating in the river and found in the shoreline. These dead or alive fetuses were placed inside plastic bags or boxed in small cartons. Yeah, like a gift! I wonder why the dumper did not send it to the country's cardinal for prayer on the fetus' soul. Yes, everytime there are talks on abortion or even contaceptive the church gets in!

Yes, for the church, it is better to let the mother die than the fetus. And yes, it does not question reason at all, just let the fetus be a child and make it beg for its food when it becomes a human someday or make it's way to live someday as a robber because the parents cannot provide anything so it has to survive! I don't know what's with the church! Indeed there is so much hypocrisy in the Philippines and I do find it very difficult to live in this kind of environment though I love my country and my fellow Filipinos. But with the wrong and unreasonable things happening around, no one can expect me to close my eyes and be quiet about it! A lot of change is needed!




Philippines Secret: How Many?

Because abortion is illegal in the Philippines, the exact statistics on how many Filipina has had an abortion is hard to estimate, but studies reveals how widespread the practice is.

A 2006 study done by Josefina Cabigon of the University of the Philippines Population Institute together with the Guttmacher Institute reveals:

…six in 10 Filipino women had an unintended pregnancy at some point in their lives because of lack of access to and knowledge of modern contraceptives. That fraction, says the study, translates to some 1.43 million unintended pregnancies each year, a third of which end in abortion (roughly 450,000).

Experts at the Alan Guttmacher Institute, an international NGO said in 2005 that almost half a million induced abortions occur each year in the Philippines:
Based on medium estimates, 400,500 women nationwide had an induced abortion in 1994; this number increased to 473,400 in 2000.

Population Reference Bureau has a table of comparison that includes the Philippines:

Women have abortions regardless of whether the procedure is legal in the country in which they reside. Evidence shows that laws that restrict abortion don’t guarantee low induced abortion rates: Nearly one-half of all abortions worldwide are performed in countries that allow abortions only in very limited circumstances.

According to recent column of The Economist, which cites a United Nations Report, restrictive laws do not reduce abortion:

The risk of dying in a botched abortion is only part of a broader problem of maternal health in poor countries. Of all the inequalities of development, this is arguably the worst. According to a report published by Population Action International, a Washington-based lobby group, women in poor countries are 250 times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than women in rich ones. Of the 535,000 women who died in childbirth or from pregnancy-related complications in 2005, 99% were in developing countries, according to another report by a group of UN agencies.

Indeed the number is very big and I know this is not a lie! Women resort to illegal abortion (since it cannot be legal) in the country (Philippines). And yes, this is opression of the poor and women because those who have money can afford to go out of the country and seek professional abortion where it is legal. And the poor and ignorants are left behind in danger: they are those who go to abortionists practising without study and only taking the fetus out by a clip or letting the pregnant woman take something (to drink or eat) incomprehensible to let the fetus die!

I hope that the church in the Philippines stop this hypocrisy and let it be over. I know this is not the only problem because government funding is also needed to educate parents and let the health centers be prepared if ever abortion be allowed. But if this happens in the country, I see that this is one big leap against the clutch of the unreasonable church.

If I have to be asked if I am infavor of abortion, of course I would say yes. That does not mean that I do it. That means for those who need it! I know I am not the one who needs it because I am knowledgeable enough and educated enough not to have abortion or unwanted pregnancy be on my way. And that is because I have learned a lot from university and have practised my profession as well. But how about to those fellow Filipinas who cannot even eat three times a day and a baby is on the way? How about those who discoveed that the baby will only be abnormal and sick all its life? How about those fetus with STD's from parents? There are a lot of things to consider and I hope the church's council opens its mind. The church that have always brag about being the only Catholic country in Asia; A church bragging to be in a country of (legal) abortion free (because illegal counts up to half a million!) but it is the same church that close its eyes and ears without seeing the circumstances and consequences of the situations. I hope the church helps for progress and not only wish to have lots of churchgoers to ask the donation! I do hope hypocrisies be stopped! I do hope Philippines improve its abortion rate to a minimal number with proper education. I do hope that the overall situation in the country be improved for the better. I have lots of hopes and I do hope many are with me. I do hope... and i love Philippines! And YOU?

Italized texts are sourced from my READINGS.