Editor's Note |
20 years of service to the community
|
Time flies.
Exactly 20 years ago this month, The SUN shone for the Filipinos in Hong Kong. It was
the fulfillment of a dream that took shape years earlier, or shortly after I arrived here in 1987 and
realized there was no reliable information channel serving the community.
But turning that dream into reality proved to be difficult. Several people offered to fund
the publication of a news-paper, but everyone wanted a business model different from what we had
in mind.
Details...
|
Anak Araw |
Pagpapabaya
|
Nitong nakaraang buwan ay naging saksi tayo sa nangyari kay Manang Gloria Ortinez,
ang OFW na biktima ng tanim-bala sa Manila airport. Halos buong araw kasi ay naglagi siya sa
opisina ng The SUN, kasama ang mga naghatid sa kanya na sina Susan "Toots" Ople na tagataguyod ng
mga OFW, at ang abogado niyang si Atty Spocky Farolan, kaya nasaksihan namin siya nang malapitan.
Details...
|
Migrant's Forum |
Nanay Gloria's journey to HK
|
President Benigno Simeon Aquino III recently told the media that cases of tanim-bala
were sensationalized, citing figures to prove his point. As an OFW advocate, I respectfully
disagree. Looking at this from a purely numbers perspective could lead one to overlook the deep trauma
that such incidents have caused its innocent victims.
Had he met and spoken to 56-year old OFW Gloria Ortinez, our President would have
learned the following:
Details...
|
Know Your Rights |
The Mission
|
This was the speech delivered by the Mission for Migrant Workers' general manager,
Cynthia Tellez, at the launch of the 10-year Impact Evaluation Report of the Mission's work held on
December 5, 2015 at the Li Hall of St. John's Cathedral.
Details...
|
|
With at least one -- and possibly two disqualification cases in the presidential race --
the Supreme Court has assured the nation politics will not dictate its decisions.
See this month's stories...
|
|
|
|
|
Staff and volunteers at the Mission for Migrant Workers had reason to celebrate when
they launched the non-government organization's 10-year Impact Evaluation Report at Li Hall of St
John's Cathedral on Dec. 4. Nearly all, or 97% of migrants who sought assistance said that they were
helped by the Mission, and more than half of them (57%) said they would recommend the NGO to others.
See this month's stories...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mid-October 2014
|
Hong Kong News
|
|
|
Retail shops in World-Wide House in Central, the
favorite meeting place of Filipino workers
on Sundays, suffered an estimated 50 percent drop in sales
from the absence of the usual crowd in
the first week alone of the Occupy Central protest.
Shop staff said they suffered a significant blow to
their businesses on Sept. 28 and during
the Oct. 1-2 statutory holidays as they were visited only those
who lived nearby and lived nearby
and still had transport services connecting them to Central.
At the height of the protest, even deliveries of
supplies to the shops were hampered as
lorries could not pass through the barricaded roads, the
shop-owners complained.
"This place used to swarm with people on Sundays,
but on Sept. 28 it was just like a
weekday with little business, there were very few customers,"
said a saleslady at a general merchandise
shop who declined to give her name.
Her sentiment was echoed by Donita Acsay, another
saleslady at a nearby shop that sells
ladies' apparel who said the crowd was sparse even during the
China National Day and Cheung
Yung statutory holidays on the first two days of October.
"Walang gaanong nag-holiday. Parang hindi
nag-holiday, hindi gaanong marami ang mga
tao. Tinatanong ko sila kung bakit ganoon. May nagsasabi sa
kanila na hindi sila pinayagan ng
mga amo na magpunta ng Central kasi walang
sasakyan," said Donita.
She estimated that business at the shop she worked
for had dropped more than 50 percent
and said that was also true with other retailers in the arcade.
To attract customers, she said, her
employer had to slash prices of merchandise such as ladies'
bags by 25 to 50 percent.
"Kung saan may sasakyan doon na lang sila
pumunta. Kaya tignan mo yung remittance,
kahit holiday ay walang pumupunta. A-uno at a-dos yun,
araw ng sahuran iyon," she said.
There were also no queues at Franki Exchange, the
biggest remittance center at World-Wide,
on Oct. 1, a day after payday for most OFWs. Ordinarily,
hundreds would line up here to send money
to their families in the Philippines.
Other remittance shops in the three-level arcade had
the same experience, but the thinning
of customers seemed less of a worry to them than to the
retailers.
"Kami hindi naman humina, kasi kung ano yung
trend ng pasok ng remittance sa
amin, ganundin. Siyempre, dahil nagkaroon ng ganitong rally,
hindi sila nakarating dito dahil sa
rally, doon lang sila sa lugar nila pero tuluy-tuloy pa rin ang
dating ng
remittance," said Liza Chan, manager of Czarina
remittance shop.
"May branch kami sa Tsimshatsui, meron sa Tsuen
Wan, kaya doon naman nagremit ang
mga tao," Chan said, adding that the volume of remitters and
turnover were the same as in normal
times because of the firm's loyal customers.
Other remittance operators said it's too early to
gauge the impact of Occupy Central.
"Wala pa eh, kasi nag-start lang noong end ng
September. Wala pa, hindi mo pa
maikukumpara sa buwan ng October," said Jun Duldulao,
manager of DBP Remittance on the second floor
of World-Wide.
He said business volume was normal for DBP
Remittance, which has only one outlet in
Hong Kong. But he said competition in the business was tight
while rent was high the firm is
paying $41,000 a month for a less than 200-square-foot space
while its spread is just 6 centavos for
every Hong Kong dollar remitted.
But it is the retailers who seem to have suffered the
brunt of the drop in customers
Joyce Tan, a former staff of The SUN who owns
Emily's Store, a Philippine products
shop, voiced her worry about her nearly $22,000 monthly
shop rent with sales diving about 50
percent since Sunday, Sept. 28.
Asked whether she'd be able to earn the rental for
this month from the shop's sales, Tan
said: "Parang mag-aabono muna. Masaklap."
|
|
|
|
|
|
Listen to:
View print version
Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a0005'
Invalid procedure call or argument
/RightbarAd.asp, line 18 |