US Embassy issues final call to Filipino vets

Last November while we were in Dubai, we spent a lot of time around the area where the Burj Dubai now stands. We could see that despite the halt in the construction of the many buildings around the central business district in Dubai, activity in the Burj Dubai building was non-stop because they had a schedule to complete this building. Yesterday in all pomp and grandeur, Dubai formally opened the Burj Dubai now officially dubbed as the World’s Tallest building, beating Taipei 101 at 828 meters tall.

Back in 1972, as a young man, it was a thrill to go up to what was then the World’s Tallest building, the twin towers of the World Trade Center, which was demolished by the Al Qaeda in Sept.11. Then, Chicago’s Sears Tower already beat it as the World’s Tallest building. Alas, the World’s Tallest buildings are no longer in the United States. One is in Malaysia called the twin Petronas Towers, then followed by Taipei 101 and now the World’s Tallest building stands in Dubai in the Middle East.

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The year 2010 is starting off very well in Asia which is now leading the economic recovery ahead of most western countries. This growth is particularly strong in China (thanks to their refocus on its huge domestic market) followed by South Korea, India and Taiwan. What about the Philippines? We may not have wallowed in financial depression in year 2009 and remarkably stayed afloat but somehow we shouldn’t be happy with merely keeping our heads above water. We must nudge forward and "cash in" on Asia’s financial strong recovery.

2010 is an election year and we know that election campaign spending would certainly keep our finances stable. However it will never give us any economic growth. This growth will come from the Information Technology industry where more Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) jobs like call centers would provide more jobs to Filipinos right here at home. While we are passionate where our political leadership is going, we must never lose sight of the present reality that even amongst our ASEAN neighbors we are already being left behind and we need to catch up for our own sakes.

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A lot of us in the media expected Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. to present a plea of "Not Guilty" for his role in the infamous Maguindanao massacre. People like him still believe that their political clout will get them off the hook, hoping perhaps that with the slow wheels of justice, the media would find other newsworthy items to cover and forget about the Maguindanao massacre. But no sir, we will ride with his case and see where it would end, hopefully in a conviction if the eye witnesses would still pinpoint to him as the main perpetrator of this crime.

Incidentally a question was raised by other private lawyers within the prosecution as to why Mayor Ampatuan Jr. is given "special" treatment in an NBI jail instead of being incarcerated in a normal jail where all common criminals should be placed? I got this from a report from the BBC, which is still covering this trial. After all, the international news media made this its breaking news happened last Nov.23. But even the BBC reporter mentioned that Mayor Ampatuan is no ordinary criminal as he is charged with the most heinous crime that was ever perpetuated in this country.

I fully agree that Mayor Ampatuan should stay in the NBI jail; after all we’ve seen infamous criminals walk out of a jail cell. Or worse, if he is incarcerated in an ordinary jail, it would be easy for those who want to exact their vengeance on him to have him killed by an inmate, then we’d have a bigger problem as to why he wasn’t placed in a high security cell. What we’d like to see is that Andal Ampatuan should not be given a special treatment inside the NBI jail.

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We got this bulletin from the US Embassy reminding Filipino World War II Veterans that they have only six-weeks left to apply for a new one-time benefit created by the 2009 Filipino Veterans Equity Compensation Provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. This means that all claims from Filipino Veterans seeking benefits must be received by the US Embassy’s Department of Veterans Affairs Office (USDVA) by Feb.16, 2010.

I hope that our Filipino veterans are not taking the usual Pinoy attitude of doing things at the last minute. We are writing this so that if you have friends who are veterans that still have unclaimed benefits, there is still time for their papers to be processed. I know that most of our veterans are already in their 80s and may find it hard to go to Manila. But at least they know that there is still material time for them to make that trip.

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