More Americans are moving abroad

By FLORO M. MERCENE

MANILA, Philippines — Are you one of those itching to go to the United States to work or relocate permanently to the so-called land of milk and honey?

Give your urges a second thought.

The unthinkable is happening.  America, the top place on earth where people from many parts of the world would like to immigrate, is fleeing from itself.

This is the gloomy message of “The Economic Collapse Blog,” one of a series of articles by its editor, Michael Snyder. He is a graduate of the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia, and has two law degrees from the University of Florida. He is an attorney who has worked for some of the largest and most prominent law firms in Washington, DC.  Snyder is a very active blogger and is also a respected researcher, writer, speaker, and activist

In his latest work, Snyder based his assessment of why Americans are leaving in droves by announcing that millions have already left the United States in search of a better life.  And for those planning to do the same, the author asks “What is the best country for Americans to relocate?”

Those who are trying to run away are hoping that other countries would offer a safe haven for their families and their future. They hope that despite some cultural and social differences, not to mention economic and personal freedom that America used to dispense in abundance, they hope their new-found sanctuary would be better off or at least not as bad as the one they are leaving behind.

“As the economy continues to crumble and as our society slowly falls apart, millions of others are thinking about it.  But moving to another country is not something to be done lightly.  The reality is that there are a vast array of social, cultural, economic, and safety issues to be considered,” warns the author.

A recent CNBC program contained the following amazing statistics. According to the US State Department, 6.3 million Americans are either working or studying overseas.  That is the highest number that has ever been recorded.

One recent survey says; “the percentage of Americans aged 25 to 34 actively planning to relocate outside the US has quintupled in just two years, from less than 1 percent to 5.1 percent.”

That same survey found that 40 percent of all Americans in the 18-to-24 age group are expressing interest in relocation outside of the United States.  Two years ago that figure was only at 15 percent.

The American economy continues to get worse and worse.  “If you have not heard yet, it has been announced that an all-time record 46 million Americans are now on food stamps,” Snyder says.

A lot of Americans want to escape this country before they get sucked into the vortex of poverty that has trapped so many other American families.  2.6 million more Americans fell into poverty last year.  In addition, according to the US Census Bureau, the percentage of Americans living in extreme poverty today is higher than has ever been measured before.

“A staggering 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be  low- Income or living in poverty. There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though 30 million extra people have been added to the population since then.
”

Dog dies after saving drowning girl in CDO flashflood

By Dennis Jay Santos, Inquirer Mindanao
Philippine Daily Inquirer

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Jennylou Yecyec, 7 and mother Marilou at the evacuation center in Cagayan De Oro City. Photo by Dennis Jay Santos, Inquirer Mindanao

CAGAYAN DE ORO—A dog, indeed, is man’s best friend.

This is what 7-year-old Jennylou Yecyec found out during the devastating flood that swept her and countless others away from Isla de Oro and the other villages here late Friday.

When the rampaging waters came and rose,  Jennylou, her parents Nilo and Marilou, and her brother Mark decided they should get to the roof of their house.

Marilou said they believed they were safe there, as their neighbors did. They were  wrong.

Their house—made of light materials—did not have a chance against the 30-foot torrent.

Soon, the Yecyec family found themselves bobbing in the rampaging waters.

Marilou said she managed to grab a piece of wood from the debris of demolished houses and held on to it with Jennylou while her husband and son and their pet family dog struggled against the strong current.

A whirlpool that came out of nowhere swallowed every one of them, along with dozens of other people.

Marilou said Jennylou and the dog—which her family has had for three years—got separated from the rest.

Riding piggyback

The girl recounted that while gasping for breath, the dog—pregnant at the time—tried hard not to drift away from her.

“It’s as if it did not want to leave my side,” she said.

As she gasped for air, Jennylou said the dog would bump her lightly, as if trying to tell her something.

“So I rode piggybacked on her and she did the swimming,” Jennylou said.

Out in the open sea, Jennylou said the already exhausted mongrel navigated towards a plank of wood floating nearby. As soon as she held on to the wood, she said the dog sank and was never seen again.

At daybreak, rescuers on rubber boat plucked Jennylou and several others from the sea.

At an evacuation center, she would later be reunited with the rest of her family, who also survived the nightmare. There were profuse expressions of gratitude when the missing member turned up.

“I would have died if not for our dog,” Jennylou said.

An insult to our physicians

By Philip Chua
Cebu Daily News

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GLORIA Macapagal-Arroyo has shown vicious contempt and grave disrespect for the Filipino physicians and the healthcare in the Philippines when she and her husband decided the quality of medical care in the Philippines was not good enough for her, the implied reason why they were attempting to go abroad for treatment.

Apparently, they feel that our physicians and surgeons are not competent enough, not good enough, to treat her illness, cervical spondylosis, or neck arthritis, which is a degenerative condition due to wear and tear of the spine of the neck, a most common condition that afflicts at least tens of millions of the Filipinos. Just like arthritis of the back spine, hip, knee joints, or of the fingers, this condition has pain, which may wax and wane. But certainly, it is not a serious or life threatening condition that GMA and her supporters want to portray to win the sympathy of the Filipino people.

In 2007, her husband underwent a successful repair of a thoracic aneurysm, which is a million-fold more complex a surgical treatment, compared to spondylosis, which even an intern or a “hilot” can treat on an outpatient, as declared by GMA’s physician. All it needs are pain and anti-inflammatory pills, with or without physical therapy in most cases. Indeed, we have the medical competence and quality of care right here in the Philippines. Our physicians may not be able to cure a corrupt and evil mind, but they can competently manage complex medical conditions right in our own country, and most certainly treat arthritis and its complications well.

For several years, I have been pushing for the Philippines to throw its hat into the arena of medical tourism in Asia. I posted the challenge a few years ago at the Annual Clinical Congress of the Philippine College of Surgeons, because of my strong faith and conviction in the talent and competency of my colleagues and in the quality of care in the key medical centers in the country. I believed then and more so now that the Philippines is a potential mecca of medical tourism in Asia. So, how could Gloria Arroyo insult our country’s well-trained physicians and quality medical care? Obviously, to get what she wants, GMA will say or do anything.

As a former president, Arroyo should be the first to show confidence and pride for the quality of medical care in the Philippines by her preference to be treated at home rather than go abroad. GMA’s determined desire to get treatment outside of the country is a slap in the face of the medical and allied health professionals in the Philippines. She has disgraced the entire medical profession in our country before the whole world with lies her decision has unjustly implied.

As a Filipino cardiac surgeon who had practiced in Northwest Indiana, just south of Chicago, for nearly three decades and at the Cebu Doctor’s University Hospital, Cebu City, Philippines, for more than twelve years, and knowing countless medical colleagues in Cebu and Metro Manila, I can categorically say that our country today has at least a dozen medical centers with modern equipment and manned by impressive medical talents, comparable to those in the United States.

However, it is obvious that Gloria Arroyo and her husband were simply using the brutal excuse to escape justice, with the help of their lawyers, who are apparently willing to utilize all technical maneuvers to impede the legal process to allow the couple to flee and avoid prosecution. At least, that’s how it looks to the public, who equates running away as a sign of guilt. If they are innocent, they should stay and fight it out to clear their name.

GMA and her husband should be presumed innocent of the charges against each of them till proven guilty in the court of law. That right, they deserve, in spite of the obvious contempt they have for the decent and law-abiding Filipinos and the legal system of the Republic. The Arroyos must have their day in court. The integrity of the whole nation is at stake. The people demand justice. Let’s make sure they get it, fairly, swiftly, without unnecessary delays, even if Chief Justice Corona and his Seven (all Arroyo appointees) might be willing to allow the couple to simply get away scot free.

The demand by Senator Drilon, Bantay Gloria Network, some religious and other civic groups for Corona to inhibit himself from this case is clearly in order, even for delicadesa, because the people suspect that the Chief Justice is beholden to GMA for his controversial May 2010 midnight appointment by Arroyo as Chief Justice and for his past association with her as Chief of Staff when GMA was vice president and later as president. Drilon also cited 19 cases (2004 to 2010) involving the past administration of Arroyo, where Corona voted consistently in favor of GMA, which “have created doubts in the public’s mind about his impartiality.”

The popular clamor to impeach Corona is brewing and gaining ground. The “crown” of Arroyo must be removed and GMA must be treated like any other citizen who is charged with a crime, electoral sabotage, which is unbailable. Anyone obstructing justice, including justices of the Supreme Court, must be answerable to the people.

The same responsibility and culpability equally apply to the lawyers on either side, to the physicians treating Gloria Arroyo, to members of the Aquino Administration, the Congress, and generally to anyone involved.

All this drama is a hopeful sign of great things to come to the Philippines. The wisdom of the overwhelming majority of Filipinos who elected P-Noy and his vision of “daang matuwid” (The Straight Path) is now starting to manifest and bear fruit. The earnest war against graft and corruption is the only way for us to save our nation and our people, especially those in the gutter of poverty and hopelessness. It might sound crazy, but I bullish about the Philippines. I sincerely believe there is hope for our country to be a great country, a nation with justice, dignity, integrity, compassion, prosperity, and peace. But then again, I am a sentimental dreamer.

Indeed, the Philippines must show the world that we are a nation of justice and that no one, not even a president, past or present, is above the law. As always, the ultimate power and justice rest in the hands of the people, in the Parliament of the Streets, if and when any of the three branches of the government defaults by failing to act responsibly to protect the integrity of the nation and its citizens.

At this early stage, we, the people, should not even attempt to make a diagnosis, in spite of the speculations around and what seemingly appears to be obvious. If we want justice, we must first be just ourselves and allow the prescribed judicial process to go through without delay. Let us be patient, steadfast, calm, but vigilant. After all, the truth will come out soon enough, and justice will prevail.

*Please visit  philipSchua.com

Two wrongs don’t make a right

By: Solita Collas-Monsod
Philippine Daily Inquirer

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I do not only understand but also have tremendous sympathy for those who feel that judicial reform, starting with the Supreme Court, is long overdue.

The reader may recall that two months ago, in a speech before the Philippine Judges Association, Chief Justice Renato Corona launched a diatribe against the Executive and Legislative branches, accusing them of  “so much disrespect and lack of civility” in their treatment of the Judiciary (read: the Supreme Court) and for their attempts to undermine its independence.

I wrote in this column that respect had to be earned, not demanded, and that the Corona Court in its existence thus far seemed to have embarked on a respect-obliterating, public trust-violating course.

I cited five of the Corona Court’s decisions  (one cannot call the decision upholding Corona’s midnight appointment as a Corona Court decision) to bolster my point: one was the case involving former Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, where the Court, apparently even without most members reading her petition, issued a status quo ante order to stop proceedings on her impeachment; the second was the plagiarism case against Justice Mariano del Castillo, where the Corona Court, disregarding all documentary evidence (compiled by another justice, no less, who was then subjected to disrespect and incivility by her peers) to the contrary, declared that Del Castillo did not plagiarize—and had to redefine plagiarism in order to justify its decision.

The third had to do with the accusation of Lauro Vizconde that Justice Antonio Carpio had lobbied among his colleagues for the acquittal of Hubert Webb, with Vizconde citing Corona as his source. The Court passed a resolution absolving Carpio of the accusation, but, significantly, made no mention about Corona’s possible culpability in the matter.

The fourth had to do with its original decision on the Hacienda Luisita case (just recently reversed), where the farmworker-beneficiaries were still given the option to choose the stock distribution option plan, which it had revoked.

And the fifth was its truly mindboggling flip-flop—recalling, within less than a month, its decision (with finality)—on the case of PAL’s flight attendants and stewards.

Personally, I believe that the Court would be better off without say, Corona (who, in my opinion, has no sense of delicadeza, but that isn’t an impeachable offense) and at least one other justice who, I am morally certain, is as corrupt as they come. But moral certitude can and should never be a substitute for hard evidence.

Unfortunately, there is no way to prove that the above-mentioned decisions can be attributed solely to Corona. And yet that is exactly what the impeachment charges against Corona, lodged by 188 members of the House of Representatives, seem to imply.

Even more unfortunately, in the rush to impeach Corona, both the House of Representatives and the Executive branch have committed exactly the same offenses that they find Corona (more accurately, the Corona Court) guilty of.

Item: The Corona Court is accused of a rush to judgment in its issuance of the status quo ante order in the Gutierrez case, and for that matter, in its issuance of a TRO on the GMA travel ban. What do we call the House’s rush to judgment in the impeachment of Corona, or for that matter, the Comelec’s (under the Executive’s orders), rush in filing charges against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regarding her so-called electoral sabotage?

In the Corona impeachment charges, the members met in caucus in the early afternoon. Rep. Niel Tupas says he gave a PowerPoint presentation of the eight articles of impeachment, and when two House members wanted to ask questions, they were essentially overwhelmed by the other members’ desire to just sign the complaint. So 188 members had signed by early evening.

But here’s the rub (as pointed out by a legal beagle friend whose name is available on request): complainants are by law required to sign an affidavit to the effect that “I have read the contents thereof and the facts stated therein are true and correct according to the best of my knowledge and /or on the basis of documents and records in my possession.” In other words, the congressmen shouldn’t have signed if they had not read the 57-page document.

The same thing can be said of the Comelec commissioners who signed the formal charges without reading the complete documents: a rush to judgment, based on the fear that GMA would “escape,” totally ignoring the fact that since the beginning of P-Noy’s term, she had left the Philippines seven times and returned seven times.

Item: Then there are the charges of bias or partiality shown by Corona/the Corona Court in favor of GMA. What does one call the arrest and detention of GMA for electoral sabotage based on the single testimony of the most dubious of witnesses?

Item: Corona/the Corona Court is charged with not submitting the required statements of assets, liabilities and net worth. Aside from the fact that the policy of the Court on not releasing the SALNs of the justices is a policy that was in effect before Corona’s time, there is also the reality that, as the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism’s Malou Mangahas has reported, the biggest non-implementors of the release rule are the Office of the President and the Office of the Ombudsman.

In effect, the pots are calling the kettles black. Or, more relevantly, one cannot solve a problem by creating an even greater problem. Two wrongs can never make a right.