8 June 2009
Below are photos I took in the Senate of the victims of the pre-need industry fiasco in the Philippines and of Dubai bus drivers and their families.
The two Senate hearings were conducted by the committees of Senator Mar Roxas and Senator Jinggoy Estrada.
Pre-Need Industry Victims and SEC Officials
Attending the Senate Committee Hearing
Chaired by Senator Mar Roxas
May 28, 2009
Assisted by the Ople Policy Center,
Dubai Bus Drivers & Their Families
Victims of Recruitment and Lending Scams
Attending the Senate Hearing Chaired
By Senator Jinggoy Estrada
June 3, 2009
Our nation are hurting and our people need help. The SEC, for the first time, has shown encouraging signs of heeding my suggestion of holding a pre-need industry conference to find long-term solutions to the problems besetting the industry and short-term ones that may give some relief to distressed planholders and beneficiaries.
The collapse of big pre-need companies have left many parents who invested in the pension plans and educational plans empty-handed thus jeopardizing the chance to study of millions of Filipino children. The Legacy scandal has rocked the nation and deprived investors of hundreds of millions of pesos in investments.
There are, if not mistaken, 67 or 68 bus drivers still left stranded in Dubai. They can't pay the P3.6 million overstaying fees that's been slapped against them by the Dubai government and they don't have money to pay their plane fares back home. On top of that, the lending company from whom they were made to borrow money to pay placement fee to the recruiter is now running after them.
Let's do all that we can to help our OFWs and the victims of the pre-need industry fiasco in the Philippines.
More on this when I return. (Please drop back again; I'll try to tell more about the stories behind these pictures when I return.)
VIDEO UPDATE
9 June 2009
I've located the ABS-CBN video clip showing the wives of stranded drivers in Dubai seeking the help of our government for their quick return home. The bus drivers and their families here are being assisted by the Ople Policy Center.
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