Syrian Rebels Still Holding Filipino Peacekeepers

BEIRUT - Rebels holding 21 U.N. peacekeepers near the Golan Heights in southern Syria say government forces must leave the area before they free their "guests", an activist in touch with the fighters said on Thursday, reports GMANews/Reuters. Rami Abdelrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights quoted a spokesman for the "Martyrs of Yarmouk" rebel brigade as saying the peacekeepers were being held as "guests" in the village of Jamla, about a mile (1.6 km) from a ceasefire line with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Deportations from Malaysia Not Linked to Sabah Row

The deportation of some 300 Filipinos from Sabah was not connected to the violent confrontation in the territory between the Malaysian authorities and the followers of Sulu’s Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, reports Inquirer.net, citing a Department of Labor statement. They are regular deportees who came from all over Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia through regular commercial vessels from Sandakan, according to labor official. The deportees arrived in Zamboanga on Sunday night. Their transportation expenses were shouldered by the Malaysian government, said Baldoz.

Recruiters Halt Placements in Hong Kong

A self-imposed moratorium by a group of Philippine-based licensed recruiters could deprive some 35,000 Filipinos of jobs as household service workers (HSWs) in Hong Kong, reports Inquirer.net. The Society of Hong Kong Accredited Recruiters of the Philippines Inc. (SHARP), a group of licensed overseas employment providers, announced that it will stop deploying HSWs for employers in Hong Kong because of prohibitive recruitment costs that workers incur. Alfredo Palmiery,  SHARP president, said that until their counterparts and their employers in Hong Kong satisfactorily address the issue of high recruitment costs, the moratorium they imposed would remain.

Push to Rename School After Fil-Am Labor Leaders

​Filipino students, parents, teachers and their supporters are petitioning the New Haven Unified School District in Union City, California to change the name of Alvarado Middle School in honor of Filipino American labor heroes Philip Vera Cruz and Larry Itliong. One in five students in the New Haven Unified School District are Filipino, and one in three residents in Union City are Filipino. Rarely celebrated and often forgotten in the battle for farm workers rights and the movement for civil liberties, Vera Cruz was one of the founders of the Agriculture Worker Organizing Committee (AWOC), which later merged with Cesar Chavez’s National Farm Workers Association (NFWA). It later gave birth to the United Farm Workers (UFW). Itliong founded the Filipino Farm Labor Union (FFLU) and was the president of AWOC. The two convinced Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta’s predominantly Mexican/Latino National Farm Workers Association to join the Grape Strike and Boycott of 1965 demanding better pay and benefits. Together, Filipinos and Mexicans formed the UFW. 

Japan to Give One More Study Year to Filipino Nurses

TOKYO--The Japanese foreign ministry plans to give Filipinos and Indonesians seeking to become nurses and caregivers in Japan an extra year in the country to prepare for qualifying exams, reports ABS-CBN News. The special measure is based on the low passing rates so far for the prospective healthcare workers from the two Southeast Asian countries, who eventually hope to gain employment in Japan under bilateral free trade accords. The move will benefit about 500 candidate nurses and caregivers who came to Japan without undergoing six-month Japanese language training sessions and help boost their chances in passing the Japanese qualifying exams.

Maid Brings Residency Fight to HK Top Court

HONG KONG — A Filipino maid has taken her fight for permanent residency to Hong Kong's top court, reports AP/Bradenton Herald. Lawyers for Evangeline Banao Vallejos were presenting arguments to the Court of Final Appeal on Tuesday. Her legal team was granted permission last year to appeal a lower court's rejection of her bid. Vallejos along with another Filipino national are seeking a landmark ruling that would let thousands of other foreign domestic helpers settle in the southern Chinese financial center.​

Filipinos Feel Most Loved--Gallup

The world leader in love is the Philippines, where fully 93 percent of the population reported feeling love, says the Gallup Blog. Rwanda isn't far behind at 92 percent, and Puerto Rico is the only other population surveyed where at least nine in ten respondents reported feeling love. Armenians feel the least loved, with only 29 percent of the population feeling someone cares for them. 

14 Die in Sabah Fighting

The standoff in Sabah erupted in violence on Friday morning, with 12 followers of the sultan of Sulu and two police officers killed as Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak declared his patience had run out, reports Inquirer.net. Sabah Police Commissioner Hamza Taib told reporters that 12 members of the group led by a brother of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, were killed in the clash that began at about 10 a.m. and lasted for 30 minutes. The group claimed they were merely returning to their homeland as Sabah belonged​ to the Sulu sultanate.