Kumakalat sa internet…. Panu ba ipagtatangol ang pinoy…marami ay totoo…..

Originally Posted by Genexyz 

Heto pa masama niyan..

As a white person married to a filipina and father to two half dutch / filipino children, I feel for Philippines. I have sadness but I also have frustration and anger towards filipino culture (in some cases, filipino behaviour is idiotic)…because I see it in my wife, in my in-laws and her relations. 

To most foreigners, we see and understand the bad things in filipino culture (and yet filipinos do not understand nor see the bad in themselves, why because you filipinos think that you are good people because you are catholics or born-agains….let me tell you, there are bad catholics and there are bad born-agains). 

This sad story just highlights the idiotic nature of filipino culture and how it impacts on the filipino society. This bad side of the filipino culture was displayed over the world (via cable tv and internet, however we have ABS-CBN so we watched it live). I will try and explain in english and broken tagalog:

Idiot 1: stupid filipino negotiator

The filipino negotiator only talked for about 30 minutes then gave up. That is not how you do or practice negotiation skills in hostage situations. In other parts of the world, most negotiators do it for 48 hours. They give the hostagetaker lots of food and water to drink and talk to him all the time. The logic behind this is after 12 hours (of eating and drinking), they need to pee or poo (kailangan wee-wee at tae), so he have to get out of the bus, that’s when you need to attack him. Have you tried to talk on the phone when ebs is starting to come out? Its very hard. This is a technique filipino negotiators need to learn. Yes, the hostagetaker was given food…but it should have been more over a 48 hour period. After 48 hours, susuko din ito.

Idiot 2: stupid swat team with a hammer

There was a stupid swat team who was hammering the window with a long and heavy piledriver hammer. After 3 attempts he got tired, he needed to let go of the hammer and give his gun to his partner so he can rest. Well, next time try to work out in the gym, do some weights and jog to get fit. Sobra taba pagod agad.

Idiot 3: emergency lock out on hydraulic doors

All tour buses have an emergency lock out for the hydraulic doors. It’s located under the bus near the underside of the door. I saw on TV that they were trying to find out where the lock out is…instead the tababoy swat hammered the door, what did it do…nothing, it’s still remained close and he got tired somemore. In other parts of the world, the tactical response group practice everyday on how to attack or seige a hostage situation, they study all type of vehicles (airplanes, buses, trains, boats etc) and practice how to attack these positions. They study were the entry and exit are, where emergency doors are and how to stop these vehicles (just ask the Israel Tactical response group, they do this every day). Next time, study the layout of the bus first. Filipinos tend not to worry about what may happen, they only act when it is happening.

Idiot 4: Roping the door

Another swat team (the tababoy swat team have to be substituted he got tired) tried to rope the door and pull it using the Isuzu police truck…what happened? The rope broke….hellllloooo…..hydraulic doors are designed to stand against a lot of force and pressure. A rope made of abaca won’t open it.

Idiot 5: The bystander boy who got shot in the leg

A bystander got shot in the leg. Well, what do you expect? The swat team should have quarantined and sanctioned the area. Example: put a ribbon or barracade saying “Crime Scene” just like you see in the movies….or is the PNP to poor to buy one of those. Al bystanders should realise that they are not part of the event and if something happens to them it is their own fault. Buti nga sayo, buhay ka pa !!

Idiot 6: Throwing tear gas into the bus

It is idiotic to throw tear gas into a bus when nobody knew how many people were still alive. Of those dead people, I wonder how many died of tear gas suffocation. Of course, PNP will not admit it, they will say that the hostagetaker killed them. I do not trust filipino autospy. Filipinos tend to fake documents or stories to make them look good (it’s called ‘saving face’). As far as the PNP is concerned, the hostagetaker killed them and no other investigation is required.

Idiot 7:Firing into the bus

This is one of the most serious idiotic actions they did. Firing into the bus also creates ricochet (banda-banda). I wonder how many got killed because of this? Like number 6, PNP will not admit it.

Idiot 8: Swat team entering after the tear gas

This idiotic act is the one that made me laugh (and I am sure all tactical response group in the world will be using this as a “don’t do” training video because of its ‘kenkoy’ effect). Two swat teams enter the bus after they put the tear gas…what happened…they have to asked for help from the people outide to get them out because they cant breath…why…because they forgot the gas mask. Next time do an inventory of equipment you need in case of emergency

Idiot 9: The treatment of the brother and family of the hostagetaker

It was seen on TV that the wife, daughter and brother of the hostagetaker were treated poorly. Nobody helped them, not even the media. No person tried to help the family. In most society, a group of people will form a circle around the family to help them…nobody did that for them. Where is the people power…Philippines have done it before, why didn’t they do it then? No one offered help to the wife and the pregnant daughter, they saw their father killed in front of them. That is no way to treat people….for a country who claims to be ‘mapagmahal’, catholic and christian that was an utter embarrassment.

Idiot 10: Corrupt police

The hostagetaker wanted to clear his name because he was charged with corruption. Corruption…in the Phillippines….that’s news to me (sarcastic)!!! One policeman charged with corruption is not going to make a difference. Catching small corruption is not going to make a difference….the real corruption happens at the top of filipino government (ie Marcos, Erap, Arroyo).Us foreigners laugh at filipino stupidity because you do not learn, you get rid of Marcos because he was bad and corrupt, but still vote for Imelda and her children to become congressman and governor, give them a second chance to be corrupt again……so, nothing changed. That’s Corruption….and ‘katangahan ng pilipino’. In other countries, police treat one another like brothers and help them when they need it. It did not happen here.

Idiot 11: Media and dead people

This is the most idiotic and unacceptable behaviour that was displayed to the world. Filipino media is to be blamed for this. Respect and sensitivity should have been excersised by the media. They showed (in close up), the dead body of the hostagetaker hanging from the door with blood and brains dripping from the head, the dead body of a child and other dead bodies with blood being taken out of the bus. This should not have been televised. The relatives of the dead will not want it televised but the filipino media did. This is not good. Respect for the dead should have been observed.

Idiot 12: Laughing sniper

The sniper was interviewed by the media and he seemed to be happy and laughing when he told the reporter how he shot the hostagetaker in the head and that he was proud he killed him. The wife, daughter and father of the hostagetaker (watching from their province) will obviously will not want another person to hear how proud they were when he shot their husband / father. I hope that the sniper have a son, father, brother and I hope one day someone will shoot them infront of him and I want to know how he feels then.

CONCLUSION:

This will only give filipinos a bad name overseas. It will also affect filipinos who are born overseas, eventhough they have nothing to do with this, they will be judged of what filipinos in Philippines did. 

For filipinos trying to get a visa to Canada, USA, UK, Europe etc…forget it…you will be judged by their immigration office for this kind of event. They already know that most filipinos are likely to be TNT and this backlash will make it even harder for filipinos to get visa.

Ganti on DH

I am sure, that Hong Kong / China will go on a massive revenge on filipina DH in hong kong. I am sure of it. HK and Chinese only see filipinas as lowly people who’s only role is to clean houses. PS: chinese people don’t know that Europeans look at them as lowly immigrants who clean toilets in europe….ganti din.

Ganti on japayuki

Also, Japanese people will take revenge on japayukis in Japan. Japanese people already treat filipinas like dirt and they will even treat them even worse because of this. Japanese people to not take filipinos in high regard…japanese only see filipinos as dirt people who will do anything just to get money (ie be japayuki in japan).

Ganti on OFW in Saudi

I’m sure too, that OFW in Saudi will also feel the revenge of people there because of this.

I am sure that my children will be teased and bullied at school because of this. My children, regardless of being half-white are still brown in colour, with black hair (but with blue eyes) and people know they are half-filipinos. 

So filipinos in Philippines, your stupidity in your country is also ‘hawa-hawa’ to other filipinos overseas…they get judged by what you filipinos in Philippines do to yourselves or to others.

Internet order filipina brides will always get foreign husbands, unfortunately for filipino lalaki, there is no such thing as internet order filipino husbands (I never seen white woman with filipino husband), as more filipina marry foreigner more filipino lalaki are left behind in philippines (my wife said she does not like filipino lalaki because they are ‘tanga’…..I know she married me for money and greencard so she can send dollars to her batugan parents and batugan brothers, batugan cousins and batugan kapitbahay)….so, the only hope for Philippines is for half-foreigner and half-filipino children, half is better than stupid full-blood filipino.

Ano masasabi ninyo??

Re-marrying without prior annulment, a word of caution

By Lourdes Santos Tancinco

INQUIRER.net

CALIFORNIA, United States—Renato married Juslyn in 1997 in a simple civil ceremony. They have two children, born in 1998 and 2000. In 2001, Renato visited the US and never returned. He subsequently married an American citizen, Mary Anne, who then filed a petition to make him a green card holder or permanent resident.

Renato had concealed his prior marriage in 1997, as well as the existence of his two minor children. In 2005, he was naturalized a US citizen, again concealing his prior marriage and children. Thereafter, he filed for the annulment of his first marriage in the Philippines.

Last year, Renato decided to file petitions with the USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) to bring his children, now 10 and 12 years old, to the US.

Renato received a letter from the USCIS asking for additional information regarding the mother of the two children. He was asked to prove that his marriage to the mother of his children had been validly annulled. Since he did not annul his marriage prior to marrying again in the US, the petitions for the children were both denied.

The USCIS then forwarded Renato’s case for further investigation to determine whether he committed fraud in obtaining his immigrant visa.

Bigamous marriage

A subsequent marriage without annulling a prior marriage will definitely result in a bigamous arrangement. The USCIS would not have approved Renato’s application for permanent resident status had they known that his marriage to a US citizen was bigamous. While it may seem to be irrational to enter into a second marriage without first obtaining dissolution of the first marriage, cases of this kind are not uncommon.

A bigamous marriage is not looked upon with favor either in the Philippines or in the US. For some, the first marriage is actually intact and the second is but a marriage-for-convenience for immigration purposes. In other cases, the second marriage is a genuine husband and wife union. But when a prior marriage involving one of the parties is discovered, issues of trust and betrayal arise.

Since divorce is not allowed in the Philippines, what some migrant Filipinos do is obtain a divorce in the US and use this divorce decree to enter into a subsequent marriage. While foreign divorces are legally recognized in the jurisdiction where it was obtained, such divorce decrees are not recognized in the Philippines—unless the former Filipino national is a US citizen.

Children in dilemma

After remarrying and obtaining a US green card or US citizenship, the bigamous parent usually applies for an immigrant visa for the children. Concealment of the existence of a prior marriage and children in prior applications will most likely yield problems in the petitioning process.

Questions regarding the marriage of the parents of the children being petitioned will always arise. If the prior marriage was not validly annulled and this fact had been concealed, the petition for the children’s immigrant visa will not be granted because of “prior fraud.”

Although the children are not the ones who perpetrated the fraud, they suffer the effects of misrepresentation by the petitioning parent.

Criminal prosecution

No legitimate purpose will be served by misrepresenting the existence of a prior marriage and children in applying for immigrant benefits.

It is not true that the naturalization to a US citizen will resolve all prior fraud or misrepresentation.

A person who made false claims in his naturalization application is liable for criminal prosecution.

On the other hand, when a migrant, whether a US citizen or not, is able to obtain a valid divorce in his new place of residence abroad and has since remarried, the foreign divorce should be made valid in the Philippines. This will allow the divorced spouse left behind to also move on and remarry. In addition, the children’s future with regard to their support and custody, as well as their qualification to be petitioned by the migrant parent, will not be compromised.

The author may be reached at law@tancinco.com or at 02-887 7177 or 02-721 1963

Ex-general Garcia’s sons in US plead guilty

Carlos Garcia, former armed forces procurement chief, at a congressional hearing in Manila 18 October 2004. FILE PHOTO

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SAN FRANCISCO, California, United States—Two sons of the former general in charge of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ funds on Thursday pleaded guilty to bulk cash smuggling, United States Attorney Melinda Haag announced.

The sentencing of Juan Paulo and Ian Carl is scheduled for 9 a.m. on November 29, before US District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel. The brothers were released from electronic monitoring pending that appearance.

H.R. 240--the Bulk Cash Smuggling Act of 1999: Field hearing before the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit of the Committee on ... Sixth Congress, second session, May 15, 2000

Juan Paulo Garcia, 29, of Pontiac, Michigan, and Ian Carl Garcia, 32, of Las Vegas, sons of former Philippine military comptroller Carlos Garcia, were indicted under seal on December 9, 2008, on bulk cash smuggling and conspiracy charges.

Juan Paulo was also charged with failing to file a monetary instrument report and making a false statement to a government agency. The indictment was unsealed following their arrest in February 2009.

In pleading guilty, the brothers admitted that in December 2003 they smuggled $100,000 into the United States from Manila, Philippines by concealing it in their luggage, and that they made false statements to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officers about the amount of money they were carrying.

The brothers agreed to forfeit the $100,000 to the United States government. In exchange, the United States agreed to dismiss the remaining charges and to recommend a sentence of time served. The brothers have spent approximately 100 days in custody and a year and a half on electronic monitoring.

“This prosecution demonstrates our determination to combat and deter bulk cash smuggling, which is often a means of moving ill-gotten gains into the United States,” said US Attorney Haag. “We applaud the coordination and dedication of the many agencies, including those in the Philippines, that joined forces to investigate this case.”

After CBP Officers discovered the undeclared currency, federal agents initiated an international investigation in cooperation with the Republic of the Philippines, Office of the Ombudsman, Office of the Special Prosecutors.

As a result of the investigation, former Philippine General Carlos Garcia, Juan Paulo and Ian Carl’s father, recently was found guilty in the Philippines of perjury for a false declaration of his assets and liabilities in 2000.

Garcia, his wife and three sons, including Juan Paulo and Ian Carl, are also facing plunder charges in the Philippines for allegedly illegally amassing more than P300 million during the former general’s active military service.

The maximum penalty for each of the four counts in the indictment—conspiracy to commit bulk cash smuggling, bulk cash smuggling, failure to report the importation of monetary instruments and false statements to a government agency—is five years in prison, and a $250,000 fine. The penalty for failure to declare the importation of monetary instruments increases to 10 years in prison if a defendant is convicted of this charge in addition to one of the other three charges in the indictment.

“As the first line of defense for America’s international border, CBP works closely with international law enforcement agencies. This interception highlights the important work CBP officers perform every day,” said Richard Vigna, CBP Director of Field Operations, San Francisco.

Hartley West and Candace Kelly are the Assistant US Attorneys who prosecuted the case with the assistance of Wilson Wong, Rawaty Yim, and Rosario Calderon. The prosecution is the result of an international investigation led by Special Agents from CBP, the Internal Revenue Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Department of Defense, Defense Criminal Investigative Service.

Report principally taken from press release of the United States Attorney’s Office.

Published in Philippine Daily Inquirer Sept. 12, 2010.

X-ray techs earn more than nurses

And the work is ‘less toxic’ tooBy Emman Cena
Philippine Daily Inquirer

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MANILA, Philippines—Among the allied medical professions in the Philippines, their field is not as popular as nursing. 

But radiologic technicians like Arnold and Agnes Llegado have a secret they want to share: Compared to nursing, the rad tech’s job is “less toxic”—and the pay (in some countries) is higher.

Ethics and the Radiologic Technician

Rad techs, also called radiographers, are the guys manning the X-ray machines, CT scans, ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment, and other new diagnostic and therapeutic medical technologies.

For a long time they were considered pretty much bottom-rung hospital employees.

At the Makati Medical Center, where Arnold and Agnes worked after getting their radiography licenses in Manila, their pay checks were only a little more than the minimum wage.

“Even when I was single, I could barely make ends meet on P10,000 (about $228) a month,” said Agnes, who hails from Batangas. A condominium or a new car were things just out of her league.

The two radiographers never even imagined they could land overseas jobs. Recruiters before were always scouting for nurses and physical therapists, they recalled.

Changing demand

But times have changed with the ever increasing role of radiologic imaging in both diagnostic and therapeutic practice—now part of the fast expanding field of nuclear medicine.

In 2000, Arnold and Agnes were recruited by a hospital in Singapore.

Arnold said he almost couldn’t believe it: He was to earn more than what most resident doctors earned at private hospitals in Manila.

A decade later (faster than anyone can say millennium development goal), Arnold and Agnes enjoy a lifestyle only the ultra rich and some politicians in the Philippines can afford: a decent apartment abroad, a condominium in Manila, brand new cars, yearly tours to different parts of the world, and children studying in Essex, England.

It was in Singapore where Arnold and Agnes fell in love. They returned to Manila to get married.

Six years later, Arnold’s former boss at the Singapore hospital called him about a job opening in a hospital in the UK.

He was raring to go, he said, but not without Agnes. That was another good decision he made. Overseas work did not tear this family apart.

“We didn’t know what awaited us. But I was confident because Agnes was with me, supporting me every step of the way. She also had to resign from her job. We started anew,” Arnold told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a video conference.

Arnold, 36, and Agnes, 31, are now blessed with two children, Aedrick and Aedrey.

In-demand skills

Radiologic technologists are among the highly skilled professions that have been very much in demand in the UK since 2000, according to the Association of Filipino Radiographers in the UK (Afruk).

The group now has 69 registered members and expect more to join them.

The couple noted that there are also many Filipino nurses there.

Arnold clearly prefers his job. Unlike nurses, he claims, they are not as overworked and “the work is less toxic” (hospital lingo for work stress).

The Llegado couple work at the same company but are assigned to different stations.

“It is more than rewarding because we help each other out and we share our knowledge,” Agnes said.

It has also kept their relationship strong. “I know exactly what time he gets off,” Agnes quipped.

“But we know how and when to party,” she quickly added.

Less hierarchical culture

There’s more than money to gain in overseas work. The couple like the culture in England.

Unlike in Singapore and in the Philippines “where some, if not most hospital patients are rude and unfriendly,”

British patients are generally pleasant, according to the couple.

Hospital institutions are also more laidback, less hierarchical. “Colleagues call each other by their first names unlike in the Philippines where it’s requisite to call others ‘ma’am’ and ‘sir,’” Agnes added.

Filipinos get along not only because they are naturally warm but also because they are professionally skilled, said Arnold, who now speaks with a slight British accent.

In his younger days, he said he never imagined a career as a radiographer. He wanted to be an architect. Agnes, on the other hand, dreamt of becoming a pediatrician.

Professional satisfaction

But Arnold and Agnes now take pride in their profession. Radiography is a fast expanding specialization.

“I owe much of my blessings to my job,” said Agnes. Her younger sister Ivy is now also a radiographer in Singapore.

Holidays for the Llegados usually means touring other countries. Christmas and New Year, however, are reserved for their families in the Philippines. “We always go home and perhaps we will retire to the place where we were born.”

Comparative estimated salaries of doctors, nurses and other medical, dental, veterinary-related workers

Country/Profession Average Monthly Salary

(In US dollars/2008)

Singapore

- Medical doctors 1,500.00

- Professional nurses 882.86

- Medical, dental, veterinary-related workers 904.46

United Kingdom

- Medical doctors 4,693.82

- Professional nurses 1,854.66

United States

- Medical doctors 7,087.94

- Professional nurses 5,200

- Medical, dental, veterinary-related workers 2,932.83

UK payscales

Joel Casayuran, chairman of the Association of Filipino Radiographers in the United Kingdom (Afruk), said the demand for Pinoy rad techs in the UK has surged. Here are current pay scales straight from Afruk for rad techs, med techs, and nurses in the UK:

Rad techs

Junior Grade-Basic Grade to Senior 2 radiographers earn from £24,000 to £32,000 per annum (P1,632,000-P2,176,000 per annum; at 68 peso equivalent)

Senior 1 to Superintendent Grade radiographers-from £30,000 to £39,000 per annum (P2,040,000-P2,652,000)

Med techs

Basic medical technologists-from £22,000 to £29,000 per annum (P1,496,000-P1,972,000)

Nurses

Basic Grade A for the nurses-from £10,050 to £12,615 per annum (P683,400-P857,820)

Professionalizing Household Work

By BERNARDO VILLEGAS

September 9, 2010, 4:33pm

As can be inferred from the recent row created by pilots of Philippine Airlines accepting jobs from foreign airlines, many of our overseas workers are definitely not coming from the poorest households of the Philippines. 

Overseas Filipino Workers-New Heroes or Mad Heroes

In fact, a study commissioned by the Asian Development Bank about Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWS) already confirmed that it is not the poorest of the poor who actually seek jobs abroad.

 What with placement fees and other deposits that can amount to as much as P100,000, there is no way the poor can successfully land a job overseas. It is not accurate, then, to say that it is poverty that drives Filipinos to go abroad for employment. It is more accurate to say that it is wage or income differentials that motivate Filipinos to work abroad.

For this reason, we should expect that even if our poverty line should drop to below 10 percent, we will still have millions of Filipinos going abroad for two complementary reasons: there will always be large wage or income differentials between the Philippines and the more developed economies and Filipinos workers and professionals are in greater demand abroad than most other nationalities. 

This demand especially comes from the highly developed countries in North America, Europe, and Northeast Asia that are irreversibly suffering from the so-called demographic winter.

 At least for the next 50 years, whatever the family planning advocates in the Philippines may do, the Philippines will have a surplus of able-bodied workers and professionals who, by economic choice, will want to work abroad, at least for a certain period of their lives.

 These workers and professionals will be increasingly in the fields of health care, information technology, education, management, tourism, engineering, land, sea, and air transport, and other personal services.

In the next 20 years, however, as the Philippines still struggles to significantly reduce mass poverty, we will not be able to avoid sending many of our females to work abroad as household services workers (HSWs), especially to territories like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and other Middle Eastern countries. 

HSWs are among those who come from the poorer households and are driven to make sacrifices (including leaving their children) in order to help their families live more comfortable lives. As Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said during a consultative meeting with the DoLE's labor attaches recently:

 "There is a call for the DoLE to really make a serious effort to protect the most vulnerable of our OFWs--the household service workers--so it is high time for us to review the HSW reform package."

As reported by GMA News, Secretary Baldoz impressed upon the labor attache corps the need to quickly bring home all distressed OFWs, particularly the HSWs, in all Filipino Workers Resource Centers all over the world. She also reminded them to ensure they are given full and complete social and economic assistance to facilitate their re-integration into their families and home communities upon their return.

 Among other measures emphasized was to ensure that the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) would improve the quality of its skills assessment and certification system for HSWs before they leave for abroad

I would like to belabor the last point. Instead of trying to phase out the deployment of HSWs in foreign countries, which move would be clearly anti-poor as already explained above, the government should exert all efforts to work with TESDA and the numerous private technical training schools to improve the quality of our HSWs. 

In many developed countries, especially in Europe, the task of managing a home has already become as dignified an occupation as nursing, teaching and restaurant management. The figure of what we have derogatorily called a "muchacha" or "tsimay" is disappearing. 

In her place is a professional--who does not have to live in the house of the employer — who combines the talents of operating modern appliances, culinary arts, language teaching to children, and other skills that are deployed in a modern household. 

These types of home managers are already being produced by local schools like Punlaan in San Juan, Anihan in Calamba, or Banilad in Cebu. It would be worthwhile for the DoLE and the recruiting agencies to touch base with these technical schools for them to have an idea of the modern home manager so that there is no need to think that exporting HSWs is giving the Philippines a bad image. For comments, my e-mail address is bvillegas@uap.edu.ph.

Filipina Women’s Network in US marks glass-ceiling breakthroughs

By Lito Gutierrez
Philippine Daily Inquirer

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PROUD TO BE PINAY Filipina Women’s Network campaign logo.

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SAN FRANCISCO, California, United States—Organization-image specialist Marily Mondejar was doing a pretty good job consulting for a mayoral candidate here several years ago.

Her team had been tasked to dig up dirt on the incumbent administration. One of the sitting mayor’s appointees had allegedly signed a construction contract for a crony. The media had a feeding frenzy that threatened to topple the Hizzoner.

“The name of the official sounded foreign,” she says, recalling the episode. “After further research, I found out she was a Filipina and I began to wonder why she was being hung out to dry.”

The mayor would be re-elected, but at the cost of the job of this Filipina official. Mondejar was appalled, not because her candidate lost, but because she felt the official had been thrown under the bus to redeem the re-electionist’s image. She named the official but requested anonymity for her.

“Very few came to her defense,” Mondejar says.

A support group

Thus, it became the mission of the Filipina Women’s Network (FWN), a volunteer, non-profit organization to “level the professional and business playing field for Filipinas across America.”

FWN was conceived in 2001 over lunch organized by Cora Tellez, then chief executive officer of one of America’s biggest health-care providers, Healthnet. Many in her circle of friends were in management positions themselves—Mondejar, who had taken on image consultancy work for a giant Mexican cement maker, and Virna Tintiangco, then a college student.

Tintiangco was FWN’s first president but when she moved to Oregon in 2003, Mondejar took over.

“We want to open doors,” says Mondejar, 59. “We want to let America know that Filipinas have the skills to compete at all levels in all areas.” She enlisted Filipinas who had proven their mettle in the upper reaches of the different branches of government as well as the private sector.

Successful women

Today FWN has some 800 active members. Its success can also be gleaned in the names of more than 400 people who have signified their intention to attend the 7th Filipina Leadership Summit in Las Vegas in October. Among them: former White House physician, retired Rear Admiral Connie Mariano; California Appeals Court Judge Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye, who has been nominated by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to be chief justice of the state Supreme Court; California Lieutenant Governor Mona Pasquil; Nevada Judge Cheryl Moss; Davis, California Mayor Dr. Ruth Asmundson; and information technology tycoon Zeny Cunanan.

Over the years, FWN has been associated with such social issues as domestic violence.

Mondejar said major impediments for women seeking to move their careers forward are issues at home, particularly violence inflicted by spouses or partners.

It is an issue close to Mondejar’s heart, having herself been a victim of domestic violence. In fact, the reason she came to America in 1981 was to seek a divorce from her abusive husband. Her tale of woe is typical. When she told her friends about what her husband was doing to her, she would be told: “It is your fate,” and “Try not to make him angry.”

Marily’s own struggle

She initially brought her two sons to the US, but since she could not afford to support them yet, she brought them back home to live with her mother for a few years or until she became financially stable. She recalls the pain the divorce inflicted on her children, one of whom blamed her for not sticking it out. She says it took some doing to make them understand. Now she says she has “a great relationship” with them.

In California, Mondejar found her feet. She got bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Humanities, and is finishing her thesis for a doctorate in Organizational Psychology. After 13 years as an image builder for the cement company, she eventually resigned to run FWN as a full-time career.

It is important for women, Mondejar says, to understand the cycle of domestic violence. “It took me years to understand that,” she adds. “I kept getting into abusive situations and did not know how to break the cycle and seek help.”

FWN has also become known for its women’s rights activities as part of its business networking agenda. Its most popular program is its adoption of “The Vagina Monologues,” the off-Broadway stage phenomenon going into its 15th year, whose theme—the vagina as a tool for female empowerment—has become a rallying point of women the world over. It has been translated into 45 languages and when its Tagalog version, “Usapang Puki,” was staged in Manila in 2002, church groups raised a howl, which helped ensure its success, she said.

FWN will present it again during its Vegas summit in October, which is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

FWN itself does not provide logistical support for abuse victims. What it offers is education and moral support.

For instance, FWN members were at the murder trial of William Corpuz, who was convicted by a jury of murder for slitting his wife’s throat.

Mondejar says she is also mobilizing her members to support the confirmation of Cantil Sakauye, who would, if elected in November, be the first Asian-American Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. Sakauye is an FWN member.

Not mail-order brides

Despite the number of high-caliber women in FWN’s roster, Mondejar acknowledges that Filipinas have a long way to go in breaking the glass ceiling.

Google “Filipina” and most of the 3.77 million results are links to matchmaking, dating, and adult-entertainment sites.

“Initially, American men thought we were some kind of mail-order-bride organization and we would get requests to meet Filipina women,” Mondejar says. In fact, she adds, “many mail-order-bride and matchmaking groups still link to our website and we would have to back-trace them and remove their links.”

This was why FWN launched its “Shaping the Filipina image” campaign, which, she says, is just another step to create a positive image and open up leadership opportunities for Filipinas in the US.

100 Most Influential Pinays

During the Vegas gathering, Mondejar says she will push FWN’s “womentoring” and leadership program, and the selection of the “100 Most Influential Filipinas in the US.”

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She hopes each of the 200 “most influential” Filipino women selected in 2007 and 2009 would take at least one Filipina under her wing and teach her what it takes to make it in the American workplace.

“Can you imagine?” she says rhetorically. “By 2012 (in time for a planned Pinay Power reunion) we’d have 600 more successful Filipinas after the final FWN 100 are selected next year.”

To be sure, FWN faces many challenges. For one, “funding and keeping the FWN mission alive,” she says.

But she draws her energy from FWN’s members and what they have so far achieved. She still remembers the first summit in 2001 when she was selling the idea to a group of women in San Francisco. After her spiel, one of them stood up, saying: “I’m in. I want to be part of this group. I have never been in the same room with so many accomplished women. Here’s my check!”

Then just about everybody else took out their check books and signed up.

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