(This the follow-up story on Blackwater USA’s hiring of Filipino mercenaries for Iraq and establishing a training facility in Subic:
BLACKWATER USA, the US outfit hiring foreign mercenaries to help fight America’s war against Iraq, has started recruiting experienced VIP bodyguards from its office at the Subic Freeport, sources yesterday said.
Blackwater went ahead despite the lack of a “locator’s license” after its local representative, Romy Redelicia, got the go-ahead signal from Fil Salonga, chairman of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, sources said.
National security adviser Norberto Gonzales described yesterday’s report that Blackwater has set up shop at Subic as a product of Malaya’s “too fertile imagination.”
But the sources said Blackwater’s recruitment of Filipinos, particularly combat-experienced active and retired soldiers, has been cleared with the Palace by a certain Bong Cuevas who claims to work at the Office of the President.
The Department of National Defense reportedly has not been informed about the presence of Blackwater in a non-military area like SBMA, a special economic zone created during the term of President Fidel Ramos.
The recruitment of Filipinos to fight America’s war in the Middle East has sparked fears of terrorist attacks on the Philippines as well as Filipino companies, citizens and offices abroad.
For the rest of the story click to:http://www.malaya.com.ph/jun08/news1.htm
and http://www.malaya.com.ph/jun08/news4.htm
Sorry for the bad words, pero ito na ang pinakatarantado! Tangna talaga!
For its inability to provide jobs to Filipinos back home, here she is the Malacanang squatter stamping OK to some contracts by these corrupt Americans to hungry Filipinos who are being pushed to their death in order to survive (kuno)!
Filipinos should be told that Iraq is being invaded by the Americans, et al, and the natives there are resisting this invasion to the hilt regardless of who gets killed in between.
Why should freedom-loving Filipinos, who have known foreign dominations and fought for their own freedom themselves, be forced to work as mercenaries in Iraq killing people there who are fighting hard to set their country free from these foreigners who are imposing themselves on them?
At least, even when Japan’s Koizumi is privy to these crimes committed against humanity in Iraq, he does not sanction any American company to recruit Japanese kamikaze mercenaries to die for the Americans in Iraq. Ito na talaga ang pinakatarantadong pamahalaan!
Ellen, Yuko,
This has been going on – my source said that this recrutement actually started last year.
I didn’t pay it any attention until the son of a friend of mine asked for references and advice just as I posted about a week ago in Ellen’s blog.
Tangnang pandak, she’s now Salonga’s accomplice in the recruitement – their favorite places are the merchant marine academies.
So Ellen, please alert the young people in the merchant marine academies in the country – there are 2 I believe in the Subic bay region which are the areas of predilection. I was told that so many CAGFU elements have applied.
Ingat Ellen, ingat ka… these guys will not stop at anything.
Tangnang Salonga!
Anna, Ellen:
These kids who are being recruited there should be told of the risks, and if ever they agree to join these legions of mercenaries, they should make sure they are not leaving their families back home with only hopes and dreams of a life of comfort!
Whatever, I will not have any sympathy for these mercenaries even when they get killed. I will have more sympathies for the Iraqis who are fighting for their country to be free of these invaders from overseas!
Off I go for now. Gotta transmit the news on these mercenaries to my friends in the resistance in Iraq para abangan nila! 😛
Well, if money can buy and bribe just about every politicians, public servants and even private businesses, then it follows that if can also buy the services of those who are willing to risk their limbs and lives fighting some other peoples war. But let us give credit to these young souls, at least their taking the risk for their money compares with our “politicos” who are all sitting pretty and not worrying even losing their “shame”, if they still have it.
Vic,
In one sense you are right about the right of a man to risk his own life and get paid in the process as in fighting other people’s war but in another sense, what quasi-US military operating units are doing is recruiting disposable John Does – they are not offering a viable, honorable, secure employment! they are simply offering for you to lay your life like any miserable civilian John Doe and for what? For slightly a little over what you would pay for a round trip ticket to Iraq and back and that’s for a year’s pay?????!!!! Insane! Totally insane!!!!!!
They are doing this because they know there are so many Filipinos DESPERATE to have a job anywhere combat zone or danger zone, no matter what happens to them because of the economic conditions in the country due to Gloria’s ignoble politics…
If our young men are prepared to risk body and limb in a military setting, they might as well be well trained and well paid to do that and in the process be recognized officially as one and not as some miserable mercenary (when a mercenary dies, I doubt if his family stands to gain anything more than a few hundred dollars which, if you really want to know, is the equivalent cost of purchasing a ticket to Iraq & back!)
And 80,000 pesos a year (according to Malaya report) to risk your life in a no man’s land is really peanuts even for the most desperate.
As I have said earlier on in my May 29 posting in Ellen’s blog under “Torture”, there is a better way to make a career in a foreign military setting in which if recruits see action will be backed by a regular bona-fide national army with a UN mandate to fight a war or to oversea UN peace implimentations and not serve under some horrible mercenary group.
Last year, I encountered Filipino laborers going to Tchad who told me that in case a laborer died, his family stood to gain 75 thousand pesos. So, I see that a Pinoy’s life has become a little more valuable at 80 thousand pesos a year!
Has the value of a Filipino man’s life become worthless?
(This is preposterous… We shouldn’t even be talking about this but there you are – fact of FILIPINO LIFE TODAY thanks to goddamn Gloria Macapagal!)
If indeed our young men are so desperate that they are prepared to fight someone else’s war as a white man’s slave after little “mercenary” training – they might as well do it HONORABLY as a bona fide military man!
As I’ve already posted (in Ellen’s blog 10 days ago)I said, “For our physically and mentally fit young men who want to go to Iraq or Afghanistan and are willing to risk their lives in Iraq or in Afghanistan in the slave service of US mercenary companies, I think they should consider this option instead – the French Foreign Legion.”
The French Foreign Legion is NOT a mercenary army – it is the elite fighting-special forces unit of the French Army and one of the most enviable fighting corps in the world!
A Filipino who becomes a Légionnaire will be treated just like any white man not only in the Legion but also in the regular French army where he will be appreciated for what he is – an elite of the elite fighting corps – and WILL NOT BE DENIGRATED!
A recruit does not have to speak French – he will learn it while he is in training.
A Legionnaire starting from the Private is considered a real MILITARY SOLDIER and can pride himself of being a member of a highly elite group (and not just some small-time quasi-US military mercenary operating group); a Légionnaire gets good pay (from +900 Euros monthly = US$1,300 more or less) including social security cover, French citizenship eligibility (after 5 years of service), and will receive all the national perks accorded to any PROFESSIONAL MEMBER of a nation’s official, professional army because a Légionnaire is a professional military man (all armies in Europe save for Switzerland are professional armies by the way).
I wrote lengthily about this precisely because the son of my friend had been targeted for recruitment and it’s a good thing he spoke to me about it. I advised him that if he really wants adventure and forge a career overseas using his brawn (and brain), he should opt for a REAL foreign military career(none of this quasi military stuff for NOTHING!) and should apply instead to the LEGION ETRANGERE!
Please don’t get me wrong! I’m not recruiting for the Legion at all and never will! But I merely want to point to our poor, hapless, desperate but physically and mentally able countrymen – who are prepared to lose their lives for a dishonorable task for an equally dishonorable pay – that there is another option, a far more honorable option! Up to them to make up their minds.
Anna:
Sometime ago, a television network in Japan featured some Japanese adventurers joining the French Foreign Legion and I was asked to transcribe some interviews in French for the subtitles in Japanese.
To them, it was mere adventure, nothing about filling up a void like looking for a job overseas because there are no jobs available for them in Japan to make ends meet. After some time in the legion, they quit rich with the experience even of being able to know what real war is all about, and the agony of killing a fellow human being, even enemies, although in the case of the Japanese adventurers, they never actually had the opportunity to do actual dogfighting!
We should teach our children in fact to hate war, not push them to go to war, especially other people’s war! Stop this recruitment of Filipinos to do the dirty jobs for the Americans in Iraq. Sipain na si Pandak! Napakabobo naman ng tangnang iyan na ipinapain ang kapwa niya pilipino para may makutkot siya sa maliit na sasahurin nila.
They should be warned properly about these recruiters for I bet that there are a lot many local recruiters hanging with the US recruiters to get the Filipinos gullible enough to be exploited. Remember the guy who got killed in Ira and the family getting nothing because he was in fact
Ooops, I clicked before finishing the above piece.
Remember the guy who got killed in Iraq last year and the family not getting anything because he was in fact recruited illegally?
You can bet your bottom dollar, there will be lots of these illegal transaction or breaches of contract in this kind of recruitment as usual.
Wala namang kadala-dala ang mga pilipino. Ganoon ba talaga kapag nagugutom ang mga tao? Nagiging gahaman at walang mga isip?
Mercenaries for Iraq…..to me there is nothing new..for all we know this country must have been sending mercenaries for decades already.
What is more alarming to me is the news that our farmers are moving to Japan.
Pati ba naman sa agrikultura mauubusan pa tayo ng bala.
Ellen,
Ang masama pa nyan ay siguradong may mga taong ka-cut pa sa kakaunting pera na kikitain ng mga mercenaries na ito, tulad ng ginagawa nilang pagbawas sa suweldong binibigay sa mga UN Philippine contingents. These American recruiters are exploiting our desperate, needy kababayans. Sa hirap ng buhay dito sa Pinas under Gloria, ‘kapit na sila sa patalim’ maski maging pain ng mga Kano sa inumpisahan nilang giyera. Naparaming casualties ng American forces na hindi ni-rereport ng Bush Administration. Kawawa naman tayong mga Pinoy, ginagawa na tayong mga ‘BUSABOS’ ng mga naka-upo sa masarap na pwesto!!!
Nagsisiuwian na lahat ng mga natauhan na mali ang gyerang pinasok nila…..Ang natauhan na bansa lately ay Italy, na magpupullout na.
Saan pa nga ba kukuha ang mga kano ng mandirigma kundi dito sa pinas….
Anna, it’s $80,000. Dollars.
Aside from recruiting mercenaries, the new angle here is the contract to use Subic as training facility for this private military company.
Filipinos going to Iraq as mercenaries have their own reasons- to earn and to be exposed to real war zones ( alam naman natin ang mga Filipino ay adventurer). They ignore the dangers just like gloria, the thief, the liar, and the cheater, na walang pakialam kung ano man ang mangyari sa ating mga kababayan. Malamang, malaki ang kikitain ng reyna ng enchanted kingdom pati ng kanyang mga aso at tuta.
Dapat si Ermita ang ipadala doon sa Iraq kasama si bunyeta, defensor, gonzalez, mike a. with esperon and tenga – ay!! senga pala. Tingnan natin ang tapang ng mga iyan. Isama na rin si Lomibao at lahat ng generals na sangkot sa “hello garci”. Doon nila ipakita ang kanilang mga kawalanghiyaan at kakapalan ng mukha. Doon nila gawin ang immoral na dispersal.
Nakakaawa na ang sambayanang Pilipino……patuloy na binababoy ni gloria. Kung paano binaboy ni hilarious davide ang konstitusyon ganun din ang ginagawa ng mga walang budhing opisyal ng gobyernong peke. Tamaan sana ng kidlat, lindolin, at bahain ang malacanang. Mga anak kayo ng Jueteng!!
Anna, war is war, the only war I can defend is the war for freedom and defense of freedom. Given the desperation of thousands of able young body available and ready to fight, it’s no wonder that the American Military Contractors are setting up business in the Philippines. Simply, it’s easy to get the nod of all politician for theirf purpose.
They can pay and bribe their way and our ever SHAMELESS officials will look the other way. I know the foreign legion and its history, but they are not actively recruiting in the country and may not take as many who wants to get the taste of uncle Sam’s dollar. As I said this, a son of my townmates and a family friend is a proud Canadian soldier fighting in Afghanistan, a U.N. sanctioned war and now a responsility of Nato and we are a member..
Ellen, I am not surprised at all that GMA knows, and support this “merc recruitment” of our KABABAYANS…as usual this “tricky” and “lying” (devil of a)WOMAN who tried to show us (and the anti-US Iraqis) that she “really pulled-out” our “regular soldiers” out of Iraq during the ANGELO “cabalen” dela Cruz’ crisis, and win even “a bit of popularity” among the anti-war in Iraq pinoys, but surely “earned the ire” of GW Bush…so what’s the solution? This is her and her co-horts solution…allowing such “illicit” activities right in our “backyard”…result…a “win-win” situation for her. The US of A would not try to “assist” those trying to kick her “smelly-ugly butt of a face” from the Palace, and to the eyes of our “ignorant” Kababayans who have no access to such forums like this, she is a “pinoy and bayan loving leader” who is willing to “lock-horn” with the almighty US of A for the “good” of the Filipino nation and it’s people. In short, she really thinks all of us are “fools and stupid”. If you’ll ask me, if someone wants any “merc” to take-out all these corrupt and unscrupulous political leaders that dominate our political scene right now, 100s if not 1000s would volunteer for FREE.
To know more about how the Iraqis are resisting the US invasion, please visit these websites:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info (by American and British resistance groups)
http://www.albasrah.net (by the Iraqi resistance that had fought against Sadam Hussein likewise)
Come to think of it, but Filipinos have long been fighting US wars, even during WWII. The only ones who fought for the Philippines, in fact, were the Katipuneros and the members of a peasant movement in the 20’s and 30’s who joined the Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere of “Asia for the Asians” during the last world war.
Now, they should teach their children that it’s time to fight their homegrown wars against usurpers, magnanakaw and tulisan! They do not have to go to Iraq and die there for the American dollars that will benefit only the criminal suspect who had stolen votes in the 2004 election or even before that!!!
PATALSIKIN NA, NOW NA! NO FILIPINO LIFE SHOULD BE SACRIFICED ANYMORE IN IRAQ, FOR WHOSE SAKE THE IRAQIS WILL STAKE THEIR OWN LIVES TO BE FREE!!! WAR IS WAR! IT IS NOT AN ADVENTURE ESPECIALLY WHEN PRECIOUS LIVES ARE BEING WANTONLY WASTED FOR THE AMBITION OF ONE GREEDY TEXAN AND A LUNATIC KAPAMPANGAN!
Vic,
The Foreign Legion DOES NOT recruit in a foreign country.
Interested parties MUST go and apply personally to any one of the military stations, bases the Legion has in its list or in one or two French embassies abroad.
The nearest one to the Philippines is the French Embassy in Malaysia.
Ellen,
US80,000 $? I see.
It is well known that mercenary groups deduct the expenses for food, clothing, training expenses, etc. from the amount they’ve promised a recruit (like they do to recruits who fought in Africa) which also includes a BOND or an amount of money withheld from the recruit. I wonder if our future instant peso millionaires soldiers of fortune have the same deal.
The Foreign Legion DOES NOT EVEN recruit in France… You gotta VOLUNTEER – they will even discourage you first before they finally let you in.
This administration has total disregard for the Filipino’s dignity and well-being. To push your own people into “SLAVERY”, is the biggest crime a president can commit.
Schumey,
She not only pushes them to slavery, she sells them too – her trip to Spain is to sell 100 thousand Pinoys there according to a news item. Ugh!
Of course, Filipinos have the right to work anywhere they want or where they are allowed to do that but to be encouraged, pushed, sold by one who controls the government to be able to keep her pseudo-government afloat is beyond the imagination.
Meanwhile, the families that the Filipinos leave behind are hardly better off or if they are, it’s momentary. The breakdown in moral and family order will leave a lasting negative effect on future generations of people there.
Gloria is an institutional human traficker…
Today, the Chinese (from red China) have become the new source of tourism money in Europe – they are seen travelling here as tourists (bus loads of them roam the capitals of Europe) and then they return home. They, who, a decade ago were not allowed to have a holiday at all – now they have left the Pinoys at the bottom of the totem pole!
I wonder when we can see Pinoys doing that – on leisurely trips abroad by the bus loads like the Chinese and the Japanese because they can afford it instead of seeing them all over the place alright but carrying plastic bags of cleaning items going from one house to another to clean other people’s toilettes with nary a thought except to work more so they can send more money home – I greatly admire them for their tenacity and their devotion to their families at home.
Unfortunately, most of the Pinoys here cannot or don’t have the inclination to take advantage of the cultural attractions, i.e., museums, castles, theatres, etc. to imbibe themselves with the culture and history of the country they are in.
My maid who’s been here 8 years has not been inside a museum in her whole life but she can tell you the names and directions to any of the chic streets in Brussels because she’s worked there! Last May I said, the EU has an open house on such and such dates, and that she should visit it with her friends – she said, “Ay naku Ate, wala naman akong alam diyan eh at saka ang may birthday party ang pinsan ko!” And to think she’s a commerce graduate in the Philippines!
One of the girls I know here (a UST fine arts graduate some 20 years ago and who up to now can only speak broken French) said to me, “Noong nasa Pinas ako, matalino ako, ngayon naging bobo na ako!” Of course, when she goes home to Manila to visit, she is regarded as a returning star!
I suppose by the sheer nature of their jobs, they have inhibited themselves unwittingly from leaping onto a different intellectual or cultural station in life. I might feel sorry for them but I will never look down on them.
Like all of you, my deam for Filipinos is to see the world in dignity and comfort, not as domestic helpers and laborers, jobs that are disdained by the locals.
It’s not enough for Gloria to encourage exporting Filipinos as blue collar workers just so she can have money to prop up her illegitimate presidency, she now allowing the use of Philippine facilities for the training of mercenaries, (we bet including Filipinos)who will be engaged in killing operations in other countries.
Ellen,
Now we can safely say that GMA is not only a human trafficker but an exporter of “terror”. To allow your own people to be cannon-fodder or tool to terrorize other people is a crime against humanity. Maybe, Al Queda or the JI could also do their training here “legally” if they pay the administration the right price.
Fitting description of Gloria’s putrid governance by Goldenlion:
“Nakakaawa na ang sambayanang Pilipino……patuloy na binababoy ni gloria.”
Related topic: US servicemen on trial for rape—
Newspapers in Manila reported US government’s attempt to obstruct justice by invoking diplomatic immunity for the US servicemen. Stupid! What immunity are these people talking about when these servicemen are not diplomats.
Over in Japan, the US government cooperates with Japanese authorities who have jurisdiction on legal cases involving US military servicemen even when committed inside the US military base. In the Philippines, the US does not even have now a US base, so why are these servicemen not being turned over to the custody of the Philippine court and not to the US embassy that can try to make this kind of claim—that these horny US soldiers are covered by the Vienna Convention on diplomatic immunity!
Ginagawa pang bobo ang mga pilipino ng mga kanong ito! Anong klaseng mga ungas ang mga nasa DOJ. Magkano ba ang lagay ng US government sa kanila sa DOJ? Kakahiya ang mga ungas na ito na hindi pinangangalagaan ang kapakanan ng mga pilipino!!! Tama na ang pagsamba sa mga kano!
The ones claiming immunity are naval investigators in the US embassy, not the accused US servicemen.
The naval investigators are indeed holding diplomatic passports and under the Vienna Convention, diplomats cannot be compelled to testify in court in the host country.
Anna: The operative word is “recruiting.” Ikaw na ang nagsasabi na hindi nagre-recruit ang France. Samantalang itong kabila ay actively nagre-recruit sa Subic. Ilan, if any, sa mga sumusubo ang kayang pumunta ng France para mag-volunteer sa Foreign Legion, na from your own posting ay hindi pa rin siguradong tatanggapin? E yun ngang doctor na sa Pilipinas, mag-aaral pa uli ng nursing para lang kumita ng $$$, yun pa kayang wala pa sa kalahati ng kita ng doctor ang hindi sumubo. Desperado na talaga ang maraming Pinoy. Pero sa spin ng administration, hindi raw at konti lang daw ang below the poverty line. I cannot say for sure, pero hinala ko yung mga nagme-mercenary ay hindi below the poverty line.
Tom
Let’s agree on one thing: Hindi rin lahat ng lalaki na Pinoy ay siguardo na puwedeng magtrabaho ng mercenary – dahil ang mercenary work ay wala talagang boundaries work ethic wise.
Isa pa, kahit sino namang tao ang gustong magtrabaho, kailangan may ability rin naman ng konti at qualified din (maski nga ang mag-maid, kailangan marunong mag linis ng bahay – hindi lahat ng gustong mag-maid dito ay marunong maglinis ng bahay na medyo sophisticated or European type – mayroon pa nga diyan mas mahusay pa akong mag linis ng kusina at mag-iron ng shirts ng asawa ko!).
Kaya, hindi dahil mercenary, maski na lang sinong lalake ay puwede… Ganoon din sa Legion. (Maski nga ang ating army na pipitsugin ay namimili ng recruits nila – itong mga prefessional armies pa?)
Pangalawa, may station sa Malaysia para mag-present sa French Embassy ang mga ABLE BODIED AND MENTALLY ABLE Pinoys kung talagang gusto nila na mag silbi sa trabahong may armas.
Sabi nga ng ibang able bodied, adventurous OFWs ay gagastos sila para pumunta, makalusot papunta ng Iraq upang magtrabaho doon eh bakit hindi na lang sila mag-try ng ibang paraan na lang kaysa mag-mercenary na hindi naman din secure ang trabaho.
Iyon ang ibig kong sabihin – pareho ng anak ng kaibigan ko na talagang gustong mag trabaho na kasama ang adventure – kaya I suggested that he try the Foreign Legion instead and advised him against working for quasi, bogus military operating groups!
No argument from me as that’s a given na dapat meeting certain qualifications bago ma-recruit o mag-volunteer, Pinoy or otherwise, French Foreign Legion or mercenary army, tsimoy or nurse or whatever.
Hi mga ate at kuya. I really appreciate your concerns regarding this rumored recruitment by Blackwater of Filipinos in their outfit. I can see that all concerns are against this recruitment. But I am one of those people who still want to try “my fate” here. Here is an opportunity for people like me to work abroad and be trained and gain knowledge(Blackwater’s specialty).
So here’s my question to all of you ates and kuyas:
May nakakaalam ba sa inyo kung saan ako dapat mag apply at kung sino ang dapat na kausapin? I will appreciate it greatly kung mayroon makakapagsabi nito sa kin…
Hi,it’s me again. Gusto ko po talagang subukan mag-apply. Di rin naman sure kung matatanggap ako at di rin ako sigurado kung magugustuhan ko ang offer nila. Here’s my e-mail ifever ayaw nyo pong direct na ibigay ang contact address dito:
letsplay77042000@yahoo.com
Ellen:
Domestic helpers in Japan are paid better. Over here, the Immigration Bureau requires that they are paid by their foreign employers (Japanese nationals are barred from hiring foreign domestic helpers) no less than 150,000 yen (110 yen/1 dollar), and no risk to their lives.
Ang liit naman ng 1,000 dollars a month. Gosh, ganoon na ba kababa ang pagtingin ng mga pilipino sa buhay nila to stake their lives for a pittance of a thousand dollars? Ang cheap! Kawawang mga nilalang!