Wells Fargo to Outsource to the Philippines

Wells Fargo Center sign

Despite all the political pressures in the United States for businesses not to outsource, the second largest American banking company, Wells Fargo and Co., will proceed in moving some its business support activities to the Philippines. For this, the U.S. bank has set up Wells Fargo Philippines Solutions Inc., which is following the footsetps of other banking giants such as JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is an American multinational diversified financial services company with operations around the world. It is the second largest bank in the United States in terms of deposits, home mortgage servicing, and debit cards. Wells Fargo is headquartered in San Francisco, California, but has major “hubquarters” in other cities throughout the country. In 2011, Wells Fargo had more than 9,000 retail branches and 12,231 automated teller machines in 39 states and the District of Columbia. It has over 270,000 employees and over 70 million customers.

Sources: Interaksyon | Wikipedia

Photo by moneyblognewz at Flickr.com

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More Fil-Ams May Seek Medical Care in Philippines

A photo of General Santos Doctors Hospital

A new bill is being drafted that will allow United States Medicare beneficiaries to travel to the Philippines for medical reasons, according to Eric Lachica, a lobbyist who is working to get the bill introduced. The new bill would allow Medicare to reimburse certain hospitals in the Philippines directly for Guam residents, thus allowing for the full export of Medicare benefits to the Philippines. Lachica said there are about 400,000 Filipino-Americans in the U.S. mainland, and about 200,000 have seriously expressed interest in retiring in their homeland to take advantage of the low cost of living.

Currently, because of proximity, Guam Medicare residents are allowed to travel to the Philippines to seek medical care for procedures not currently offered on Guam. The patient is then directly reimbursed for the medical visit.

Read more at Marianas Variety

Photo by ManilaBoy45 at Flickr.com

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Migrant Filipino is South Korea Labor Union President

Michel Catuira, chairman of the Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants' Trade Union (MTU)

In 2009, Michel Catuira, a migrant Filipino worker in South Korea for many years, became a chairman of the Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants’ Trade Union (MTU), and the following year became the first foreign delegate in the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU). After becoming chairman, he spent his days working in factories and his nights organizing workers.

The Korean government has not regarded the MTU’s activities with pleasure. Three of its past chairpeople have been the objects of “target crackdowns” by immigration authorities and forcibly deported. Catuira was almost deported until the Seoul Administrative Court took Catuira’s side, saying, “I suspect that Seoul Immigration Office’s handling of the case may have been because of the plaintiff’s labor union activity.”

South Korea is not a signatory to the United Nations’ International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, which stipulates the right of migrant workers and their families to be free from discrimination compared to citizens of the country where they work, and includes the right to form labor unions.

However, Catuira is returning back to the Philippines to care for his grandmother who is suffering from Alzheimer’s. His cousin, who looked after the ailing grandmother, is leaving to work in the United States. Catuira is expected to be back in the Philippines at the end of this month.

Source: The Hankyoreh

Photo taken from No Base Stories Korea

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Fil-Am Spearheads California School to Help Sendong Victims

from Our Lady of Perpetual Help Elementary School in Newhall, California

When Vladimir Villapando heard about the devastating typhoon that struck southern Philippines in December, he knew he needed to do something.

“It hit close to home,” said Villapando, who grew up in the Philippines before immigrating to the United States.

So he looked to his school, Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Newhall, where he serves as athletic director and spearheaded a donation drive.

And the private Catholic school stepped up: families gathered nearly 20 boxes of clothes, three boxes of shoes, two boxes of school supplies, three boxes of toiletries and toys and 14 cases of canned goods.

Read more at The Santa Clarita Valley Signal

Photo from Our Lady of Perpetual Help Elementary School in Newhall, California

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American Electronics Company to Invest $300m in Philippines

Philippine Stock Market Board.

An unnamed American company that produces computer parts and accessories may invest $300 million in the country by transfering its current facilities from Japan to the Philippines, Ma. Elisa P. Osorio of the Philippine Star reported last Monday. It looked into leasing facilities at the Clark Freeport Zone in Angeles City or TIPCO Industrial Estates in Mabalacat, both located in the province of Pampanga.

The Chicago-based company already has three sites outside the United States: Japan, China and Singapore. The Philippine site will be producing products for its clients in the ASEAN region and the United States. Philippine Trade Undersecretary Cristino Panlilio refused to name the company but said “it is the second largest in the world in its line of business.”

Read more at The Philippine Star

Photo by thewalkingirony at Flickr.com

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Expanded Family Visa Bill in U.S. to Benefit Filipinos

United States tourist visa stamp on a passport

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a measure to expand the number of family visas for hopeful immigrants with relatives in the U.S. on Wednesday.

The legislation, which passed 389-15, was a rare example of bipartisan accord on immigration, an issue that largely has been avoided during the current session of Congress because of the political sensitivities involved. The bill, said its sponsor, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, “does encourage high-skilled immigrants who were educated in the U.S. to stay and help build our economy rather than using the skills they learned here to aid our competitor nations.”

Currently, the State Department issues about 140,000 such green cards a year to foreign nationals working in the United States, often after getting degrees from U.S. universities.

These visas cover relatives like sons and daughters, over the age of 21, of U.S. citizens; spouses and minor children of legal U.S. permanent residents; and brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens, among others.

The Obama administration in its first two years failed in several major efforts to change immigration law, and this year the issue has largely been off the table, with Republicans making clear that anything suggesting amnesty for those in the country illegally would be rejected.

The approved house bill will now go to the Senate for a vote.

Source: Balitang America | News Channel 8 | KIRO-TV

Photo from Dominica Weekly

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28 Percent of US Immigrants Come from Asia

In operation until 1954, the immigration station processed over 12 million immigrant steamship passengers.

The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) reports that 28 percent of all immigrants in the United States – about 11 million – hail from Asia. Asians are the second largest immigrant group after Latinos, with nearly half coming from the Philippines, India and China and residing in California, New York and Texas.

Asian immigrants are perceived as “model minorities” who work hard, do well, and don’t complain. In the American imagination, they do not seem to share the challenges faced by other immigrant groups.

Nearly half of Asian immigrant adults have a college degree or higher. Among all immigrants, Asians are more concentrated in management, information technology, and science and engineering. A majority of immigrant doctors and nurses are from Asia.

MPI estimates that Asian immigrants accounted for 11 percent of all unauthorized immigrants in 2010. The Department of Homeland Security counts among the undocumented 280,000 Filipinos, 200,000 Indians, 170,000 Koreans and 130,000 Chinese.

Read more at WNYX New York Public Radio

Photo by wallyg at Flickr.com

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Noynoy Aquino Wants To Be An Eliot Ness

Noynoy Aquino as the Eliot Ness of the Philippines

…or a Kevin Costner? Too soon to tell. Bloomberg is reporting that Philippine President Benigno Aquino III wants his government to start acting like Eliot Ness by protecting those officials whose job is to catch the tax evaders in the Philippines in an aim to rid the country of corruption.

Eliot Ness, to those who never watched the movie “The Untouchables,” was an American prohibition agent of the United States Treasury in the roarin’ 20′s and was charged to bring down Al Capone’s breweries and supply routes during the prohibition era. The 1950s up to the 1960s brought a TV series of the same title that spawned a full-length movie starring Kevin Costner.

Will P’Noy live up to the name of the famous treasury agent that nabbed the famous Chicago gangster of tax evasion?

Read more at Bloomberg

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TV5 and MMDA Introduces Metro Manila Traffic Navigator

InterAksyon of TV5 News and the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) of the Philippines recently launched a traffic navigator that visually displays major intersections along each of the major thoroughfares of Epifano delos Santos Avenue (EDSA), Quezon Avenue, Espana Avenue, C5, Roxas Boulevard and the South Luzon Express Way (SLEX), and labels each according to a traffic category.

The rendition of the graphics is akin to subway and roadway maps people are familiar worldwide, like the United States, Canada and the U.K. Besides this familiar display, the “Line View” provides intersection per thoroughfare status. It also uses “Google Map” to display an actual view of the major thoroughfare and the traffic situation.

Below the page shows MMDA’s Facebook and Twitter updates.

Go to Metro Manila Traffic Navigator to experience something new

Image from the Metro Manila Traffic Navigator website

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11-city Smithsonian Exhibit Depicts Filipino Struggle Against American Colonialism

The original Smithsonian Institution building, popularly known as the Castle. It now houses administrative offices and the Smithsonian Information Center.

Photo by ralph-toyama at Flickr.com

The Smithsonian Institution chose Charlotte as a stop for a traveling exhibit that tells the story of Filipinos who struggled against American colonialism and ultimately became U.S. citizens. “Singgalot: The Ties That Bind,” is coming to Charlotte Museum of History from Saturday through Oct. 16, 2011.

The 11-city exhibition made its first stop in Los Angeles last month. It will land in Kansas City, Seattle, Chicago and Philadelphia before a final stop in November in Santa Rosa, California.

The exhibit is intended to help the nation’s 2.5 million Filipino citizens trace their history and contributions in the United States through about 30 photo panels and images.

Read more at Charlotte Observer

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Dollar Remittance Tops 7.9 Billion USD January to May 2011

Photo by ronrag at Flickr.com

Remittances from overseas Filipinos rose 6.2 per cent to 7.9 billion dollars in the first five months of 2011, the Central Bank of the Philippines said Friday. In the month of May alone, remittances totaled 1.69 billion dollars, up 6.9 per cent from 1.58 billion dollars in the same month last year.

The major sources of remittances in the period were the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Britain, Japan, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Italy and Germany.

Read more at Monster and Critics

The Effect of President Noynoy Aquino’s U.S. Trip on Philippine Jobs

As the new Philippine president brings a loot of promises in foreign direct investments from his recent United States visit, the Department of Labor and Employment has issued a statement there are 40,000 job openings within the next three years as a result of Noynoy’s trip.

These job openings specifically call for the following positions: call center agent, customer service assistant, technical support staff, fork lift operator, accounting clerk, mechanical engineer, sales clerk, driver, cashier and production worker.

Notice that “Nursing” is not part of it despite many of the country’s student population are still taking up that degree which is not anymore in demand in First World countries. A re-training of out-of-work nurses will definitely be a must if they would like to compete for those 40,000 new job openings.

Source: ABS-CBN News

Photo by noynoy aquino at Flickr.com

US Anti-outsourcing Bill a Filipino-American Concern

Photo by banggigay at Flickr.com

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The recent anti-outsourcing bill proposed by Senator Charles Schumer is a source of concern for the Filipino American community.  The Shcumer bill, places a tax on outsourcing and Filipinos in the U.S. it is going to hurt businesses in the Philippines and give the U.S. a bad image. The bill puts a 25-cent tax on each call made to a call center based outside the U.S. Members of the Filipino-American community traveled to the capital to visit Senators Kristen Gillibrand and Charles Schumer to express their opposition to the bill. A letter from the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) to Sen. Schumer said that the proposal is incongruous with the impression of America as a big brother.

The proposal has passed in the House. It is now in the Senate for scrutiny and its primary purpose is to create a disincentive for outsourcing.

Read more at Blogger News Network

1World Cash in Hong Kong Targets Filipinos

One World Ventures, Inc., the provider of prepaid cards and 1World Cash, announced the establishment of 1World Cash Hong Kong. “Our new services are dedicated to the Filipino community at the present time,” CEO Steve Prior said. This is the first step in One World Ventures strategy to use the 1World Card and 1World Cash branded services to focus on its desire to serve the underbanked and underserved in locations like the Philippines, Indonesia, Mongolia, Mexico, United States and elsewhere.

From 1WorldCash.net

One World Ventures, Inc. is a holding company with management resourced in Asia and the United States that invests in technologies, communities and systems that facilitate trade, finance, communication and travel across international boundaries, cultures and languages.

Read more at MarketWatch.com

New Security Checks for Flights to the United States (USA)

Photo by Reto Kurmann at Flickr.com

President Obama has signed off on new security protocols for people flying to the United States, establishing a system that uses intelligence information and assessment of threats to identify passengers who could have links to terrorism, a senior administration official said Thursday.

The new approach will replace a broader layer of extra scrutiny that had been imposed recently on all passengers from 14 countries, most of which are Muslim.

The change, which will be announced Friday by the Department of Homeland Security, is the result of a review of security at international airports ordered by Mr. Obama after the Christmas Day attempt to blow up a jetliner bound for Detroit. The system, which will be put in place this month, applies only to travelers flying into the United States.

Read more at the NY Times.

New Credit Card US Federal Law goes into effect

Photo by b.franchina in Flickr.com

The Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act has three separate implementation dates, 90 days, nine months and 15 months. Now that it has been nine months since the legislation was signed into law, the following provisions started today:

• Issuers can no longer charge arbitrary interest rate increases and universal default on existing balances;
• No more over-limit fees unless the cardholder elects to allow the issuer to complete over-limit transactions;
• Payments in excess of the minimum must be applied first to the credit card balance with the highest rate of interest;
• No more early morning deadlines for credit card payments;
• No more interest charges on debt paid on time;
• Issuers must get the signature of a parent, guardian, or other individual 21 years or older when extending credit to young consumers under the age of 21

Source: Atlanta Business Chronicle

Best On-demand Hosted Call Center Solution in the Philippines

L-R: Fred Cote, Raffy Pekson II and Chris Persaud

The CEO and COO of KUNNECT recently visited the Philippines to launch its call center technology solutions to the Philippine BPO market. Fred Cote, co-founder and CEO, spoke at the October 12 meeting of the members of the Call Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) in Shangri-La Hotel Makati. Mr. Cote presented KUNNECT as a viable, inexpensive call center solution for immediate operations without the need for costly and time-consuming setup, calling it the “best in its class” of a full suite of call center features and functionality. Together with Mr. Cote were Chris Persaud, COO of KUNNECT, and Raffy Pekson II, the Country Representative of KUNNECT in the Philippines.

Read more at Work and Coffee.

More Filipino-Americans Moving to Chino Hills

Filipino-Americans are consistently moving to the relatively new and affluent community of Chino Hills, establishing a large number of members at the local Catholic church and driving the city to become an economic boom for the region. The city is now home to 10,000 Filipino-Americans.

According ContraCostaTimes.com, most Filipino-Americans in the region belong to the middle-class demographics where many Chino Hills residents are economically well-off. Many who began life in cities where the population of Filipino-Americans is high, cities like Filipino Town in Los Angeles, have now begun their exodus outward to cities like Chino Hills. It attracts Fil-Ams because of the reasonable home prices, which results in affordability of a better place to live, plus various cultural services directed towards this demographics. Just take the Philippine independence celebration in the city where more than 3,000 Filipino-Americans graced the festivities at its community park. Much of its Fil-Am residents are second and third generation Filipinos. There are a little less than 5 million Filipino-Americans in the United States, the second largest Asian-American group after Chinese-Americans, with a purchasing power of about $20 billion and a median annual income of $50,000 (early decade census).

First Gay Filipino Wins Gender-based Asylum in United States

A gay Filipino has won a gender-based asymlum granted to him last month by a U.S. immigration court judge. Philip Belarmino states in his asylum case that as a young boy, he had been molested several times, and was persecuted for being gay. He did not report the abuse to anyone because he did not want his very conservative parents to know he was gay. His asylum was granted last May 21, 2009. For now, he is officially a refugee and is entitled to stay, live and work in the United States as well as travel except to the Philippines. Belarmino is the first known Filipino to win an asylum case based on sexual orientation.

Philippine Diaspora Diplomacy and Filipino American Faith in Action

At his lecture this July 13 at the De La Salle University in the Philippines, Dr. Jay Gonzalez will excerpt from Filipino American Faith in Action: Religion, Immigration, and Civic Engagement and Diaspora Diplomacy: Philippine Migration and its Soft Power Influences. These are two new books out of New York University Press, one of America’s most prestigious academic publishers.

Contra Nye and neoliberalism, Dr. Gonzalez will talk about the remarkable and untapped soft power that international migrants possess and how various actors—from governments, NGOs, business, the church, and international organizations—could tap this valuable resource to enhance global cooperation, development, and understanding. With detailed and intimate illustrations from the experiences of the Philippine diaspora in San Francisco, London, Dubai, Dhaka, and Singapore, Dr. Gonzalez will discuss how this widespread community uses “charm diplomacy” to facilitate the transnational connection of old and new homelands and home bases through the universality of the Christian faiths they practice, the globalized work they perform, and the engaging civic and social networks they establish.

Dr. Joaquin Jay Gonzalez III is Associate Professor of Politics and Director of the Maria Elena Yuchengco Philippine Studies Program at the University of San Francisco. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, he was appointed San Francisco Commisser for Immigrant Rights and Mayor George Christopher Chair in Public Administration at Golden Gate University. In 2005, Professor Gonzalez was awarded a “Special United States Congressional Recognition” by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for his exemplary work on human rights and immigrant concerns.

July 13th 11:20-12:50 PM | De La Salle University | Andrew 903 | 2401 Taft Avenue | Manila, Philippines | Sponsored by the La Salle Institute on Governance | RSVP: ManaGov@dlsu.edu.ph

Gawad Kalinga to unveil 2024 vision in USA

Gawad Kalinga (GK) founder Tony Meloto will unveil the GK 2024 vision in Boston, USA on June 12, a 21-year timeline to end the poverty of five million Filipinos and build a First World Philippines. GK’s launching as a global social template of development is consistent with the UN Millennium Development Goals that seek to reduce poverty by half by 2015.

Click here to read the full article at Philstar.com.

Navy Pier’s Chicago Children’s Museum features Philippines for a Day

Bring the family and experience the wonders of the Philippines, as the Chicago Children’s Museum (CCM) features the Philippines during its “Passport to the World” series. The Museum will host displays of Philippine crafts and exhibits, as well as interactive productions by native performers and artists, during the weekend of June 11-14, 2009. The CCM’s “Passport to the World” series showcases the arts and traditions of Chicago’s many ethnic groups to provide opportunities for museum visitors to better understand Chicago’s unique multicultural community. Previous “Passport to the World” exhibits showcased Chicago’s Korean, Persian and American Indian communities. This will be the second time that the series celebrates the Philippines. The weekend celebration begins on Thursday evening, June 11, 2009. The exhibits and performances will then continue Saturday and Sunday (June 13-14).

CA Civic Center hosts Fil-Am Cultural Celebration

The Filipino-American community’s annual cultural celebration last Saturday was held at the Oceanside’s Civic Center Plaza at the North County in Escondido, CA. The delicious aromas of traditional Filipino foods wafted through the plaza amidst the fashion show of traditional clothing worn in the many different regions of the Philippines, followed by beauty pageants, scholarship awards and ending with a colorful display of folk dances. Food included pancit (a stir-fried noodle and vegetable dish), lumpia (vegetable or ground beef eggrolls), and adobo (chicken or pork braised in soy sauce, vinegar, onion and garlic). Rica Derosier, president of the Fil-Am Cultural Association of North San Diego, explained that the goal of the annual celebration is to promote better relations between the United States and the Philippines, preserve and promote the Filipino heritage and to provide a mechanism for its introduction into the American culture.

Sharon Cuneta’s Concert in Las Vegas

The AsianJournal.com posted a great article describing Sharon Cuneta‘s recent May 23 concert held in Paris Las Vegas. Daughter KC and husband Kiko Pangilinan also joined the Megastar on stage. The “MegaThirty” concert tour is also slated for New Jersey, Texas and Los Angeles.

Click here to read the article posted by Dymphna Calica-La Putt.