This is Surabaya’s JW Marriott Hotel’s breakfast restaurant. It is also a lunch and dinner restaurant. It is not shiny so the name is unimportant. Without limiting or delimiting this JW Marriott establishment, it is proper to say that they serve Indonesian cuisine. My colleagues and I were able to say “terimah kasih!”. No thanks to this JW Marriott’s plain restaurant/lounge menu, though. No authentic Indonesian food.
The government’s efforts curbing trafficking in persons has recently been praised much that a few may have winded into the side burner some greasy elements of the crime. Latest modus operandi, for example. Here are some:
1. Use of domestic area of a terminal
There has been a recent bold act by a facilitator to exploit a security breach of a passenger airport terminal, a security soft spot, at the very least. Victims were instructed to use the domestic area of an international airport to gain access to the international passenger pre-boarding area. They were given both international and domestic airline tickets to gain access to both areas. They checked in with their international flight using the international air ticket and their genuine passports. Then they checked in with their domestic flight using their domestic air ticket and fraudulent identification cards and waited at the domestic pre-boarding area after intentionally losing (to the loo!) their domestic flight documents.
Waiting for what? Ask you may. Ostensibly waiting for the domestic flight, and warily waiting for the international flight! When the boarding gate opens for the domestic flight, they ooze out of the domestic area into the international area!
What about immigration formalities you might ask? Apparently the facilitator has a roving immigration service outside the terminal that the victims can avail of, for a fee of course, that features a fraudulent border stamp! Brilliant! ain’t it? Skip real immigration, and create your own!
This modus is only possible with a shot, or two, of a nincompoop of a boarding gate guard! Or not?
2. (next post. whew!)
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This photo of The Legend Chiang Rai in Thailand does not really capture the essence of the whole place. Located in the northernmost part of the country, it was really surprising to see a lot of tourists in the area. The roads were well paved (at least the ones we’ve been to), and the tourist destinations were well promoted. Night markets were a hit. the massage was one of the best this writer tried, so far. Northeast of Chiang Rai City is the Golden Triangle, the tripoint-borders of Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos. You can be in three places at one time!
The intricate details on these ancient temples are very telling of the relativity of civilization. Visit should not only lead to discovery of olden relics but a fulfillment of self character, that is the way to one’s destination.
There are specific immigration concerns for minors traveling to the Philippines.
The Philippines recognizes the family as a basic unit of society and emphasizes on family unity. Also, the country has strict child trafficking, smuggling, children protection laws. So Philippine immigration law dictates that children under 15 years of age, unaccompanied by or not coming to a parent shall not be allowed to enter the country, except that such children shall be admitted in the discretion of the Commissioner of Immigration, if otherwise admissible (PIA of 1940). The prevailing practice is that children under 15 years of age who are NOT accompanied by a parent shall NOT be allowed to enter the Philippines.
However, the same law authorizes the Commissioner of Immigration to allow the entry of unaccompanied minors (minors not traveling with a parent) on his discretion upon application of a WAIVER OF EXCLUSION GROUND (WEG). The guardian of the minor may apply for this waiver of exclusion ground in the latter’s behalf. This is the process where an applicant pleads the Commissioner of Immigration that the unaccompanied minor be allowed to enter the Philippines even though he/she is not traveling with a parent.
If a child has a different name from that of the parents, prove that you are the parent/s of the child by bringing a family registry and/or birth certificate and/or adoption papers or any other document which, to your mind, will prove to the immigration officer that you are the parent/s of the minor.
WEG applications may be lodged upon arrival at the airports. It will require the passport of the minor, the passport of the guardian, application form, and a PhP 3,120.oo application fee.
The Philippine ACR I-Card or the Alien Certificate of Registration Identification Card is the ATM card-size identification card for aliens who are required by law to register (see: http://immigration.gov.ph/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=114&Itemid=61). It contains all documentary requirements of an alien in the Philippines. It is somehow like the USA’s green card, Canada’s permanent resident card, Italy’s Soggiorno card, or Spain’s Permiso card. However, it does not contain the visa. As a rule, Philippine visas are stamped on a passport visa page or pasted, if a sticker. The I-Card only complements the visa. It is NOT the visa. The I-Card’s MAXIMUM validity, unless otherwise indicated, is 5 YEARS from the date of issuance. So, if your ACR I-Card was issued sometime in year 2006 it is most probably already expired even if it does not specify a date on the VALID UNTIL portion of the card.
If your I-Card is expiring, or is already expired, you MUST apply for renewal of card. If it is lost or damaged, apply for re-issuance of card. This will save you the inconvenience of being denied admission to the Philippines during arrival or disallowed to leave the country on departure. Usually, the validity of the I-Card is consistent with the validity of the visa. Its validity is always within, never beyond, the validity of the visa.
When you are coming to the Philippines with a permanent resident or non-immigrant visa and your I-Card is expired you may be excluded or denied entry depending on the assessment of Philippine immigration officers upon your application for entry on arrival. If you have a valid visa however, you may be allowed to enter the Philippines but ONLY as a tourist/visitor and not as a permanent or resident visa holder. So, even if you have a valid resident visa or immigrant or non-immigrant visa but your I-Card is expired or is not presented, you will be accepted to the Philippines only as a tourist with a limited number of days of allowed stay. During such allowed stay you must be able to apply for the re-issuance or renewal of your I-Card. You must also apply for a change of status from that of a tourist/visitor to your status based on your valid visa.
When an I-Card holder is departing the Philippines, he must secure an emigration clearance certificate (ECC) and re-entry permit (RP). Every departure requires an ECC. RP is valid either for 6 months or 1 year. Both documents are automated and incorporated into the I-Card. Subject to payment of required fees (PhP 2880.00 for those with no RP yet or PhP2170 for those with valid RP), you may secure both documents at the airports prior to departure. Always take note of the validity of your re-entry permit. You may not be allowed entry, upon return, when your re-entry permit is expired.
CAVEAT: Holders of expired ACR I-Cards will NOT be allowed to depart the country because you cannot be issued an ECC and RP. Most probably, your I-Card is expired because your visa is expired. So if your visa is expired and you plan on leaving the country before the visa renewal is approved, you must apply for a grace period. The grace period is the period in which you will be allowed to enjoy your visa status while your visa renewal is on process. If your grace period is expired, your visa renewal is pending at immigration office, your I-Card is expired, and you are planning to leave the country, apply for another grace period. Without the I-Card and without the visa, you will not be allowed to depart the country so that you can comply with your immigration documentary requirements.
Image via Wikipedia
Caressing carefully everything inconsequential and titanic in that Ramsey-Reyes-Curtis flick, I feel compelled to ease out some thoughts which might never be as revealing tomorrow as they are today. Although adrift with the recent news on flooding in the provinces up north and the recent conundrum Sen. Leon Guerrero suffered and relished so painfully at the Senate floor, sticking to his side of the chamber for fear of distancing from his “whisperer”. I didn’t know how we could be amused about his performance but I feel disturbed. Not by his obvious lack of luster in parliamentary grandstanding and what not but by the fact that I am amused too and without also knowing why. Although I will never venture into constructing or even justifying any semblance of exculpation for my inability.
No Other Woman. Sino ba ang mas mahirap na kalaban? Ang putang mahirap, o ang putang mayaman? I don’t know if I got that right but that sounds right anyway. Well, the difference is that, according to the character played by Martin, a putang mayaman has an authentic Hermes, while a putang mahirap has an Hermes from the recesses of a place called Greenhills. So it comes to mind then how we are all putas in one way or another, that we are all guilty of deep, dark, and dirty kaputahan, again, in one way or another. In general, we are no different from the night crawlers of Malate, Q. Ave, Circle, and Makati Ave. WTF. How do I know these places? Public knowledge, of course! But that is not the point. My point is, we can all be putas in a socio-sexual context (That, according to Miss Honorato).
It doesn’t matter if one is a man or a woman. Or a mahirap or a mayaman. Or hailing from the secure enclaves of posh gated communities or from the squatters where, accordingly, revolution always brews. Men can also be prostitutes. Men of the cloth can also be prostitutes. Miss Honorato, a philosophical realist character in F. Sionil Jose’s Ermita and who, in this novel was described as a Ph.D. whose research was not only confined in academic cemeteries said, “Who then are the real prostitutes if prostitution is defined as making money – perhaps – lots of it – by doing something without conviction or morality? Look around you (…) and you will find them everywhere under the guise of respectability, as statesmen, as men of the cloth, entrepreneurs…”
Like the common puta who does rounds at night to reach the darkness’s quota, at least for the time being, we also do rounds with life without any morality, much less conviction. Morality, as meant here is not the religious-spiritual kind that pulpiteers homilize, sounds like profiteers ain’t it?, but no, it is a coinage from pulpit and preachers. What is meant here is that, we do not remain true to ourselves even suffering tropism to our own questions and doubts. Not that tropism is evil but we no longer remain honest to ourselves, to what we really are, to what we really want. We lose morality even to our own beliefs. We sin even against our own personal mores. We lose credibility in front of the familiar men and women that we see when we face the mirror. That is immorality, living without belief. In that way, we are putas.
We look not at straight paths in our lives but a series of choices. That is a product of our time’s stupefaction on the touchscreen and aps where everything may be downloaded and installed and deleted in one big commercialization cycle. But that is not so in life. The choices that we see are what they are. Choices. Now, we never look at these choices right on the eyes and become contentious of the end product as planned. For the sake of the easy way out in our transactions we easily give in sacrificing our conviction. When we live life without conviction, we are prostitutes.
As a result, living side by side with our fellow putas, the whole society becomes nothing but a big organized taxed brothel with no real commodity but our penises and cunts. Government, for example will prostitute itself before citizens only to provide temporary shelters to calamity victims but not sufficiently addressing long term issues. Government knows it is not doing enough but is still supplying programs only to satisfy primal needs and the needs of the press.
In the absence of conviction, lives become nothing less than being alive but without really living. Cliche. Living becomes fucking money-making leaving the essence of living behind and enclosed in high school yearbooks where ideals were still fresh and bubbly they could start a revolution. Living without conviction is living in a flame that consumes not only the years but the sup of life itself. Drying to the very core the joy of breathing and suffering. It is drowning on up the necks without hope of getting rescued. It is living without the fruits and colors of being alive.
It does not really matter now if you are mayaman or mahirap.
Must you be a puta?
“A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.”
-Christina Georgina Rossetti
Someone is really never gone. Someone is still there waiting for lunch or saying you will go the distance or has a note to tell you there’s someone watching your back or wanting a plane ride.
Just how do you remember someone gone? When the tenderness has faded and gone to solitude, just how do you revive warmth and affection? When longing for that faint caress on your palm, just how do you recall sensation? When someone has bid love on you, just how do you recover that snail smile it made you and your day. Even when someone is gone, as moonlight recedes for day, you remember that once there was someone who made everything so adorable and expect to see a lovely sight again even in darkness.
So you think what could have been had things happened so differently, had the Sun never set on you. You muse now if things would have been different, perchance you would have had the chance to admit reciprocity of desire. Perchance you would have the guts to admit it bears you down to say next time. Nights would have been different too. Days would have been a lot brighter. Moments would have been a lot lighter. Maybe you would have shared more moments side by side talking about sweet and good things that only occur in sincere devotion. You bear the loneliness of a cerebral love that never really came true. But it leaves a lovely loveliness footprint that are unlike footprints in the sands of time.
Imagination stretches to a childish wandering when you try to remember someone who could have been. There is no limit to fatalism that only you could justify. So you think that if only you could hold your someone, it would have been so tight that it would leave a mark on the wrist and wherever your someone goes, you will always be tagged along. You think of triumph of the hearts much like musings of a future long gone but now may only be recalled in a thought. You are cognizant that you may never become as before. Yet, you remember as if longing for an opportunity to be together again, to be together again for one last goodbye.
Remembering is a parting gift you never open.
opinyonista 