Mel packs to return home from Manila

Mel is      a  young Filipino man  from a very  poor provincial family     who  has, in recent    years, been attempting to make it in the big city.

While surviving, during the  final examination period, on one meal a day, Mel   succeeded in completing the first year of a computer course at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP).

Funds were insufficient for him to continue at the university, however.

With some assistance Mel undertook, successfully, a coffee-making (barista) course.

Casual employment followed, with Starbucks, Jollibee (the Filipino equivalent of McDonald’s) and then, until now, a McDonald’s fast-food restaurant in Asia’s largest megamall: the Mall of Asia.

Now Mel’s employment with McDonald’s is coming to an end. He had decided to return home to be with his mother and close relatives.

At 12:49 a.m. today Mel used his rooming house mate’s laptop,  to send me a message via Facebook.

Oh Bern, I’m going home tomorrow in the morning.

We can chat when I’m in Magdapio; there's a computer shop there for sure.

I don't wanna waste time and days here in Manila: when I’m in Magdapio I will find [an] internet cafe so we can chat and chat.

I’m sorry we didn't make it to have a chat. When I’m in Magdapio I’ll promise we can chat.

I miss you Bern and thank you for being there always; I love you and goodbye for now, I will need to prepare my stuff for a trip back to Magdapio.

Bye bye

Love

A boy in Magdapio with a carabao: Image by 333junction via Flickr

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Filipinos join call to end hunger

Image via Wikipedia

Filipinos will join thousands of people around the world in the campaign to end hunger, the United Nations’ World Food Programme announced on 1 June.

The WFP, together with its global humanitarian partners TNT, Unilever and DSM, will hold its yearly campaign, dubbed "End Hunger: Walk the World 2010," this Sunday in ”Bonifacio Global City”, an exclusive, luxury corporate real estate development within  Taguig City. Guards patrol the grounds 24 hours a day.

The theme of the fund-raising activity is "Isang Hakbang! Pilipinas 2010."

The fun run and walk will start 05:00 a.m.

Location of Taguig City, venue for "Walk the World", Sunday, 6 June 2010

 

TNT is a global mail and express delivery company serving more than 200 countries. Since 2002, TNT has been an active partner of WFP and to date has invested over $50 million in the partnership.

 

Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of fast moving consumer goods with strong local roots in more than 100 countries across the globe. Unilever joined forces with WFP in January 2007 for a three-year partnership to improve the nutrition and health of poor, school-aged children around the world.

 

DSM Nutritional Products Philippines Inc, based in Makati, Manila, is a subsidiary of Royal DSM N.V., a Dutch transnational corporation.

 

Sources

 

End Hunger: Walk the World: World Food Programme campaign

 

Helen Flores, ”Filipinos join call to end hunger”  (philstar.com), updated June 01, 2010 12:54 p.m.

 

Walk the World — Hakbang Pilipinas 2010

 

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Hunger at record high

Excerpts from a report by Helen Flores in The Philippine Star, January 13, 2010.

 

“MANILA, Philippines. Hunger incidence in the country is at its highest since President Arroyo took over the presidency in 2001, according to the latest survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

An estimated 4.4 million households or a new record high of 24 percent experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the past three months, the Fourth Quarter 2009 Social Weather Survey showed.

“The measure of hunger refers to involuntary suffering because the respondents answer a survey question that specifies hunger due to lack of anything to eat,” the SWS said.

Severe hunger, which refers to those who experienced it “often” or “always” in the last three months, rose from 3.8 percent (about 700,000 families) in October to 4.7 percent (estimated 870,000 families) in December.

The new survey also showed that hunger incidence rose in all areas.

It said overall hunger rose by 11 points in Metro Manila, from 16 percent (estimated 394,000 families) in October to 27 percent (estimated 665,000 families) in December 2009.

Based on the new SWS survey, a family in Metro Manila must now earn P12,000 per month to surpass poverty/hunger. In 2000, P7,491 per month was needed to overcome poverty.

The Consumer Price Index has risen 60 percent since 2000.”

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Christmas Eve food delivery for volcano evacuees

High-energy biscuits for flood-affected Filipinos being unloaded from a WFP helicopter last October.

Nearly 50,000 Filipinos evacuated from their homes in the shadow of the Mount Mayon volcano received some welcome assistance from the United Nations World Food Programme on Thursday, when packages of high energy biscuits arrived in evacuation centres set up by the government.

Family lacks food; jobless father desperate

Today, at 11:10 a.m., Philippine time, Jason, an unemployed father of two daughters, sent me a text message from San Isidro, Laguna, in the South of Luzon Island, saying last night he could not sleep; he had a very painful boil "and there is also no food; I don't know what to do now."

I was very sorry to hear that and really wished I knew what to do.

Evidently the family has been barely surviving for months. Jason had previously confided that over the last half-year he has sometimes gone without eating himself for two or three days.

I had no remedy or comfort to offer. My repeated efforts to help the family have been leading me into financial difficulties.

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Politicians cause of poverty, hunger and insurgency

Image by mtfrazier via Flickr

by Nomadicasian, November 22, 2007

This strong accusation by a nomadic Asian is worth republication and reconsideration.

Yes indeed, Filipino politicians and those who are in government service are the cause of poverty, hunger and insurgency in the Philippines.

Majority of these politicians belongs to the prominent families of the Philippines who ruled the country since after independence from the American colonizer. The neo-politicos who gained prominence after the EDSA Revolution of 1986 are likewise to blame for the unrelenting debacle of the poor Philippines.

The seats of power are divided and passed onto their relatives, to their next of kin, father, mother, brother, sister etc and the cycle continues.

These people practically owned almost the entire Philippines. And holy cow, these politicos are educated in the world renown Universities in America and Europe. They have their Master of Arts and doctoral degrees prominently displayed in their personal information. They send their relatives one after the other to the same schools abroad and return to the Philippines to run for public office only to amass wealth as a reward for a stint abroad as students.

They are well educated alright, but once they’re in power, they accumulate wealth in so short a time, almost triple the money that they spent as students abroad.

They have no regards to the poor masses; all they have in mind is their personal interests on how to remain rich at the expense of the uneducated and poor people of the Philippines.

Also, the men in government who are appointed to run the day to day affairs of the country contribute to the problems by using their positions to manipulate, rigged, influence every contract at their own disposal in exchanged for FAT COMMISSIONS.

They are not taking chances; every available transaction is considered easy money and must go to their pockets by hook or by crook. Both politicos and the men in government have their mansions, flashy cars, acres of lands and buildings around the country.

Their sons and daughters are in private, air conditioned and stately schools and blessed with luxuries.

The poor masses lives in small shacks, in squatters, [with] no lands of their own and work as scavengers, tradesmen, mendicants. Their sons and daughters are poorly educated, roaming around town, clawed by pedophiles and sex predators and oftentimes die in hunger. Others resort to criminality and in the rural areas join rebel movements.

This is SAD - REALLY SAD. How I wish that someday the Philippines will be great again, again because once upon a time the Philippines was second to Japan but now the country is a step ahead of Timbuktu, whatever that means.

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Hunger allows no choice

Image via Wikipedia

All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.

- W. H. Auden: excerpt from "September 1, 1939", in Another Time, published by Random House. Copyright © 1940 W. H. Auden, renewed by The Estate of W. H. Auden.

Children hungry; sick restaurateur pleads for help

At 09:33 this morning (GMT+8), from the rural town of Kalayaan in the Philippines, Tina sent me an SMS text: "Bern, how are you? I'm not OK, I lay on bed, have fever tonsilitis, eatery close[d]; don't have capital coz payday [of credit customers] will be Thursday. Kids was hunger. Don't have yet skol [school] supply; please help."

After a 23-minute delay I finally responded: "This is distressing for me also, Tina. I'm greatly stressed financially and emotionally. I'm so sorry I don't have an answer for you now. I really need to think."

The interchange continued until 10:22:

Tina: I just serve noodles for d kids dis morning, they are asking for rice and ulam [meat and vegetables], specially Ken-Ken, Little Bern, Zedric, Kian and Renzed asking for milk. What should I do? I don't have money to buy, I'm so sorry.

Bern: I wrestle with those problems in my head but most regrettably don't have answers now. This is a crisis for me also.

Tina: I'm worried coz I'm sick, I have training tomorrow, I have prescription but I don't have money to buy medicine, d most important to me was d food for d kids and school supply . . .

Bern: I understand. I'm making this crisis known to others but don't really expect help. I don't know what else I can do.

In the afternoon Tina texted me again: "Bern, I'm very sorry to tell you, it's 3 p.m. right now, d kids was crying asking for food, dey just eat noodles in breakfast, not yet lunch, we did not eat since dis a.m., pls help us."

The time was actually 3:48 p.m.; or 5:48 in Brisbane, Australia.

"I'm so sorry, Tina", I replied. "I'm deeply in debt. Even if I had money to send, the money change offices are closed now. This distresses me but I must tell you straight."

The situation is disturbing and distressing not only for the extended family with 7 children, but also for myself. It's probably the first time ever that I've offered them no hope whatsoever.

Father goes without food for 2 or 3 days at a time

Rabies treatment for daughter scheduled to continue; asthmatic boy, 18 months old, lacks oxygen

Chat session with Jason using Yahoo Messenger from an Internet cafe, 17:01 to 18:29, Philippine time

To my surprise, Jason greeted me online this afternoon, thanking me for the money he had received at 9:30 a.m.

We discussed mainly

• Jason's health;
• the health of his daughter Lin-Lin;
• confusion about Jason's nephew, Kian, and Tina's nephew, also named Kian,
• the latter's health crisis, the paternal obligations of Kian's father, and his income;
• the prices of cell phone calls and text messages;
• Internet cafe computer usage; and
• Jason's wish to see me via web cam.

After exchanging pleasantries I mentioned Jason's online picture gallery (dating from 2008 when he was employed in an Internet cafe) and various matters including Lin-Lin's medical appointment next day.

I trusted they would have no problems keeping the appointment and Jason hoped that would be so. "Please try to learn all you can from the doctor tomorrow," I said. "Don't be too shy to ask questions! And ask about your own health, too, if you have a chance! Explain that you've been under great stress!"

Jason's health

Towards the end of the interchange, discussion of Jason's health produced cryptic but distressing revelations. Despite concern for his privacy, I relate them here:

Jason: Bern, tomorrow I think I need to [have a] check-up too b-coz I'm anemic and can't eat many.

Bern: Yes, I'm not at all surprised. I hope you do get checked.

Jason: I have ulcer Bern.

Bern: Ulcer? Where? You need to get that treated! I hope the same doctor can treat you and Lin-Lin in the same consultation.

Jason: I can't say in English Bern: in my sikmura, in Tagalog.

Bern: Well just make sure you tell the doctor.
. . .

Jason: I get that [ulcer] Bern when I'm no eat, no food.

Bern: Oh. That's understandable.

Jason: No eat in 2 to 3 days.

Bern: But when was the last time that happened? And how often has it been happening?

Jason: No food in 2 to 3 days.

Bern: You really need to tell the doctor that. Have you been eating recently?

Jason: I think Bern it's time to [make it] know[n to] the doctor: and need to check-up.

Bern: Yes, certainly, you must tell him everything!

Jason: I keep that a month ago; I think [it lasted] 4 to 6 month[s]. I can't tell anyone Bern, only [to] you can [I] say that.

. . .

Jason: Bern sorry for sharing this to you; don't think about me.

Bern: There's no need to apologise! I appreciate that have shared it: but please share it with the doctor too.

Jason: Thank you Bern.

Lin-Lin's health

Bern: How is Lin-Lin now?

Jason: She's improved; she can play now, and eat more; tomorrow she['s] requesting me again to eat Jollibee, and buy sleeper [slippers; i.e. casual footwear].

Bern: I'm glad to hear she's improved. I hope you can afford Jollibee and slippers. I see Jollibee and McDonalds are offering half-size servings of rice now, because of the shortage.

Jason: I think I budget the money for that and for the food.

Bern: I trust you to budget wisely. I'm almost certain that more ant-rabies injections will be required, perhaps a month from now. . . . I need to check that.

Jason: Thank you for that, Bern, please. . . She need more 3 anti-rabies, not anti-tetanus.

Bern: I see. That's what I would have anticipated. I suppose at least the anti-rabies prophylaxis is a good insurance for the future, even though it's unpleasant for Lin-Lin.

Jason: Yes, Bern, I clarify that tomorrow.

Bern: Good.

Confusion about Jason's nephew, Kian, Tina's nephew, also named Kian; and the latter's health crisis

Jason: May I ask, Bern, about Tina's saying Kian [was] in hospital yesterday?

Bern: There was confusion! She was referring to Liza's son, 18 months old, suffering from asthma and fever. Tina said he was suffering severely from lack of oxygen.

Jason: Oh, but she said Kian [Jason's sister Anagel also has a son named Kian].

Bern: That's his name, isn't it?

Jason: I don't know his name Bern.

Bern: Tina was worried that without a nebulizer and medication he might not survive the night. He was having severe breathing difficulties.

Jason: But Bern, Liza's husband work in Kalayaan also: in NPC [the National Power Corporation].

Bern: I wish I knew more about that. From what I hear, the workers are all very poorly paid.

Jason: I don't know . . . but in my opinion his father [has an] obligation.

Bern: I think many Filipino fathers are unable to meet their obligations.

Tina and Liza signed Kian out of the hospital. They had to sign a waiver, saying they would take responsibility if something went really wrong with Kian.

Tina said the one nebulizer in the hospital was being shared by several patients so they would have to wait for that one. The doctor wrote a prescription for them to buy one, plus medications.

But they had no money to buy those things, so Kian had difficulty breathing.

I trust Kian's health has improved today. It was a bit better last night [after I sent money for medications] but I need to check again.

Cell phone talk and text prices

Jason said he would text me tomorrow. I thanked him, saying I was sure to be online some time the next day: a text via Yahoo would be cheaper.

Yes, said Jason, only 2 pesos and 50 centavos. The price of a text to my cellphone, however, would be "30 pesos [for] one text only. "

I was shocked. "I was thinking about 12 or 15 pesos! Maybe the price has risen. That's close to one Australian dollar!"

The cost would be 15 pesos, Jason replied, "if your message is short."

"The telco Optus has greatly increased the price of phone calls," I said, "so I've cut down greatly on my cellphone calls to the Philippines."

Jason thought that cellular phone calls within the Philippines cost 60 pesos for 5 minutes.

I thought "That explains why Filipinos use many text messages instead."

We agreed that it would be much better to text each other via Yahoo.

Internet prices

Bern: I read online that Internet cafe prices have become quite cheap, at least in some places, because of the competition.

Jason: Yes, Bern, also here in Pagsanjan.

Bern: Cheap Internet prices are good for customers, like you, but not so good for the workers in the cafes!

Jason: Yes.

Bern: Maybe if you start working in an Internet cafe again, you'd like to see the prices higher! So you can get better wages!

Web cam

Jason: Bern you have cam in your computer? I want to see you; I miss you very much; long time ago can't see.

Bern: Oh, I have one [web cam], but it's not attached! And now I've found the software CD for it! So I should be able to have it running next time you come online! I won't try to install it immediately, but I will do so very soon.

Jason: Yes Bern please . . . I'm very happy for that.

Bern: I'm not much to look at.

Jason: It's OK Bern; the important [thing is that] I saw you.

Bern: OK, so I'll get the camera installed and figure out how to operate it.

Jason: Put the disc [in] Bern and then choose the same [model]; what cam you have; and then install it.

Bern: Yes, but I prefer not to do it immediately. My old computer is likely to become overloaded.

Jason: Yes, I think next time Bern. I have no time.

Farewell

"Bern, thank you again, in time,' Jason said; "God bless you Bern; love, Jason and family. Bye for now Bern; miss you."

"Good night Jason," I replied, "and best wishes to you and all your family!"

Benefactor reluctantly agrees to remit money for hungry families

SMS text messages via Yahoo Messenger program
Time: 10:31:32 GMT+08. Duration: 00:43:20

Tina: Bern, try out text if I sent. Pls, help us. D kids [are] crying coz they are hungry, I want to [start] back in making chocolate [candies for sale] again to have extra income and also [re-open] d eatery; pls help us.

Bern: Tina, with great misgivings, I'll try to help a little, but I'm going deeper into debt. I've finally decided to publish this online, hoping others will help.

Tina: Bern, can you help me start partial capital of 3K of making chocolate, 3K for d eatery, pls. All adult[s] [in the household] will help me to making a chocolate again; total 6K.

Bern: Tina, at 9:03 a.m. you said you were sending your last text and had no money to buy load. What happened? I'm deeply shocked by this sudden emergency. 6K is a lot for me.

Tina: I borrow[ed] 15 pesos load to [i.e. from] my friend, near lunch, we're not eat since a.m., if I have 6K, we can start again, to have business, income for d family, so we will not suffer hunger again.

Bern: I guessed you must have borrowed a little. I'm deeply perturbed but will try to help a little. I can't promise that much.

Tina: OK, thanks a lot, thanks for understanding, d kids will wait to your help, they are happy when I said you will help us, just wait for a little hour & we can buy food later.

Family with 7 children indebted, hungry and penniless

Bern (10:37:33 GMT+10): Good morning Tina. Yesterday afternoon Jason texted me, giving thanks for helping Mae-Mae. I'm wondering how you, Kert and all the Kalayaan household are now. [Yahoo Messenger: "Tina will receive your messages on a mobile device."]

Tina (10:46:58): Did you received my text last nite? I did not slept whole nite, coz our food cook all credit, only 100 [pesos] cash, no 1 allow me get stock to cook today. We don't have food today, kids hungry.

Bern (10:48:50): No, I didn't receive it. Most regrettably my phone was inadvertently turned off and it has just arrived now. This is a deep shock to me.

Bern (10:52:22): On closer examination, the text just received was one you sent at 07:32 this morning. I received no other warning about this extreme situation.

Bern (10:55:18): Most regrettably, also, because of a large price increase, my Optus cell phone credit load is already exhausted. To ring you I must use a public call box.

Tina (11:03:43): Dis [is] my last text. I don't [have] money to buy load; just only I cry for d kids [who are] hungry coz I'm so tired since last nite till dis a.m. [I tried] to find some 1 to give capital to cook for today; not lucky.

Last desperate plea for hungry children not received

At 7:32 a.m., Philippines time, Tina sent me a text from the rural town of Kalayaan, Laguna, requesting immediate financial help:

"Bern, dis [is] my last text, pls help us; we can't have food to cook for today, I'm worried for d 7 kids I have here [who] start now asking for food; no 1 can help me. Pls help me for sake of kids."

Regrettably my cellular phone had been inadvertently switched off and it was only an hour later when I enquired about the family welfare that I become aware of the crisis.

Mel arrives home to find family without food

Bern, gud eve[ning], I'm here now at Magdapio. Gladly we're here bcoz dey don't have food here to eat dinner, I only have 1 problem now.

Obama in America, hunger in the Philippines

By Jose Ma. Montelibano
Excerpt from Inquirer.net

Of course, I was watching television all morning and early afternoon on Wednesday . . . There seemed nothing more important than the Barack Obama victory and what it represents to America and the world. . . . What both stood for is of utmost relevance even to Filipinos . . .

While shaking my head at the impact of an Obama victory and the hopes that America can be a better country for the world, I was forming thoughts and words for this article . . . Then, a phone call jarred my musings and hurled me back to a reality much closer to home. It was a friend who wanted to coordinate a feeding session in a depressed area this Sunday and wanted to confirm certain details. But it was a news report that he alerted me to that shook me even though I have known it and have been trying to do what I can about it. It was an article in a major newspaper that reported the Philippines as the fifth-hungriest country in the world.

I have been writing about hunger ever since results of the hunger incidence survey by the poll group Social Weather Stations were published. . . . It is a great risk for an opinion writer to write about the same topic, to give the same opinion, over and over again. But I have no choice. Or, more accurately, if I choose otherwise, I would not be able to live with myself in peace, in honor.

 

If there has been an outcry, then there is no need for an Internet writer like me to dedicate extra articles to the issue of hunger. But there is hardly any. There was one statement . . . One statement that I hoped would lead to a massive appeal to feed the hungry, but did not.

How, then, can a Filipino be silent? How, then, can a Christian be silent? Who will speak for the hungry, who will speak for the poor from where the hungry come from? A deafening message is being communicated by the sheer presence of beggars, of street children, of scavengers, of squatters who sleep on sidewalks, under bridges and along canals. But they have been with us almost forever, and their message has been unheard, not listened to, their presence shooed away, repulsed, even denied by our souls.

They say the sun shines in a new America. . . . Obama ushers in a fresh gust of wind we call change and we are happy for America because millions of Americans citizens with Filipino blood will be part of that change.

What about the Philippines? I am not asking that corruption be eliminated, that inefficiency be reformed, that liars and thieves be imprisoned. I am asking only that we not tolerate hunger, that we not pretend it is not there, that we not sleep peacefully in the midst of it.

Struggling to maintain objectivity . . . I said about the hunger of our people:

This is a collective and public sin, a rejection of the mission and life of Jesus, a failure of government, a failure of religion, an indictment of our societal values and behavior, a curse that will haunt us and our culture.

All claims at being faithful to our religious beliefs have suddenly become hollow, perhaps even false. Christians and Muslims in the Philippines must move quickly to succor the hungry, whisper our humble apologies to them, and then feed a hungry people proportionate to the massiveness of the hunger afflicting them.

Will the poor and the hungry ever have their Obama? So the poor and hungry even have to need an Obama? Are we who are not poor and hungry not enough for fellow Filipinos who are? Is not being one people created by one God in a beautiful and bountiful land more than enough to make us remember the pain of many and evoke human compassion to rescue them?

Philippines lands 5th in world hunger survey

Excerpt from report at ABS-CBN News.com

Four in 10 Filipinos had little or no food at all on their tables in the last 12 months, thus landing the Philippines in a list of African, Latin American, Asian and European countries whose citizens said that they "often or sometimes" lacked food in the past year, a worldwide survey on hunger said.

The results of the World Food Day survey by Gallup International-Voice of the People 2008 showed that 40 percent of Filipinos polled said that they lacked food "often or sometimes" in the last 12 months.

The survey also said that the hunger rate was highest in the nation's capital, Metro Manila, where at least 500,000 families lacked food.

The Philippines was in the league of African and Asian nations whose poor said they went hungry in the past year.

Underemployed father lacks food for his family; agitated brother-in-law begs for help

Bern (16:58:11): Hello Mel.

Mel [online] (16:58:30): Hi!

Bern (16:58:48): I'm surprised you're online.

Mel (17:00:10): I'm worried about you and me!

Bern (17:00:29): Please explain.

Mel (17:02:36): I want to mention again about help, bcoz I'm worried about my sister Anagel and I'm worried about you, you might have financial problem too.

Bern (17:04:20): It's true that many people ask me for help and my funds are limited. Please tell me more about Anagel's problems.

Mel (17:06:22): Robert is no job bcoz no tourist visit here, he was boatman. [It's] hard for him to work in other place bcoz they have four children to feed.

Bern (17:06:57): Oh.

Mel (17:07:24): Sometimes we shared but not enough, shared for food.

Bern (17:07:49): I see.

Mel (17:09:38): On Monday Angelica and Gilbert go to school again. I'm afraid they don't have food, too, after and before schooling.

Bern (17:10:01): I see. I hate going to Western Union. I want to stop doing it. You must know that it costs me $25 - that's 1,000 pesos - every time I go there, just for fees. That money is totally lost. And that's not counting, of course, the money for the beneficiary.

Mel (17:14:05): I see! And do understand that!

Bern (17:14:41): For the last week Ross in Paranaque has also been begging me for help for his family.

Bern (17:15:50): But there's something else that I've been worrying about a lot. I wonder whether you have really been selling cellphone loads.

Mel (17:17:07): Yes I do! my number when I selling load is this: 0918 . . . 355.

Bern (17:17:22): I think that is not your usual number.

Mel (17:17:54): Sorry, I forgot to tell you about that. Bcoz, Bern, if you register this number my load is automatically lost 2 pesos, that's every day. Like my other number.

Bern (17:19:51): I'm sorry Mel, I don't quite understand what you are saying.

Mel (17:20:47): It's [hard] for me to explain bcoz I'm not good in English. . . . I mean hard for me to explain.

Bern (17:21:31): That really does need some explanation but perhaps there's not time now.

Mel (17:22:12): I can't force you to believe me!

Bern (17:22:40): It's not a matter of being forced to believe something. It's a matter of understanding.

Mel (17:22:58): It's up to you. I'm upset your not believed in me and trust.

Six families of National Power Station security guards lack food to eat

Tina (10:03:57): Gud am Bern, I wake up early, to open d store. Sad to say I cannot raise money for Ken['s] allowance coz I don't have stock to sale, sorry to tell you Bern we don't have food to eat today, specially d kids.

Tina (10:15:14): You know Bern, 5 guard outgoing dis 7 a.m., complaining to me dat there is no rice and food to their house. They are rely[ing] on my store for their needs. [Above texts received online at 14:53 GMT+10]

Bern (15:55): Sent 10000 Western Union 3476808634. I rely on you to take great care. Please try to help Mel also. He should sell loads and also take great care.

Tina (16:07:18): Bern I received your text thank you very much, I will invest your money to d store, and I give 2,500 to Mel to sale load, I will try my best to take care of it.

Bern (16:18:32): Tina, thank you for your confirmation of my text sent 20 minutes ago. I worry that the money isn't enough though, for elec[tricity], stock, Mel's therapy, Jayson etc.

Mel feels neglected and greatly distressed

Mel (16:30:22): Bern good afternoon, hope you and Alice are OK, hope you can help me so I can start business and my therapy. LOVE Mel.

Bern (16:32:04): Hi Mel. I just sent Tina money and asked her to help you also. Her electricity was disconnected, the kids have no food and she has no rice to eat or sell.

Bern (16:34:16): Alice is OK. She's resting now. I'm very worried about you and Jayson's family and the families in Kalayaan.

Mel (16:38:07) [online]: Hello Bern!

Mel (16:38:41): I just came outside [the village store with Internet access] waiting for your text.

Bern (16:39:01): Hello Mel!

Mel (16:39:08): I'm glad you are online.

Bern (16:39:36): I am too, but I'm feeling tired and sleepy! Too many late nights!

Mel (16:39:59): Why?

Bern (16:40:23): I've gotten into a bad habit, the same as you, of not going to bed until after midnight.

Mel (16:41:08): I influence you!

Bern (16:41:42): Ha ha. If I can blame you for my bad habit, that's better than having to take the blame myself.

Mel (16:42:44): Ha ha ha! Bern hope would you mind if I asked you how much you sent Tina?

Mel (16:43:26): I'm worried how much she will gave me!

Bern (16:43:50): I sent her 10,000 pesos. She said she'll give you 2,500. I guess she'll have to pay for months of electricity to get it reconnected.

Bern (16:45:09): I don't know how much that will cost. She also said the kids have no food and Ken can't go to school. Also many security guards want to buy food on credit but she can't help them. She hasn't got the stock.

Mel (16:46:50): I don't know what to say, bcoz if I say something you might be angry w/ me. So I will not tell.

Bern (16:47:11): It's probably better if you do tell me.

Mel (16:47:32): OK!

Mel (16:50:12): Last time we text, you said that if you help me I must try to have the sell loads again, but now its impossible bcoz Bern you always helped Tina a lot [more] than me: honestly Bern that's not OK with me! I'm very very jealous. Sorry to say that Bern.

Bern (16:52:31): Mel, I'm only one human being finding it very hard to help many people. It's not just helping Tina. There are 5 small children in the Kalayaan house. Tina said they have no food today. She also said there are hungry families depending on her shop but she can't help them.

Bern (16:53:00): I want to help you Mel, truly, but life is getting very hard.

Mel (16:56:18): Well maybe it's better to not helped me now, I'm crying now, I will tell to Tina that she can use my 2500, I'm OK here! Would you mind, Bern, I will go off line and I will go home. Bye bye.

Bern (16:56:53): Mel please do not say that to Tina.

"Mel has signed out. (5/10/2007 16:57)"

Desperate aunt borrows money to pay for newborn screening of nephew

Tina (00:53 GMT+8): Gud a.m. Bern and Alice, we're been in Provincial dis p.m. [to] have a check up on d baby of Liza 1 week after birth, doktora required us to have new born screening, after know d history, to make sure der is no mental disorder, last chance to be done tomorrow, worth 1,500 in private hospital, I don't have money, to tell you d truth it's so hard for me support to mother while in breast feeding always hungry and want to eat, we [have a] lack of food to eat, but [I] feel OK while baby smiling at me. Liza can breast feed Laurice['s] baby when no milk. [Text received online via Yahoo Messenger at 09:18 GMT+10.]

Bern (09:22:41): Hello Mel, please advise me about the Western Union situation. [Yahoo: "Mel & Jester will receive your messages on a mobile device."]

Bern (09:25:37): Hello Tina. Sorry, I don't know what a newborn screening is and I don't know why today is the last chance to have one.

Bern (09:26:43): Yesterday I sent Mel 4,000 but Western Union refused to pay him and said the transaction has been waiting in a "security queue" until this morning.

Tina (09:33:51): Newborn screening was a test for a baby which only done in 1 week old, it will be then only in dat grace period of time, it will know if d baby have mental disorder or have a problem in early age, in dis case it will be cure in right away.

Bern (09:35:22): Thanks for that information. It's still unclear what mental condition the doktora wants to screen for though. Please try to borrow 1,500 from Mel. [Yahoo: "Tina will receive your messages on a mobile device."]

Tina (09:37:09): Der [is] no available newborn screening in Provincial [hospital] only in private in Laguna Doctors hospital.

Bern (09:37:25): Tina, despite repeated enquiries and complaints, Western Union has kept Mel waiting all night for the 4,000. Please contact him and ask his help.

Bern (09:40:35): Tina, if I understand correctly, a Provincial doktora has referred the infant to the private hospital for a screening test. Sorry, I forget the baby's name.

Western Union (09:45:29): Status [of remittance] : Available for pick up by receiver. [Online confirmation.]

Tina (09:50:15): Yes you're right, doktora gave referral, d name of baby was KIAN . . .

Bern (09:51:33): Oh, yes. Mel mentioned that Kian was the name of a singer in a group of four. I forget their name. I've just been looking up genetic screening.

Bern (09:53:29): Mel has not replied to my text this morning. Probably his load is low. Please try to get in touch with him ASAP. His WU transfer is available for pick-up.

Tina (09:58:55): OK I will try to contact him.

Tina (10:28:19): Bern we call Mel, Jovs explain d situation, Mel agree to give 1,500, we just met in Sta. Cruz near in hospital, but he said we need to return it soon.

Bern (10:29:41): Thanks to you and Mel for that. Mel told me he helped Anagel and family because they had measles so he ran out of load. I want him to keep selling loads.

Bern (10:31:45): I sent Mel 4,000 at 4:45 p.m. yesterday but Western Union refused to pay, saying the transaction was in a "security queue." I'll ring and ask the situation.

Bern (10:32:38): Evidently Mel's money is "available for pickup" now but if I had enough money and tried to send you some now, the same delay might happen again.

Tina (10:50:06): Bern maybe today was not de same as WU yesterday, Mel was now going to Sta. Cruz.

Bern (10:51:26): This morning I spent 45 minutes at the WU sending agent's shop waiting for a response from WU. They claim the money is available now.

Mel (10:57:06): Good morning Bern. Tina phone me 8 a.m. dis morning and she forward d text from you to me. I'm going now to Sta. Cruz to try to received the money. Love.

Snakebite survivor without food waits for help

Mel [on Jester's phone] (13:01:20): Gud after nun Bern, I'm waiting your touch yesterday but you didn't text me! Bern I hope u can help me, bcoz ryt now Bern I really don't have food. Love Mel.

Mel (15:48:11): Bern how you doing? I hope Alice is OK now, I'm alone right now. Jester and other dey are in Lagaslas except me. Bcoz I have phobia der! Its very hot in here [at home in a roughly built little house with a galvanized iron roof]. Love Mel.

April 04

Mel (00:00:32): Gud pm Bern, I'm still with Jester now, I asked him if he receiving text from you but unlucky! I'm still waiting. I'm going home now, gud nyt to you, regards to Alice. LOVE.

Bern (11:56:08 GMT+10): Hi Jester & Mel. V sorry, Alice's grand daughter Samantha is here, they want me to drive them to cheap lunch at hotel then to airport, Sam's leaving! "Mel & Jester will receive your messages on a mobile device."

Mel & Jester (11:58:59): Gud morning to you Bern, OK, take care, I will go to Mel's house now. He is waiting for your text.

Bern (12:02:51): Must rush, only 1 1/4 hour 2 drive, eat, drive to airport! When I come home I'll text you again. Thanks very much Jester! 12:03:09.

17:03:02. Clock adjusted from 17:01:40. Previously set on 15:12 Errors may be evident in some times shown above.