A hundred communist guerrillas raided a southern Philippines resort island and clashed with security forces, leaving nine rebels and two policemen dead, officials said Sunday.

The New People’s Army (NPA) blew up telecommunications links to Siargao island, the country’s surfing capital, late Saturday, and ransacked the municipal police armories, local Philippine Army spokeswoman Major Michelle Anayron told reporters.

Soldiers and police ambushed the rebels in nearby Lapinigan island, off the coast of the main southern island of Mindanao on Sunday, as the guerrillas attempted to retreat.

In addition to the dead, five policemen were wounded in total, although no tourists or other civilians were hurt, the army spokeswoman said.

“Skirmishes are still ongoing,” said regional military spokesman Major Armand Rico.

The NPA is the 5,000-member armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines. It has been waging a 39-year Maoist armed campaign across the country.

Relatives said goodbye to their missing kin at the site of a capsized ferry in the central Philippines on Thursday fearing they will not see them again; dead or alive.

Hundreds of corpses are believed trapped in the seven-storey Princess of the Stars, which ran aground and flipped over with 865 passengers and crew on board during Typhoon Fengshen on Saturday.

The overall death toll from the sixth typhoon to hit the Philippines this storm season could top 1,300, including nearly 500 people killed in a torrent of flooding in the centre and south of the archipelago.

The United States, the Philippines’ former colonial master, has led international aid efforts and the USS Ronald Reagan, a nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carrier, cut short a visit to Hong Kong. It is currently moored several miles off Panay island, one of the worst-hit areas.

The ferry capsized off Sibuyan island and panicked passengers had little time to get off. The vessel capsized less than half an hour after the ship started listing.

“Most of the women, children and elderly were left behind in the sinking ship. They were afraid to leave because of the strong winds and gigantic waves,” Jesus Gica, one of just 56 survivors, told Reuters.

“They all went down with the ship.”

Mark Anthony Barrozo’s 4-month-pregnant girlfriend was on board.

After a Catholic priest said mass on a coast guard ship close to the site of the ferry, Barrozo shouted “Forgive me” before dropping to his knees in grief.

Other relatives threw white flowers and wept.

U.S. and Philippine divers have so far retrieved 18 bodies but the operation is painstaking due to narrow corridors, floating debris, darkness and the ship’s precarious position wedged on a rocky ledge.

A decision to bore a hole in the side was again postponed for safety reasons.

ISOLATED FOR DAYS

Sailors from the U.S. aircraft carrier are shuttling water, rice and medical supplies to more than 1.4 million evacuees.

“It has really speeded things up and from the reactions we have gotten from people who have started to receive the goods, they are very happy,” said Manuel Mejorada, the provincial administrator in Ilolio on Panay Island.

“Most of them have been isolated for days since the typhoon.”

Rescue efforts were, however, concentrated on the Princess of the Stars, which is likely to become the Philippines’s biggest shipping disaster since the Dona Paz ferry collided with an oil tanker in 1987, killing more than 4,000 people.

Sulpicio Lines, which owns the Princess of the Stars, also owned the Dona Paz.

Around 130 corpses, including a toddler, have been found in the water and have also washed up on beaches.

But with at least nine other vessels sunk in Saturday’s typhoon, disaster officials are having trouble identifying where they came from.

Rescuers, meanwhile, are struggling to deal with the mass of bodies from the ferry. Television showed a dump truck unloading a large bag of bodies into a shallow grave.

“We have buried the bodies because we have no choice,” said Eduardo Andueza, a mayor from the island of Masbate, where dozens have washed up.

Shipping tragedies are common in the Philippines, where safety rules are poorly implemented and substandard vessels ply dangerous waters.

An inquiry has begun into the Princess of the Stars disaster and the coast guard station commander in Manila has been removed from his post while it proceeds.

The Philippines stopped the search for hundreds of bodies feared trapped on a capsized passenger ferry today after authorities learnt that 10 tonnes of toxic pesticide were on board.

Angry officials said Sulpicio Lines, the owner of Princess of the Stars, would be held accountable for not alerting them to the 400 boxes of endosulfan.

Exposure to the deadly chemical, which is highly restricted, can cause nausea, convulsions and death. The United States’ Environmental Protection Agency classifies it as highly toxic.

Philippines Vice President Noli de Castro said had the ferry disaster task force been told earlier about the toxic cargo, divers would not have been sent to the vessel in search of bodies.

‘This should not even be aboard a passenger ship,’ he said at a news conference.

The taskforce was told by the Philippines’ Fertiliser and Pesticides Authority (FPA) on Thursday that the toxic cargo was bound for a Del Monte plantation in the southern Philippines.

Sulpicio Lines, already under fire for allowing the ferry to sail when a typhoon had hit the archipelago, said it did not know about the cargo.

‘We were not aware of any pesticide on board,’ said Ryan Go, a company executive.

According to officials, Del Monte wrote to the Fertiliser and Pesticides Authority (FPA) on Tuesday about the shipment. The FDA did not alert a taskforce dealing with the ferry disaster until yesterday.

The police sealed off the area around the capsized vessel and banned fishing in the waters off Sibuyan island.

‘We will be affected badly. This makes us even worse off,’ said Juanito Reyes, a local fisherman.

The discovery of the chemical was a grim reminder of how standards are flouted in the Philippines, an archipelago of over 7,000 islands with a woeful track record in maritime safety.

Princess of the Stars ran aground during a typhoon and then overturned in around 15 minutes off the central island of Sibuyan on Saturday with 865 passengers and crew.

The incident is likely to be the Philippines’ worst sea accident since the Dona Paz ferry collided with an oil tanker in 1987 killing more than 4,000 people.

Sulpicio Lines, which owns the Princess of the Stars, also owned the Dona Paz.

Disaster officials said the removal of the pesticide would only start at the weekend because special protective diving gear needs to be obtained from Singapore.

Extracting the container safely will be difficult. The stern of the seven-storey ship is resting on the edge of a reef with only the tip of its bow visible from shore. There is also around 100,000 litres of fuel still on board.

Efforts to retrieve bodies from the ship will be postponed till next week adding to the misery of distraught relatives.

‘We will continue to wait,’ said Alexander de la Cruz, whose sister and brother-in-law and their three children were on board.

So far, only 56 survivors have been found; either plucked from the water by fishermen or washed up on surrounding islands. Only around a dozen bodies have been removed from the ship.

The overall death toll from Typhoon Fengshen could top 1,300, including over 500 people killed in a torrent of flooding that tore up trees and bridges, destroyed homes and forced over two million people to evacuate.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced Tuesday that two special bank accounts have been designated to concerned Filipinos all over the world who are willing to donate to the victims of tropical cyclone Frank.

DFA undersecretary for migrant workers’ affairs Esteban Conejos Jr. told GMANews.TV that cash or check donations can be deposited either to the account of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) or the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC).

For donations to the NDCC:

Development Bank of the Philippines account with address at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City

Account name: NDCC Donated Fund, Acct No. 0-00149-435-3

Swift Code DBPHPHMM

Acct. No: 36002016

Type of account: Current

For the PNRC dollar account:

Metrobank Port Area Branch, Anda Circle, Port Area, Manila

Acct Name: The Philippine National Red Cross

Acct No: 151-2-151-00218-2

Swift Code: MBTC PH MM

Divers found many bodies floating inside a ferry that capsized during a typhoon in the central Philippines with more than 800 people on board, a navy spokesman said yesterday.

“There are many bodies trapped inside,” Lieutenant Colonel Edgardo Arevalo said. “They were trapped when the seven-storey ship suddenly tilted and capsized.”

Colonel Arevalo said the divers reported it was too dark to be able to give more detail about the dead found inside the doomed vessel.

While some of the bodies had life vests, “it seems the passengers hesitated from jumping in turbulent waters” because “it happened too sudden”, he said, referring to survivors’ accounts of the ship quickly listing, and sinking in half an hour or less.

Colonel Arevalo said the waters were still quite rough, making it difficult to enter and exit the sunken vessel.

“What complicates our problem is how to extricate the bodies. One of the ways they are thinking about is to weigh them down so they can take them out from the bottom of the ship. Another option is to cut the hull,” he said.

The Princess of the Stars went belly up off the central island of Sibuyan in waves as big as houses in Saturday’s typhoon.

Colonel Arevalo said the coast guard planned to bore a hole inside the 23,824-tonne vessel to retrieve the bodies. But drilling would have to be done cautiously because the ship was estimated to be carrying about 100,000 litres of bunker fuel.

A US military ship with helicopters on board was on hand to help with rescue efforts.

Princess of the Stars was resting upside down with the tip of its bow above the water and its stern resting on the bottom of the sea.

At least 33 people have been found alive out of 864 passengers and crew on board.

Six bodies, including those of a man and woman who had bound themselves together, have washed ashore.

Typhoon Fengshen, which has weakened to a tropical storm over the South China Sea, pounded The Philippines with gusts of up to 195kph. It is currently swirling towards southern China, where it is expected to dump more rain on already flood-ravaged regions.

Aside from the ferry disaster, at least 155 people were killed, largely by drowning, in a torrent of floods in the south and centre of the archipelago, according to the Red Cross.

In Iloilo, the province worst hit by Fengshen, more than 200,000 people had been forced to evacuate, the Red Cross said.

Complicating ferry rescue efforts, the coast guard admitted yesterday that a cargo ship had sunk near the Princess of the Stars on Saturday.

Officials said three people died, six survived and 17 were missing from the second ship and that it was difficult to determine if corpses that had washed up were from this vessel or the Princess of the Stars.

Shipping tragedies are common in The Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7000 islands where safety rules are often ignored and substandard vessels ply dangerous waters.

For Manny Pacquiao, it’s about scale, on and off. On the scale, there is his astonishing rise from a 107-pound fighter to a challenger and favorite for the 135-pound title against David Diaz on Saturday at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay.

Off the scale, the Pacquiao story is about a rapid ascent from an impoverished upbringing to stardom for a Filipino who generates idolatry in his own country and quick hits of attention everywhere else. Any struggling boxing Web site needs only to mention Pacquiao, who can put a sudden spike in readership.

For the past couple of years – or at least since he beat Erik Morales in their first rematch on Jan. 21, 2006 – there have been no apparent limits on what Pacquiao could do or who he might fight.

Even though he is about to fight at lightweight for the first time against the tough and likable Diaz, speculation about Pacquiao-Oscar De La Hoya at 147 pounds still circulates. It is talk and only talk, Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum said last week in a conference call.

“It’s a great thing to conjure up and talk about,” Arum said. “But it’s not very realistic.”

At least, it wasn’t last week. But next week it could be very realistic, depending on whether Pacquiao can continue to make it look as if anything is possible on any scale.

The Diaz fight, a Pacquiao test flight, puts him at a crossroads, intriguing in many ways.

Pacquiao is fighting at a heavier weight for the first time in his first bout since a so-so performance in a debatable decision in March over Juan Manuel Marquez.

Diaz, the World Boxing Council’s champion, has been dismissed in several corners as pedestrian, a mere speed bump in the way of Pacquiao’s path to bigger things. That’s not fair to the determined Diaz, a 1996 Olympian who has paid his dues.

Diaz, who has about 30 aunts, uncles and cousins in the Valley, knows what he is up against.

The good – perhaps bad for Diaz – is that Pacquiao sounds as if he is serious about a new challenge.

Other than a flurry of stories a few months ago, there have been no repeated reports of Pacquiao being less than diligent in training. Silence on that front indicates a prepared Pacquiao.

In any case, Home Box Office’s pay-per-view fight represents a decisive date in a career that has Pacquiao in position to prove he deserves outright ownership of a spot vacated by Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s retirement.

It’s at the top of another scale: pound-for-pound.

A COUPLE and their two children, ages 5 and 2, were found dead in Sibonga, Cebu, in what police believed to be a case of arson with robbery and multiple homicide.

Responding policemen found around 11 p.m. last Saturday the charred remains of Swedish national Alf Melker Viksten, 60, his Cebuana wife Maria Serenita, 35, and their two children -– Serena Alfeda, 5, and Johannes Alf, 2, in different areas of the victims’ two-story house.

Senior Insp. Noli A. Cernio, Sibonga police station chief, personally handled the investigation into the incident.

He said they recovered a kerosene gas container, 13 shells of caliber .22, and an open cash box with gold coins inside.

He said these were all submitted to the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory 7 for examination.

Cernio, however, could not yet determine all the valuables that may have been taken by the perpetrators because they do not know of anyone whom to ask.

A housemaid would have helped them identify what valuables inside the house were lost, but the victims do not have one.

The Vikstens’ house in Sitio Catap, Barangay Banlot, Sibonga was also located far from neighbors.

Cernio believed the victims were likely shot to death first before their bodies were torched, as indicated by the presence of empty shells and a kerosene gas container.
Alf Melker’s body was found in the garage, some 20 meters away from the house.

Maria Serenita’s body was recovered in the first floor, while the children were found near each other at the second floor.

The victims’ remains were taken to the Tupas Funeral Homes in neighboring Carcar City for autopsy.

Cernio said the house was still intact and not damaged by fire.

Authorities, who are looking into robbery as a possible motive for the crime, are now tracking down some personalities who may be behind the killing.

Cernio said Alf Melker is a pensioner, being a Sweden military force retired member.

The Vikstens, he said, were into the lending business, and were known to be good-natured folks.

Hopes faded on Monday that more survivors would be found in what could be one of the Philippines’s worst sea tragedies as rescuers failed to find signs of life inside a capsized ferry that had held more than 800 passengers and crew members when a typhoon struck on Saturday.

Survivors of the ferry at Quezon Memorial Hospital in Lucena, Philippines, on Monday

Rescue officials said only 38 survivors had been rescued, including 28 passengers and crew members who came ashore Monday after drifting at sea since Saturday.

A total of 13 bodies believed to be from the ferry, Princess of the Stars, have been recovered, including nine that washed up on land on Monday.

The known dead from the ferry brought the death toll from the typhoon, named Fengshen, to at least 176, the Philippine National Red Cross said. Fengshen, packing winds of up to 121 miles per hour , struck the central and northern Philippines on Saturday, knocking down power lines, causing landslides, flooding rivers, and inundating entire communities.

Divers who beat against the hull of ferry on Monday in search of survivors heard nothing that indicated life.

“We just approached the hull of the ship, we got near and then banged, knocked in order for us to give a sign if ever there are still people inside,” Lieut. Col. Edgard Arevalo of the Coast Guard said Monday. “Unfortunately there was no response.”

The Philippine government has asked other countries, particularly the United States, for help in the recovery operations. A United States Navy ship from Okinawa, Japan, was expected to arrive early Tuesday near Sibuyan island, south of Manila, where the ferry sank, said Jesus Dureza, press secretary of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Officials said helicopters on the Navy ship could help survey the general area for possible survivors.

Eleandro Madrona, a congressman of Romblon Province where the ferry sank, flew over the area on Monday afternoon, but reported seeing only a tugboat near the ship’s wreckage.

“I was thinking, where could these 700 people be?” Mr. Madrona said, according to The Associated Press.

Elsewhere, officials tried to assess the losses from the typhoon. Iloilo, a central Philippine province, was the worst hit, with fatalities approaching 100 as of Monday, officials said. It was too early to determine damage to agriculture and infrastructure, but officials said it could run up to billions of pesos.

Another concern was the welfare of the nearly 70,000 people across the country who were displaced by the typhoon and are now living in evacuation centers. On Sunday, Ms. Arroyo ordered all government agencies to help in the relief operations, while private companies have begun campaigns to collect donations of food, clothing and bottled water.

The president also ordered tighter maritime regulations. “Pending a review of Philippine Coast Guard protocols, no vessel sails if it would pass a possible typhoon path,” Ms. Arroyo, who is on a state visit in the United States, said in a video conference with her advisers on Monday.

The government has suspended the operation of all vessels of Sulpicio Lines, which owns the 24,000-ton ferry, which was capable of carrying 1,992 people.

Distraught relatives of the ferry’s passengers have trooped to the Manila office of Sulpicio Lines since Sunday, many of them blaming the company for the disaster. An advocacy group for crime victims, Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, announced Monday that it was filing a class action suit against the company.

Officials of Sulpicio Lines, however, said that they tried to set in motion a rescue operation as soon as they learned that the ship had encountered problems. But “severe weather condition delayed the rescue efforts both from the sea and on air,” Carlos Go, the company’s chief executive officer, said in a statement on Monday.

“Our company also assures the families of all unfortunate passengers who perished in this incident that they will be properly compensated,“ Mr. Go added.

Coast Guard officials told reporters Monday that they cleared the ferry to leave Manila for Cebu, a city in the central Philippines, on Friday night because the initial forecast for Fengshen showed it would only hit the eastern part of the country, away from the ferry’s path.

But according to the government’s weather bureau, the typhoon changed direction on Saturday, moving toward the center of the country, running right into the ferry’s path.

Coast Guard officials said they advised the ferry to seek shelter, but that the boat’s engine failed after being battered by the strong winds and waves, thus leaving it even more vulnerable to the intensifying storm.

In a television interview, Senator Richard Gordon, who is also the chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross, quoted a survivor as he described what happened next. According to the survivor, “It was high noon but it was so dark, and there was too much rain and the waves were just too much for the ship,” Mr. Gordon said.

Sulpicio Lines is one of the country’s largest shipping companies, with 22 ships, both freight and passenger, plying the major routes of the Philippine archipelago.

Its ships and ferries have figured in many of the worst maritime disasters in the Philippines. In December 1987, an overloaded Doña Paz collided with an oil tanker off Mindoro Island, killing more than 4,300 people.

A year later, in October 1988, another Sulpicio Lines ship, Doña Marilyn, sank near Leyte province, killing 300 passengers and crew. In 1998, 200 died when the Princess of the Orient, also a Sulpicio liner, capsized near Manila during a storm.

More survivors have been reported from the passenger ferry which sank during a typhoon in the Philippines, however more than 800 people who were onboard the vessel are still missing.

Philippines President Gloria Arroyo has given Coast Guard officials a dressing down for allowing the ship to sail during a typhoon.

Coast Guard officials insist there was no negligence on their part, nor was there any violation of maritime regulations, following the capsizing of the ship MV Princess of the Stars.

They say the ship was stalled at sea because of engine trouble and was caught in rough seas brought by Typhoon Fengshen.

President Arroyo criticised Coast Guard officials in a teleconference call while on a state visit in the United States.

Relatives of the missing are demanding an investigation, saying ferry operators must have known the typhoon was coming.

All the other vessels of the passenger shipping line have been grounded pending investigation.

After drifting at sea for more than 24 hours in a rubber boat, 28 survivors made it to shore at a small coastal village, local radio station DZBB is reporting.

Two others originally on board the life raft drowned in large swells.

The discovery raises the number of survivors to 32.

Four people were confirmed dead on Sunday.

Coast Guard boats battling winds and high waves are scouring the area around the 23,824 gross tonne ferry and divers were expected to enter the vessel later today.

A helicopter and plane are also en route.

“We are checking whether there were people trapped inside the ferry,” Vice Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo, the head of the Coast Guard, said.

“We might have to drill holes so our divers can access it.”

Typhoon Fengshen, with maximum gusts of 195 kilometres per hour, has killed at least 155 people in central and southern Philippines, with the western Visayas region, famed for its sandy beaches and sugar plantations, the worst affected.

It pounded the archipelago, damaging thousands of houses and displacing tens of thousands of people.

“We got hit real bad this time,” Richard Gordon, the chairman of the Philippines’ Red Cross said.

The typhoon is currently over the South China Sea and is expected to lurch northwards towards Taiwan in the next few days according to weather reports.

Pandemonium

In the central city of Cebu, where Princess of Stars was meant to dock, dozens of relatives waited into the morning for news.

“The last time I heard from my son was on Friday evening when the ship left Manila. He texted to say he was coming home,” Celecia Tudtud, a mother of four said.

“I really hope he’s okay,” she said, wiping away tears.

Sulpicio Lines, the ship’s owner, revised the number of people on the vessel late on Sunday (local time) to 845 from an initial estimate of 740 plus.

At least 20 children and 33 infants were on board.

The few who made it out alive spoke of pandemonium when the ship suddenly lurched onto its side.

“What I just did was to float in the water,” a survivor identified only as Jesse told local radio, adding that he had a life vest.

“There were others who rode in the life craft. But it was no use, the waves were big so they capsized also.”

Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who is in the United States for a state visit, held a video conference with disaster officials early on Monday and said coast guard protocols should be reviewed to prevent another ship sailing into a typhoon’s path.

In Iloilo province, 101 people have been reported dead after flood waters over two metres high engulfed communities, forcing tens of thousands to scramble onto the roofs of their homes.

In neighbouring Capiz, more than 2,000 houses have been destroyed in the provincial capital and officials are struggling to make contact with communities further afield.

More than 30,000 people are being housed in evacuation centres in the centre and south of the archipelago.

An archipelago of more than 7,000 islands, the Philippines is hit by an average of 20 typhoons a year.

- ABC/Reuters

A Philippine ferry with more than 700 people on board capsized during a typhoon and most are missing, officials said on Sunday.

Rescuers were trying to reach the scene where the MV Princess of Stars sank near Sibuyan island in the centre of the country but churning waves from Typhoon Fengshen made the crossing hazardous.

“The ship is upside down. We are waiting for rescuers but there are none so far. Our pump boats are all broken,” Ricardo Aligno, a town councilor from the coastal village of San Fernando, told local radio.

The coast guard expected one of its ships to arrive in the area by early afternoon. The ferry sank about three kilometers from shore.

Local mayor Nanette Tansingco told radio that three survivors had been found.

But at least four others aboard are known to have died.

The bodies of two women and some children’s’ slippers were washed ashore. Before dawn on Sunday, some villagers heard warning sirens from the ship, which had 626 passengers and 121 crew on board.

Dozens of relatives, some in tears, crowded into the offices of Sulpicio Lines, the ship’s owner, in the central city of Cebu, looking for information.

“My father was one of the passengers. Right now there is no good news,” said Lani Dakay. “My father is 59, I don’t even know if he can swim.”

Sulpicio Lines said it had lost contact with the ferry, which was en route to Cebu from Manila, at around 12.30 p.m. EDT on Saturday.

“We were told that at around 5 a.m. the captain sounded the abandon ship signal,” said Lieutenant-General Pedro Inserto, military commander in the Visayas, the central region of the Philippines.

“We were told the passengers and crew transferred to another ship. But we still do not know which ship,” Inserto told Reuters.

WORST DISASTER

Fengshen, with maximum gusts of up to 195 kph (121 mph), tore through the centre of the archipelago on Saturday, devastating the province of Iloilo, where officials said at least 59 people had been killed in floodwaters more than two meters high in places.

“Iloilo is like an ocean. This is the worst disaster we have had in our history,” Neil Tupaz told local radio, adding he feared the death toll could rise.

Tupaz said tens of thousands of people were marooned on their roofs waiting to be rescued.

In total, Fengshen has killed at least 80 people, including an 8-year-old girl and her grandfather who were buried in a “trash slide” at a rubbish dump in the southern city of Cotabato.

More than 20,000 people were being housed in evacuation centers in the centre and south of the archipelago, where the storm had triggered flashfloods, landslides and ripped up trees and power lines.

The typhoon, the sixth to hit the Philippines this year, pelted Manila with torrential rain and high winds on Sunday, triggering power outages in many parts of the capital.

The international airport was relying on generators for power and passengers continued to cram into the departure terminal despite many flights being either delayed or cancelled.

Fengshen is headed north and is expected to have exited the country by Monday en route to Taiwan, where it could make landfall in the next few days, according to storm tracker website www.tropicalstormrisk.com.

Australia is looking to the Philippines as a source country for workers needed to help address a skills shortage there.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday that the situation has prompted Australian companies to hire workers from other countries, especially the Philippines.

Although Filipinos seeking overseas work will find Australia a good prospect, the DFA warned prospective overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to be wary of illegal recruiters.

Reports received by the Philippine Consulate General in Sydney said that individuals posing as recruiters are victimizing Filipinos who wish to work in Australia, after it was reported last January that the country has 120,000 job openings available to foreigners.

The consulate advised Filipinos to be aware of the type of visa that their recruiter is applying for them.

It said the visa commonly issued to Filipinos for work in Australia is “457 Visa.”

The Australian government issues to its companies a “Temporary Business Long Stay Visa,” also known as the “Standard Business Sponsorship Subclass 457 Visa” or the “457 Visa,” which is then provided to foreign workers they employ.

Authorized companies can either directly hire Filipino workers or employ a manpower agency accredited by the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency.

A Filipino who is recruited for Australian employment is matched to an Australian company that has been issued a 457 Visa, DFA officials said.

The DFA explained that the 457 Visa allows a foreigner temporary long stay for work purposes for six months to four years.

But this visa does not give permanent residency or migration status, it said.

The DFA said that illegally hired foreign workers in Australia are exposed to abuses, hazards, and risks.

“If they are caught, they are deported and blacklisted from future re-entry into Australia.”

A legal recruiter should not also make the applicant pay for Australian administrative fees and/or air travel to Australia, as laws require a company to shoulder all costs of fees and the worker’s air travel to Australia, the Australian embassy in Manila said.

The worker must not pay for his air travel to Australia.

It said inquiry or complaint may be lodged with the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) through email address nsw.457Jntegrity@fmmi.–gov.au.

Philippine Consul General to Sydney Maria Theresa Lazaro stressed that Australia does not allow the recruitment of domestic maids and farm workers from overseas.

In January, former Australian ambassador to Manila Tony Hely said that the Philippines has become the strongest source of skilled migration into Australia over the last two years.

Hely said Filipinos have a strong interest in going to Australia as skilled migrants.

He said that Australia is actively promoting migration from the Philippines because it has structural skills shortage across a wide range of industries and there are skills that are in abundance in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Canada expects an increase in the arrival of Filipino workers there within six months after passing the screening conducted by Canadian employers in Manila recently.

Canada’s Province of Saskatchewan said that the 11 Saskatchewan employers who participated in the Philippines mission were “extremely satisfied” and expect to offer over 250 jobs to Filipino candidates.

“Those new employees can expect to arrive in Saskatchewan within six months,” the statement said.

Successful missions to the Philippines and to southwestern Ontario have Saskatchewan employers returning home optimistic about the number and quality of potential recruits.

“We are working to sustain our economic momentum by helping meet Saskatchewan’s talent challenge,” Advanced Education, Employment and Labor Minister Rob Norris said.

Norris said about 12,000 jobs is opening up in Saskatchewan in the next years.

He urged Filipinos to consider Saskatchewan province rather the than Canada’s centers if they intend to work there because of better chances of higher quality of life and higher income.

Norris said Saskatchewan is in need of skilled labor, particularly in the manufacturing, service and health sector.

“Most people go to Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. These are the centers. But in smaller communities the environment is easier and less expensive. It’s more than just Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver,” Norris said.

Carina Dayondon was the first among foreign female climbers to finish the 2008 Hillary-Tenzing Mount Everest Marathon, tagged as the highest marathon in the world.

Carina one of the three Filipinas who scaled Mount Everest last year, came in behind seven Nepali women who joined the race.

She together with the other five other Filipino participants triumphantly reached the finish line in Nepal.

The prime slot in the men’s division went to a Japanese national.

Dayondon’s fellow Everest veterans Noelle Wenceslao and Erwin “Pastor” Emata, and other members of the First Philippine Mount Everest Expedition (FPMEE) team, namely Dr. Ted Esguerra and Fred Jamili, composed the six-man team.

The marathon was not a race to the top of Mount Everest but was a 42-kilometer race from the Mount Everest base camp at the Nepal or south side at an altitude of 17,149 feet, to the town of Namche Bazar, which is at an altitude of 11,300.

The marathon route runs over rough and treacherous trails and while the course is basically downhill, it has two steep uphill sections, according to race organizers.

The 6th Hillary-Tenzing marathon 2008 was organized to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the climb to the summit of Mount Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and his Nepali sherpa, Tenzing Norgay Sherpa.

Nilda Reyes winced as she lifted a chair to give to a customer in her small neighbourhood store that is also her home in Manila’s slum district of Tondo.

The widowed 36-year-old mother of two admitted that she still feels pain from her side, almost five months since she donated one of her kidneys to an unknown recipient.

But for Reyes, it was all worth it.

‘I don’t feel pain all the time,’ she said as she showed her scar that stretches from her navel to her back. ‘And when I do, it’s very tolerable anyway. The inconvenience is a small thing compared to what I got in return for donating my kidney.’

For her donation, Reyes received a ‘package of gratuity’ that included 100,000 pesos (2,270 dollars) in cash, livelihood assistance of up to 75,000 pesos, a life insurance worth 100,000 pesos and a 10-year health care plan that also covers her family.

Using the money she received, Reyes put up her neighbourhood store and was preparing to open an eatery in another location.

‘Of course, I also wanted to help those who are sick,’ she said. ‘But money was the biggest factor in my donation.’

With millions of Filipinos living on less than 1 dollar a day, the Philippines has become one of the world’s ‘hotspots’ for organ harvesting with foreign recipients paying as much as 30,000 dollars for new kidneys.

Due to high demand, illegal brokers prey on poor Filipinos who are forced to sell their kidneys and other organs for fast cash.

In Tondo’s Baseco area, where hundreds of male residents have already sold their kidneys in the black market, many more are willing to make the risky deal for the cash.

‘My wife and I decided it’s our only option now,’ said a 28-year-old house painter, who was waiting for word from a broker about the sale of one of his kidneys. ‘We really need the money, I don’t have a stable job and my wife earns very little doing laundry.’

The father of three admitted he feared the consequences to his health, adding, ‘We haven’t told our children because they might object. But I will be assuring their future with this deal. I can give them a better future.’

But not all donors get a happy ending like Reyes, who gave up her kidney under a government organ donation programme that aims to ensure that donors also get proper health care before and after the operation.

In a study by the Philippine Society of Nephrology (PSN) of a cluster of donors in a province southeast of Manila, many of those who sold their kidneys were found to be suffering from various medical problems, such as hypertension and above-normal creatinine levels.

In one case, a 50-year-old man died from a heart attack just a few months after he sold his kidney for 110,000 pesos.

The PSN noted that while foreign recipients pay a huge amount for new kidneys, most of the money is pocketed by brokers, including doctors, who find the donors and convince them to donate. Donors only receive about 3,000 dollars for a kidney.

In 2007, a total of 1,046 kidney transplants were conducted in the Philippines, up from 690 in 2006, according to the Philippine Renal Registry.

More than 50 per cent of the recipients were foreigners in 2007, violating a 10-per-cent cap on the number of transplants to foreign recipients that was imposed in 2003. More than 80 per cent of the donors were not related to the recipients.

In March, the Department of Health issued new guidelines banning all organ transplants to foreigners in a bid to curb the thriving black market in the trade of organs in the country.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque acknowledged that the ban could lead to more illegal organ sales, but expressed confidence that the move was a necessary step towards curbing the illicit trade.

‘This should not be the only step we take,’ he said. ‘We need strict enforcement of law and I’m sure that will lessen if not stop the illegal peddling of human organs.’

But just two months after the ban was imposed, the Department of Health came under fire when its National Transplant and Ethics Committee issued exemptions for nine Israeli patients to undergo kidney transplants in the Philippines.

Duque said the exemption was given for ‘humanitarian reasons.’

The PSN warned the exemption was setting a bad precedent, while Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral chided health officials for allowing the foreigners to again prey on poor Filipinos.