MikeLigalig.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbK4qZZCNfg#

Around two days later, Flordeliz shared his story on Tsikot, a popular online automobile enthusiast community:

    This happened yesterday in Sheraton Hotel in Red Deer, Alberta wherein a Passport Renewal Outreach was being done. Basically, the Phil Consulate and staff come to provinces of Canada for Filipinos who want to renew their passports, request NBI clearance, and such. This activity can be done any day though in Vancouver, British Columbia (BC).

    Now, I booked an appointment and was scheduled today at 4:05 pm. The outreach is only 4 days and only allows up to 400 renewals. Having said that, many came just to try their luck even though walk-in renewals have little chance of succeeding.

    I came with my wife and 3 month-old baby all the way from Edmonton, which is almost a 2-hr drive. When I entered the ballroom 3, where the passport renewals were made, I was surprised to see a lot of people. I ask an elderly man who was sitting behind a desk, along with two ladies. I came up to him and asked. Here’s how the conversation went:

    Me: Is this where you pass your requirements for passport renewal?
    Elderly Man: (grinning slightly) Magdodonate ka ba?
    Me: (smelt alcohol in his breath) Uh, I don’t think I’d do it today. Maybe next time.

    Then he disregarded me and went to talk to somebody else. One of the lady sitting beside him asked me if I had an appointment booked for today. I said yes at 4:05pm. She then immediately stopped the papers she was processing and preceded to get my requirement papers. Turns out those applications were already for the waiting list, the ones who just walked-in.

    After that, I went out and got a pen for my wife just to be ready for other forms to fill-up, but there weren’t any. I was asked to wait for my surname to be called as usual policy of government transactions. The elderly man called my last name finally, and as I stood up, this conversation took place:

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Jose A.P. Ampeso: Career Diplomat

Before he became the consul general for Vancouver, Ampeso had graduated from UP Diliman (where he met Ninoy Aquino and became his frat mate at Upsilon Sigma Phi) was assigned to the US city New Orleans as a vice-consul by 1982. According to a personal account, Ampeso was also instrumental in acquiring a Passport for Ninoy Aquino’s fatal return to the Philippines in 1983.

In 2002, while based in Dubai, he had petitioned for the release of a Filipino Pastor jailed in the United Arab Emirates for distributing Christian materials translated into Arabic.

By 2012 Ampeso was already operating out Vancouver, in charge of a mission to provide help for Filipinos too far from the Embassy of the Philippines in Ontario.

As a flag bearer of sorts for his home country, Ampeso was a regular fixture at Filipino events in Vancouver, considered as a local VIP, and even weighed in over the controversial death of a Filipina caregiver last year.

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good thing nga maayo kaayo ang Philippine Consulate diri sa Xiamen... very accomodating kaayo. pag-renew nako sa akong passport, walay daghan storya. pagkahibaw nila nga mingbyahi pa ko og 1 hour para lang maka-adto sa Xiamen, misag 11:50 na, ila gyud ko gi-entertain og gipahuman og fill up sa forms para dli na daw ko magbalik balik pa... finally, nahuman ko og 12:30 and mao pa paglunch sa nag-assist nako  

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Ampeso says:

Ampeso said the video did not show that before the outburst, the applicant allegedly insulted him by insinuating that the Philippine official might just pocket his donation.
 
“First of all, the 27-second video showing me talking in a loud voice to a passport applicant, which made some people conclude that I was rude and arrogant, does not tell the whole story,” Ampeso said Thursday in a statement emailed to GMA News Online.

Ampeso said he only raised his voice against the applicant because “he insulted me and poked fun at being requested to make a donation to the Philippine National Red Cross by offering to give a measly one dollar for this charitable cause.”
 
“That’s why I became so agitated while explaining to him that if he had to give anything at all, it has to come from the heart for the typhoon victims,” Ampeso said.
 
GMA News Online has sought a reaction from the video uploader but has yet to receive a reply.

Ampeso has apologized for his actions.
 
“I apologize to anyone whom I may have offended. I assure you that I had only the best intentions in reacting in that manner,” Ampeso said in an apology letter sent to GMA News Online.

more at http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/305737/pinoyabroad/news/dfa-chief-vancouver-consul-general-erred-when-he-shouted-angrily-at-passport-applicant

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=72237.0

i should know; moinom sad baya si banana republic...

in this case, though, i'd rather reserve judgment (or conclusion anyway) until after the investigation results, if the media would still bother to pick up the news by then.  so far only the poster of the video claims he was drunk.  (and that makes for readable news.  any controversy attracts readers.)

if i must cast doubts on the consul general's behavior, so must i cast the same doubts on the video poster.  he seems too fresh and forward, too smug.  if it's true that he made a joke about the consul general pocketing the donation, well, that's something i'll blow my top over if i were in his place.

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i understand from further readings, going back all the way to 1995, that this ampeso guy is one problematic package.  meanwhile, flordeliz, a much younger guy who doesn't have much of a history yet, had these statements that are quite telling:


let's call a spade a spade.  let's talk here of percentage rather than percentile (ducks and chickens are fowls, but they're different from each other)...

for 2012, remittances from overseas filipinos were recorded at US$21.39 billion, or about 6.5 percent of the philippines’ Gross National Income (GNI) and 8.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

okay, size is relative.  if 6.5 percent is a "big percentile of the Philippines’ GNI" for flordeliz, so be it. 

we all have reasons to support our sense of self-respect, if not self-importance.  i wonder what kris aquino will demand, if ever, because she's the number one taxpayer of all filipinos.

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owww, please don't overplay the pitiful lonely ofw card.  blood doesn't make the cut here; sweat, maybe, but blood?  flordeliz has his whole family there with him and his job back in his country was enviable enough.  but he wanted more, and now he talks of blood?  surely, the first drop of blood over his job would make him scamper back home to his country. 

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with apologies to the ofws who may read this (and this may not be about you specifically), don't take to heart too much the idea that you are heroes.  you are, indeed, but first and foremost you worked in another country not because of patriotism but because you want more for your efforts.  it's all about you and your family and relatives and whatever.  in all honesty, it is doubtful whether one would choose to work outside because he loves his country. 

mahinumdom man lang ko ani sa usa nato dinhi sa una, a beauty who declared that without her pounds the philippines will go bankrupt.  aaargh.  nagkinahanglan man tingali tog doktor si bai tigs tungod ato...

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Agoi, naay nataopan sa agtang ani...

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karemember man sad ko ani sa na cancel among flight sa PAL from Los Angeles,CA unya gipangbutang mi ug hotel. Pastilan kay ang bus nga among nasakyan kay di man diay pa HILTON Hotel and among naabtan kay Hacienda Hotel man nuon. Ag mga filipino nga kasakay nako perti nang mga isoga dayong ingon ug ikiha kono nila ang PAL.Pag abot sa reception area nanuyo tong usa ka Pinoy nga niya pa naa kono siya sa Exxon Mobil ba to nagwork unya iyang Uncle daw murag dako ug katungdanan sa LAPD . Akoy naulaw sa iyang gibuhat kay gi mura mura ra nila tong receptionist nga african/american ug latino. Singgit singgit siya oi nga tawagan daw niya iyang Uncle. Gapakaulaw ra jud. Dali dali jud ko kuha adto sa akong susi sa kwarto ug dayong panira kay sa tinood lang makauulaw ning uban diri murag kinsa bitaw. Although murag ing sukwahi ni akong story pero akong buot ipaibot nga naa juy klase sa tawo nga pareha aning ing complain pahaba dayon. Hilig raba ning ubang big time pinoy konohay mang insulto kay ilang feeling ka level na nila ang consul ba ron or presidente.

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