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BOSES NG PAMILYANG OFWs Ni GEORGE A. ARRIOLA For Friday (August 13, 2004) issue *** OFW-IMC chair umamin na nagso-solicit ng investment kahit wala pang lisensiya! *** Umamin si Antonina “Tonette” Binsol, chairperson ng Overseas Filipino Workers-International and Management Corporation (OFW-IMC), na nagso-solicit sila ng investors sa pamamagitan ng internet kahit na wala pa silang Secondary License mula sa Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Ang kanyang hindi sinasadyang pag-amin ay matutunghayan sa kanyang e-mail message sa inyong lingkod noong nakaraang linggo. Para sa kabatiran ng ating mga kapamilyang OFW na sumusubaybay sa ating expose sa investment scams, narito ang nilalaman ng kanyang mensahe: Thank you, George. My first request is that you clear the damage of our company because of a wrong claim the moment you communicate with our fellow officer in Manila who are mostly working part-time for our purposes. Pls do call SEC again and have it verified. Please make the necessary correction in the article that you had posted. My second request is that you focus on the rules and regulations of SEC because they are not OFW-friendly at all. I think that move will help us OFWs the more instead of this kind of castigations. The kind of verdict you're doing doesn't help us solidify the nation... pinagaaway-away mo kaming OFWs. Huwag ganoon! As I had written earlier, we have technicality problems which our corporate body (board of directors) would like to act on particularly the limitation of our office which is just one of the apartments in Sampaloc of our partner from KSA. We want to correct this technicality as soon as possible although our financial transactions are mostly in BPI-Dipolog being the nearest branch to our Baliangao project. As I wrote also, we're not privileged to work like your foundation with all members situated in the country... our setup is more of an improvised one. Nevertheless, we have board resolutions and minutes of the meeting as actively raised and decided during cyber meetings that we had since 2003. We have two more sites being considered and that's in Cainta or Marikina but anyway, our transactions are in the cyberspace and our completed undertaking is already in Baliangao Multispecies Hatchery site in Misamis Occidental. You can see our homepage for that. We have no problem with regard to SEC approvals, requirements because we have our own lawyer, bookkeeper and partner-accountants who are auditing the FS (financial statements) for the board. We also call SEC direct long distance if we have questions. Our home in the cyberspace is at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ofw-imc-board http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ofw-imc-board2 We appreciate the kind of endeavors that you are promoting to help OFWs but it doesn't help to castigate licensed ones without due course of action even through emails or interviews. We should not believe in gossips or a call to SEC with no proper identification to followup was not a good move if we are treating each fellow OFW professional with due respect. I believe that your foundation has a mission to help OFWs. Please stick to that. We Filipinos lack the will to carry out good missions because in light of good missions we want to castigate other peers which in return, lower down their self-esteem. I think you should give privilege to OFW Holdings and OFWNet initiators too. They deserve the stage to explain their side. Binabato na natin sila, di pa natin alam ang tunay na katotohanan. Tsismis lahat, kaya tayo nagkakasiraan. No I wasn't one of those who invested there. OFWs ang mga initiator doon at katulad ko silang OFW kaya ako concerned. Kayong mga nasa Pilipinas, nauunawaan ba ninyo kami? Talaga? Huwag sana kaming pag-awayin. Besides the initiatives were done by OFWs themselves. This is our right and one false claim from your side can destroy your credibility too so please be very careful. Also, you must have forgotten that SEC rules and regulations were never friendly to OFWs. We're called as OFIs or Overseas Filipino Investors but the truth is that we find it very difficult to deal with those regulations. That's not supportive at all. If I were you, I will lobby for an OFW-friendly SEC regulation for reintegration businesses of OFWs. By the way, we started as a random group. There's no rule in the cyberspace that prevents one from promoting good things for the benefit of the country. We started forming the group to help a mariculture park initiative in Samal Island in Davao but it didn't materialize because of concerns on MPAs (marine protected areas). So we moved to the next one in Baliangao being supervised by SEAFDEC in Tigbauan Iloilo where our expert used to work, Dr. Emilia Quinitio. We have only 16 members and all 15 are directors so there's only one investor/non-director in our list. The purpose of sending invitations in the web is to invite 3 more additional investors prior to secondary license approval of SEC since we already accumulated more than 25% of our Php10M declared capital. With a corporate act through a board resolution, SEC had been asked many times about this possibility to have till 19 investors prior to secondary license approval. If you disagree, please provide the proofs and we're open to discussion. We want dedicated investors and from now, we are dealing with those that were recommended by our partners and then we'll screen them for acceptance after the secondary license. Pls tell Rolando T of Saudi Arabia that we are inviting him to understand OFW-IMC and its transparency through and through. If he is a real OFW then he would have approached us OFWs instead of creating something else. Change in our country should start from us... if we can't then it's impossible for the country as a whole. Looking forward George to your clarifications of the damage ASAP because ours was a hardwork that was misinterpreted. Please give us the chance to prove our worth. Di kami nagpapakahirap ng ganito para manloko ng kapwa. Lahat tayo ay may takot sa Diyos, Bro! Regards. Tonette Binsol OFW-IMC Tokyo 100-0004 JAPAN * * * Sa susunod na isyu ay tatalakayin natin ang tuwirang pag-amin ng chairman ng OFW-IMC na sila ay nagsasagawa ng investment solicitation na isinagawa rin ng OFW Net Foundation, Inc. at ng kanilang marketing arm na OFW International Holdings, Inc. kung kaya’t sila ay iniimbestigahan ng SEC. * * * Muli ko nga pala kayong iniimbitahan bukas na makiisa sa ating programang TIRIS (Task Force Against Illegal Recruitment and Investment Scams) na kung saan ay magbibigay ang inyong lingkod ng update sa anti-illegal recruitment at anti-investment scams campaign ng pamahalaan. Bukod rito, magbibigay din tayo ng mahahalagang impormasyon sa pamilyang OFWs na gustong maging entrepreneur. Panauhin po natin si Malaysian entrepreneur Chong Ken Foo na ipapaliwanag kung paano kikita nang malaki ang pamilyang OFWs. Ang nasabing programa ay inyong mapapakinggan tuwing Sabado, simula alas-3 hanggang alas-4 ng hapon, sa dzRJ 810 AM. * * * Para sa inyong reaksyon, reklamo o sumbong, mag-text lang sa ating 24-hour na text messaging hotline na 0916-7421768 o kaya ay mag-e-mail sa gearcom2005@yahoo.com. Inaanyayahan ko rin po kayo na bumisita sa ating website na www.pamilyangofw-sme.com. Dapat na magkaisa po tayong lahat upang ipaglaban ang karapatan at itaguyod ang kapakanan ng ating modern-day heroes at kanilang pamilya. Hanggang sa Lunes, mabuhay ang pamilyang OFWs! # # #

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I just read the articles in this guest book about the OFW-IMC. I also visited their website a month ago and was about to invest. I'm glad that you had enlightened me and also my OFW friends here on the operations of the OFW-IMC. Mabuhay kayo!