Kuwaiti envoy gets tongue-lashing from Digong

Why did it take the government this long to impose a ban on the deployment of domestic helpers to Kuwait when Filipino maids are treated like chattel in Middle East households?

The ban should have included Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as well.

President Digong can’t be blamed for ordering the ban because the problem fell on his lap in his watch.

In fact, when the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the Philippines, Saleh Ahmad Althwaikh, went to Malacañang to appeal the President’s decision he got a tongue-lashing from Digong.

“I asked all my staff to leave so I could talk with the ambassador in private and that’s when I cussed his country for treating our compatriots like slaves,” Digong told me during dinner in Malacañang on Wednesday last week.

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Philippine Airlines (PAL), the country’s flag carrier, is now a four-star airline in the same category as some of the best airlines in the world.

According to Skytrax, an international air transport rating organization, the other airlines with the four-star rating are Air France, British Airways, KLM, United Airlines, American Airlines, China Airlines, FinnAir, Turkish Airlines and Royal Air Micronesia, among others.

PAL’s secret (or no secret) to success is Michael Tan, heir designate of his father, tycoon Lucio Tan.

A graduate of University of British Columbia in Canada (summa cum laude), Michael is a tireless professional with an uncompromising work ethic like the Old Man.

The younger Tan, however, has more PR than his father.

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Gambling expert Charlie “Atong” Ang told a House inquiry on Tuesday that the family of alleged gambling lord Rodolfo “Bong” Pineda had boasted of “creating a President” in Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

In my more than two decades of being friends with the Pinedas — especially Pampanga Gov. Lilia “Baby” — I have never heard of them boast. I find the family very modest.

And they pay their taxes to the last centavo, as far as I know.

On the other hand, in the many years that Meridien Corp., a gaming firm, has been in existence, it has allegedly never paid a single centavo in taxes to the government.

Meridien, which is based inside the Cagayan Economic Zone, is owned by Atong Ang.

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Quezon City Inquest Prosecutor Nicasio Rosales should be dismissed from the service for recommending bail in the case of three men charged with raping a 13-year-old girl, which the court granted.

I learned about the rape case after the girl’s parents came to my office at “Isumbong Mo Kay Tulfo.”

The suspects — two of them identified as Rey Ventura, 37, and Davies Aragon, 42, coffin makers at a funeral parlor in Barangay Baesa, Quezon City — dragged the girl into a funeral car where they allegedly raped her.

The girl was on her way home after throwing the household garbage when she was waylaid.

Why Prosecutor Rosales recommended bail when rape is a nonbailable offense is beyond comprehension.