Just read this article sa PDI, what do you think? Uyon ba mo sa writer aning article nga for a Pinoy to go to Luzon/Manila kinahanglan pa nga mokuha ug visa? Even the United States does not require its citizens to acquire visa to travel to any of its states or territories man gani, diri pa nuon sa Pinas?
‘Interisland RP visa,’ anyone?
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:08:00 09/15/2010
GOVERNMENT CANNOT send squatters back to the province they came from. But it can restrict the influx of “undocumented” Filipinos from the Visayas and far-flung Mindanao. Immigration, like the way the United States does it, should require visitors to Luzon to get proper visas: visitors/tourists visas, business visas, student visas, etc. This will somehow discourage misadventurers who, with a few hundred pesos, embark on a cheap ship ride to Luzon not to study or open a business but to visit a relative who had enticed him with rosy pictures of a Metro Manila, with lots of malls, beautiful people and job opportunities.
Of course, this is all myth. So, this poor guy realizes he can’t survive in competitive Manila without a diploma. He is unemployable without a degree. No money, no education; no education, no degree; no degree, no job; no job, no money; no money, no home. He’s trapped in a vicious cycle.
This reminds me of Filipino “TNTs” (illegal Filipino immigrants) in America. To eat three times a day, he must push carts, sell peanuts, corn, or balut. In the meantime, he finds himself a woman and together they build a family and raise children who will most likely end up like their parents: no education, no degree, into the same old dizzying cycle of misfortune. Some misadventurers who can’t wait to become rich resort to the shortest distance between rags-to-riches: crime. I am not xenophobic, but if one were to conduct an in-depth survey of depressed and squatter areas, statistics will show that the majority of them have Visayan or Mindanao roots.
Most of us used to be “promdis” (from the province) ourselves, but we came to Manila to study and earn a degree to give us a fair chance to survive a formidable future. That’s why we didn’t end up homeless or languishing in depressed areas.
Today with the sprouting of more state universities in provincial Luzon, more probinsyanos choose to study in their respective towns and cities and skip the University Belt. On the same breath, government should simultaneously develop the Visayas and Mindanao to encourage their residents to live and study in their own birthplace and skip Luzon.
Unless the government does something to control if not stop this influx of social liabilities into Metro Manila, news of shanties being demolished and of squatters going berserk with residents and policemen dying will continue to haunt our society.
—POMPEYO S. PEDROCHE,
pspedroche@msn.com
Interisland RP visa
This could even do more harm than good for RP's domestic economy.
Originally Posted by Motownkid
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