Filipino tnt

From the beginning every Filipino came to America with legal papers. Even those who jump ship.
However, visa has expiration date.
When date come due and there's not enough funds to go back to the Philippines, Filipinos go tnt - tago nang tago - hide and hide.
When date come due and there's not enough funds to go back to the Philippines in style, Filipinos go tnt.
When date come due and there's more prospect of a job as tnt in America than in the Philippines, Filipinos go tnt.
When date come due and realization set in that there's more freedom in body and spirit in America as tnt, Filipinos go tnt.
When date come due and realization set in that there's more choices for the body and spirit in America as tnt, Filipinos go tnt.
When date come due and realization set in that there's more economic freedom in America as tnt, Filipinos go tnt.
When date come due and realization set in that there's more freedom of choice in America as tnt, Filipinos go tnt.

1965 Medicare amendment

For Filipino nurses, 1965 Medicare amendment to the Social Security Act is the invisible hand of providence. America need nurses and doctors to care for the sick and elderly. Philippines graduated more nurses and doctors than the economy can absorb. Classic free market at work globally. Benign assimilation of America began.

The elderly population was continuing to increase at a rapid rate. Between 1950 and 1963, their number grew from about 12 m to 17.5 m, or from 8.1 to 9.4 % of the total population. Meanwhile, the cost of hospital care continued to rise at about 6.7 % a year, several times the annual increase in the cost of living. From 1960 to 1964, average hospital costs increased from about $29 to $40 a day, with no sign of any letup in the rate of increase. As a result, private health insurance carriers were repeatedly forced to increase premium rates (or else "bleed" the coverage of their policies), making private insurance ever more prohibitive (or less adequate) for the many old people who were living on fixed incomes. By 1964 the proportion of the aged who were privately insured for hospital care seemed to be leveling off at about 50%. A Senate study that year estimated that only one-half of the policies issued to
retirees provided comprehensive coverage (75% or more of average hospital bill). In other words, only about 1 in 4 of the aged had adequate hospital insurance protection.
When the King-Anderson bill was submitted anew to the 89th Congress, in January 1965, it was accorded the honor of being the first bill introduced in each chamber (H.R. 1 and S. 1). Immediately afterward, Chairman Mills took charge of re-drafting the bill into its final form. During the next 2 months, the chairman was the focus of a many-sided negotiation process between the various interests that would be responsible for administering the Medicare program, or who had some stake in its operation--physicians, nurses, hospital administrators, nursing home representatives, State health and welfare officials, labor leaders, insurance industry representatives, Federal officials, and many others. Inevitably, there were conflicts over technical matters, some of which had important economic, social, and political implications ; but never during these months was the basic policy decision in doubt, despite last-ditch resistance by organized medicine and some of its allies.

Philippines, Vietnam war, 1972

1972, Marcos declared Martial Law, major step toward authoritarian, dictatorial rule with Philippine constitution nod!
Unofficial State Dept summary of Southeast Asia foreign relations, 1969 - 1976 at this site. This unofficial State Dept summary is anti-Nixon in my view. Nothing change at the State Dept since then.

Fissures in the normally solid relationship, however, emerged during the
first Nixon administration and were centered around the military base renegotiation process. In the initial discussions, President Nixon’s insistence that the United States drastically cut its military personnel in the Philippines as a means of improving the U.S. balance of payments frustrated Philippine officials. Crimes committed against Filipinos by U.S. servicemen were a particularly problematic issue and added further complications to the base negotiations. Tensions also emerged over the new Philippine constitutional prohibition that prevented non-Filipinos from owning land, which created considerable problems for land-holding U.S. citizens and companies in the Philippines. Finally, Marcos’s support of the extension of the Laurel-Langley
agreements, giving preferential treatment to Philippine products in the United States, did little to smooth the growing discord as the agreements ran against
the general U.S. move towards free trade. The Nixon administration recognized the Philippines as a special friend, but the culture of corruption, the imposition of martial law in 1972, and the dictatorial tendencies of the Marcos government worried some U.S. officials. The Embassy highlighted these problems and U.S. officials tried to encourage Marcos to reform his government’s practices and move back toward democracy. As U.S. critics vocalized their concerns about the Marcos government, particularly in the Senate’s Symington subcommittee, the Nixon administration rallied behind Marcos and worked hard to blunt criticism of the Philippines in Congress. Instead of dealing directly with reports from U.S. Government experts that there were real problems in the Philippines, administration officials tended to ignore or downplay the significance of those statements. Although the Nixon administration neither encouraged nor approved of the imposition of martial law, it choose to continue working with Marcos as his support for the Vietnam war and the Philippine role in the Pacific overshadowed doubts about the country’s internal policies. Yet, while the Nixon administration appeared to support Marcos, the U.S. Embassy in Manila maintained a low-level dialogue with Senators Benigno Aquino and Sergio Osmena and other prominent Marcos opponents. It was this failure to fully embrace the Marcos government that, on occasion, inspired concern in the Marcos family that the United States was secretly working with Marcos opponents.
Although U.S. officials assured Marcos that they were not actively supporting
other candidates, or Marcos’s opponents, a lingering doubt remained within the
Marcos family.

Fall of Vietnam & Watergate

The final outcome of the war was primarily the result of historical events outside the realm of strategic thinking. In the United States the antiwar movement created sufficient turmoil that the functioning of government was altered if not impaired, and the Watergate scandal, which must be seen as a war-related event to be understood fully, created an environment that doomed the President's Vietnam policy to failure. Political weakness in the face of an assertive Congress and a population grown tired of the war prevented Richard Nixon from implementing a program for the protection of Vietnam based on the use of American firepower instead of manpower. The impact of Watergate could not be calculated in advance, but in the end it was decisive. Although clearly in the realm of speculation, the argument that, without Watergate, President Nixon might have successfully defended the RVN through the continued use of American air power and aid cannot be easily dismissed.

Read chapter 7 of John M. Gates, The US Army and Irregular Warfare

US Army influence of 19th century Philippines

John M. Gates historical narrative of the pacification of the Philippines.

Many American commanders in the Philippines never lost sight of two things. First, their goal was to obtain Filipino acceptance of American rule in a way that would gain the cooperation of the Filipino people and prevent the need to hold the Philippines through the continued use of military force. Second, to accomplish that goal the army and the colonial government had to provide acceptable political, economic, and social alternatives to those put forth by the revolutionaries. Both the compatibility of American and Filipino liberalism and the progressive orientation of the army's officers helped the Americans accomplish their goal of gaining Filipino acceptance of American sovereignty.

Analogy on Philippines being Iraq of the 19th century is showing, not Vietnam. Then as now, the US Army played an important role to the masses.

Vietnam & Philippines in the 60's

Pres. Bush VFW speech this week brought to mind the consequence of the fall of Vietnam in 1975 to Ferdinand & Imelda. Marcos had declared martial law in 1973.

The world would learn just how costly these misimpressions would be. In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge began a murderous rule in which hundreds of thousands of Cambodians died by starvation and torture and execution. In Vietnam, former allies of the United States and government workers and intellectuals and businessmen were sent off to prison camps, where tens of thousands perished. Hundreds of thousands more fled the country on rickety boats, many of them going to their graves in the South China Sea.
Whatever your position is on that debate, one unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like "boat people," "re-education camps," and "killing fields."
There was another price to our withdrawal from Vietnam, and we can hear it in the words of the enemy we face in today's struggle -- those who came to our soil and killed thousands of citizens on September the 11th, 2001.

What did the withdrawal of financial support by US Democratic majority congress to South Vietnam in 1975 mean to Ferdinand & Imelda? At what cost to the Philippine freedom was this non support for South Vietnam by US congress?
Text of speech at Whitehouse website here.

Recently, two men who were on the opposite sides of the debate over the Vietnam War came together to write an article. One was a member of President Nixon's
foreign policy team, and the other was a fierce critic of the Nixon administration's policies. Together they wrote that the consequences of an American defeat in Iraq would be disastrous. Here's what they said: "Defeat would produce an explosion of euphoria among all the forces of Islamist extremism, throwing the entire Middle East into even greater upheaval. The likely human and strategic costs are appalling to contemplate. Perhaps that is why so much of the current debate seeks to ignore these consequences." I believe these men are right.

1969

In my memory bank, 1969 stands out - married, immigrant and pregnant.
1969 was presidential election between a new rich incumbent Ilocano and an old rich Cebuano, a Filipina won Miss Universe, United States of America inaugurated a Republican Party president, Jim Henson's Sesame Street debut on PBS tv, American contemporaries protested, hippie, bra-less, TWA was global airline, Newark woke up after '67 riot,

07/28/07

Today, I still have an active NJ RN license, have not renewed PI license since '69 and am not an employee of any health institution anywhere in USA. Am gainfully employed taking care of this one, Tuesday to Thursday, run my own business and love both jobs tremendously. Benign assimilation, Filipino style!

Introduction

What was the political atmosphere in Washington DC in 1965?
Lyndon Johnson was president, Vietnam was escalating, Democratic party ruled Congress, Elvis still king but losing his throne, my great grand Uncle Nash on Papa's side was a security guard at Smithsonian, Paul Vl was pope, almost 180 million Americans populate the United States of America of which 0.5% were Asian and Medicare added to Social Security safety net.
By third preference I came legally four years after Hart-Celler Act of 1965. Reducing the 20,000 quota that year for an eastern hemisphere country as a 'member of professions, ...' a generous act of congress to all the inhabitants of the Eastern and Western Hemisphere.
Hart was a senator from Michigan and Celler was a congressman from NY.
I was a registered member of the nursing profession in 1967 after graduating in a government subsidized school of nursing in Tagbilaran, Bohol same year. My friend, Che talked me into applying with her for third preference instead of exchange student visa. She said, 'our pay will be more than exchange student stipend and comparable to US graduate nurses'. Most of our Tagalog co-nurses, graduates from UP, Santo Tomas, UE applied for immigrant visa. Most pioneering graduates (first three year alumni) from Bohol Provincial Hospital School of Nursing went as exchange students. They left for America a month after application for exchange student visa. Most worked in small hospitals, provincial hospitals or clinic with meager pay in the Philippines before they left. Most are in a hurry for better pay to subsidize the next in line sibling in school, pay back parents expenses for nursing school or just be abroad. There was societal expectation after nursing graduation to go abroad. 'Lilia left for Chicago, Willie to Charlottesville, Remy to Minnesota, Adie to Newark, Gloria to Cherryhill,' were weekly update of our small, twenty one member class '67.
When Che & I got our third preference biodata in January '69, all but two of our classmates left for different cities in United States. Nisa married her high school boyfriend and has no desire to go abroad. Naty's successful entrepreneur parents did not let her to leave the physical security of their home. Anyone over 30 something thinks going abroad are just for nurses and doctors who can't find a job in the Philippines.
Married nursing faculty and staff of the hospital went as immigrants.
Che and I were second year graduates of BPHSN. We were classmates in first and second year at Bohol High School. We both were not part of the popular girl group who live in spacious homes in Tagbilaran. We were boarders from distant town of Sierra Bullones and Calape but we were good looking and good academically. Both our fathers went to Bohol High School and became teachers in our respective towns. Her father still taught, mine quit and became fisherman/farmer by the time we were in high school.
Junior year, Tiya Francing (previously Papa Mayolo's estranged sister)and Tiyo Loloy were hired as teachers at a Carmelite run high school that year. I finished high school at Sacred Heart Academy in Loon, an adjoining town of my hometown of Calape.
Che has her economic reasons, affairs of the heart ruled mine.

Immigration, my story

Immigration history in United States of America at this site.

Hart-Celler Act of 1965:
Abolished the national origins quota. Allocated 170,000 visas to Eastern Hemisphere countries and 120,000 Western Hemisphere. Each Eastern-Hemisphere country allotted 20,000 visas, Western Hemisphere no per-country limit. Non-quota immigrants and immediate relatives (i.e., spouses, minor children, and parents of U.S. citizens over age 21) not counted as part of either hemispheric or country ceiling. Higher preference to relatives of American citizens and permanent resident aliens than applicants with special job skills. Preference system for visa admissions (modified in 1990): 1.Unmarried adult sons and daughters of U.S. citizens. 2.Spouses and children and unmarried sons and daughters of permanent resident aliens. 3.Members of the professions and scientists and artists of exceptional ability. 4.Married children of U.S. citizens. 5.Brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens over age 21. 6.Skilled and unskilled workers in occupations for which there is insufficient labor supply. 7.Refugees given conditional entry or adjustment — chiefly people from Communist countries and the Middle East.

Philippine educated Filipino professionals stampede to USA after Hart-Celler Act of 1965. Most use third preference. At the beginning of each year since, 20,000 quota are filled and more. Nurses, doctors, accountants, engineers, chemists of unknown 'exceptional ability'. Many Filipino nurses were or have been to America as student exchange visitor as far back as I can remember. Word of mouth about American life, culture and opportunities was not enough to cause a stampede but capitalism did. Filipino entrepreneurs and capitalist at heart work the grapevine at excess professional graduates. Every year, new professionals were not absorb by an economy run by FDR inspired socialism, social security et all. The imaginative, adventurous, risk takers and the needy patiently wait in line at US embassy gate, an unusual sight in chaotic waiting line of any Filipino establishment, government or private.
United States of America's freedom to pursue economic opportunities by yourself with dynamic rules and regulations, lure many to jump ship, overstay tourist and student visa.