OFW and Mail Order Brides

Before I left Cebu, I read of Ramon Revilla's reaction to Alec Baldwin's comment : "I am thinking about getting a filipino mail-order bride at this point." Revilla reacted by saying that Baldwin's comment is an insult to the Filipinos, that there would be "mayhem" if Baldwin tries to come to the Philippines. I don't care for Alec Baldwin but is Ramon Revilla insane? hallucinating? deceived? Whatever he's smoking I don't want it.


Very few things make my blood boil but hypocrisy tops the list. Ramon Revilla quoted Republic act 6955 the Anti Mail-Order Bride Law. "Apparently he (Alec Baldwin) is not aware that here in the Philippines, we don't tolerate mail-order bride schemes." Are you kidding me?

Everytime I am in the Philippines, wherever I go I notice white men and Japanese men holding hands with very young women. How do you think this women got this men? Why do you think, the internet cafe business is thriving? That's right, college kids researching for school work, and the out of college girls researching for men. And when I say very young, I mean 18 year olds with 70 year olds.

So what is a mail-order bride? When a relationship between man and woman was not initiated through the casual face to face meeting, the only other means would have been through the phone or through the mail, right? Before the internet, dating service like Cherry Blossoms used picture catalogues to mail out to men who would pay to shop for women who would eventually become their wife, so I dare anyone to defy me to my face and tell me these are not mail-order brides. It's just a play on words, the reality is that 75% of Filipina marriages to foreign men was initiated through personal introduction or through searching the dating sites on the internet. If mail-order brides are illegal in the Philippines then Filipinos having to get out of the country to find better paying jobs (OFW) should be illegal too.

Why do young Filipino women resort to marrying old foreign men? Because in the Philippines it is common for rich old married men to have mistresses the same age as his youngest daughter. So when a 70 year old American comes to the Philippines to claim and marry his 18 year old, it's a gift Mr. Revilla. At least in America, she has the comfort of knowing that she will be able to work even after she turns 29 and send money back home.

Read the Philippines classified ads; must be college graduate, at least 5'3" between 23 to 29 years old. So Mr. Revilla, until you can honestly look at a young filipino woman holding hands with a white man old enough to be his grandfather and answer the question why, then you can honestly say that we don't tolerate mail-order brides schemes in the Philippines.