A blog entry from one of the hundreds of Filipinos who were denied visas by the German government

May it also serve as a way to remember the irony that many young Filipinos–a people close to the heart of the founder of World Youth Day, and people of the country that hosted the “biggest gathering of people of all times” with Pope John Paul II in 1995–were banned from experiencing the pilgrimage in Germany.

I am looking forward to the time when people of other countries will stop looking at the Philippines as a country of people who would grab every opportunity to be illegal immigrants (TNT) in the United States or in Europe. When that happens, there will probably be no more discriminations of against us, Filipinos, and we will probably be allowed to join in as many international gatherings as we wish, whether we are in a big group of 600 or not.