And Ludlum Sayeth Naught

By Rolo B. Cena

Hushed Poppies

Dumaguete Star Informer

14 October 2012

Cebu City, Philippines – Recently, a 52-year old Filipina was sentenced to a 21-year imprisonment for bringing a sealed package containing one kilo-heroin to Hong Kong.  Lately, another Filipino businessman who came from Saudi Arabia was sentenced for life imprisonment for carrying cocaine to China en route from another major Asian City.

Circumstances vary:  The Filipina alleged that he met a man in a convenience store in Kuala Lumpur who gave her a luggage for her to use as a shopping bag.  It contained a sealed compartment with the contra-band.  On the other hand, the Filipino businessman alleged that he met a friend in Vietnam who requested him to bring the luggage to a friend in China.  The former traveled with his son and wife to China.  Both the Filipinos declared that they neither know their accomplices nor verifiable identities nor contact details of them

What a mess!  Is this sheer naiveté or a scripted text only literature masters can profess in their espionage novels?  Not even Grisham can convince me if he would put this chapter in his latest take!

Travelling on a business-class seat from Riyadh to Manila via Hong Kong in August 26, 2011, I met a middle-aged Filipino couple in the airport of the former British Colony who approached and requested if I can bring their extra suitcase to Manila for the reason that they already exceeded the limit.  Without any doubt or hesitation, I declined.

In one of my trips from London to Manila, a friend asked me to carry his two suitcases and laptop bag all the way to Manila as he was dropping by Hong Kong to meet a friend.  When I reached our Customs arrival counters, I had a hard time explaining what were the circumstances kept inside those extra suitcases as it did not proportionately reflect the rationale of my trip vis-à-vis quantity.  I had to name-drop a friend’s who was then a custom officer that time.

In life, I only have two reasons for not accepting or giving in:  One, I don’t know the person; two, I don’t know the object.  And in this life, there can only be two players:  One, the predator who hunts people and haunts circumstance; and two, the prey who may be naïve or absurd. 

When you completely don’t know the person and the object and never allow yourself to fall into prey, then no predator could ever ruin your integrity and your life.  But when you don’t know these circumstances yet allow yourself to be a prey, then that’s more than just naiveté.  Such was the case of these two Filipinos, assuming that they truly don’t know the circumstances behind those suitcases.

Flipping the other side of the coin, their knowledge of the circumstances behind those suitcases vis-à-vis the personalities involved and their hushed statements on their identities inside foreign courts of law is their own and singular choice that unfortunately brought them to conviction.

Common sense will tell, no one in his sound mind will boldly dare not to inquire about the content of the suitcase or intelligently question the details of the personalities involved, assuming the alleged “predator and the prey” know each other.  More than this, an intelligent decision would always be:  “I don’t know you, why would I?”  

I may have my own biases but their allegations declared under oath sounded too lame as a defense or too horrible as a plea.  Definitely, I will not allow incidents like this to happen, not in my conscious state.

Not even Robert Ludlum would include this scenario or chapter in his masterpiece assuming he still could write one!

Ditchwater

By Rolo B. Cena

Hushed Poppies

Dumaguete Star Informer

7 October 2012

Cebu City, Philippines – Early this week, political aspirants flooded the offices of the Commission on Election nationwide to file their Certificate of Candidacies (COCs).  Adding color to this event was the presence of their fans and supporters who came in throngs to express their genuine and otherwise financially-capped fanatical support.

New faces, whose political affiliation springs from family ties, friendship, or spot choice, stumbled upon traditional ones whose political affiliation stems from hand-me-down formula that dates back to as old as the heydays of the Martial Law.  New faces choreographically create political ripples for a thirty-second spotlight; traditional ones sing the old song sans consideration of the emerging musical genre the new breed of change-hungry Filipinos chant.      

Juxtaposed with all other aspirants, new and old have one thing in common:  They love to kiss the rose nestling atop that thorny stalk.  Paradoxically, in presenting themselves to the populace, politicians always love to march the jeweled isle.    

Strangely enough, after all these years – after EDSA, the electorate has not completely changed:  traditional politicians are still lurking in the dark, bipolar world of politics because people make them believe and behave the way they now do.  They still exist because we manage them the way they wanted, otherwise, they could have fallen out one after the other.

The approach to changing the political dynamics of the country, which is the thrust of P-Noy, is taking too sluggish.  More than that, the supposed-to-be interventions are too dyslexic in character and form:  CJ Corona’s conviction would have been a good game-changer but the manner it was seconded seems to create a tailback somewhere; former Sec. Puno would have been seriously deeply investigated and Sen. Santiago could have been right.  The truth could have come out of the exquisite political red roses mushrooming in the grounds of the Palace.

And these dramatis personae are supposed to help P-Noy completely change the arena; these political actors are expected to perform at their superlative degree for the good of the country.  But where are we on this?  Arguably though, this is schizophrenically true since day one politics was born of the people; so frantically true to its form and substance in the Philippines.   

The game of the moment is to erect their own edifice in the guise of classrooms and barangay halls, save the lives of millions in the pretext of medical missions, and construct agricultural ditches masqueraded as channels towards improving rural economies.  But these structures, missions and ditches have one but only one glitch:  These programs are geared towards serving the political ends these people wanted, not towards responding to the needs of the majority poor. 

Is fielding young and innovative political leaders who could truly bring real change difficult to do?  The electorate is only given with traditionally popular names, mentally dehydrated actors and actresses, and inch-higher aspirants and nothing more.  To date, there are names worthy to run for public office; aspirants who can unquestionably introduce and carry out change.  But they are only a fraction of the big pie.  They cannot speak for and in behalf of the hundred-million Filipinos. 

Liken these ambiguities to the following scenarios:  K+12 teachers giving instructions to their pupils to cut pictures of their parents and siblings, collate into one form to create a family picture; the message of the President that our economy improves over the increasing numbers of starving Filipinos.  Click the drop down in your political system and you will see more of these grayer-than-gray behind-the-scenes phenomena.         

Sadly, these are all as inchoate as the ditchwater.  Truly, not arguably, this is the reason why we are missing the whole point.