A Tale of Two

By Rolo B. Cena

Hushed Poppies

Dumaguete Star Informer

22 September 2013

Finally, he freely flies back home – home where his heart belongs; home where truth and freedom indisputably live.  This time, it is happening without argument on neither expatriation nor repatriation. 

Beaming with stars-studded dreams, his hazel-nut eyes projected a glimpse of vivid horizon back in 1996.  Four years later, his young and vibrant life turned bizarre and his story exceptionally disheartening.   

Without him knowing it, Rodelio Lanuza or Dondon, as he is fondly called, became a fancy in the eyes of his married male boss, a Saudi National.  Surely, he hadn’t dreamed of experiencing this morbid happenstance, which later derailed the insular panorama of his entire life back home while working as a draftsman in Damman, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.      

In the year 2000, while attending a small party, his boss endeavored to rape him.  In defense of himself and other co-workers, he stabbed the Saudi national to death.  It would have been a self-preservation but the back stabs essayed a different angle:  that the crime was a planned, deliberate act. 

In Saudi Arabia, a drip of blood caused by another is punishable by death; much more, taking lives. 

Dondon was jailed since August 2000. He was sentenced to death in 2001 by “qissas” or beheading for the crime. The Highest Court pardoned him after the victim's family signed a “tanazul” or letter of forgiveness after receiving blood money amounting to SAR 3 million.  A fundraising campaign was initiated by his family, friends and supporters, colleagues back in Saudi Arabia, several OFWs, the Migrante, government officials and other private individuals.

It was so comforting to hear this noble act of people around Dondon to raise the funds.  Truly it showed that in our hearts still live the value to help others, especially those who are in need.  In contrast, for ten years now, only a few enjoyed the benefits of the ten-billion-peso stake of the pork stored in a barrel.  Surprisingly, not even half of the requirement to save Dondon was raised out of the pork.

Crazy!  And indeed, it was the craziest of all greed.

His case, no matter how bizarre one perceives or could perceive it, is one of the many cases all expatriated Filipinos and other nationals heard and learned about in this oil-rich Middle Eastern conservative Arab state; one of the many cases peculiar individual experienced.  Truly, stories like this are not hidden from the hearts and minds of those who are working in these areas, and of their family members, friends and colleagues.  

Not even from the one who holds and scribbles the truth!

The best thing that happened is that Dondon and his family, colleagues and friends did not stop believing that one day he will be freed.  The blood money in the amount of SAR 3 million or about PhP 33 million was raised.  Thanks to the initiation of the Vice President of the Republic.
Indeed, the brotherhood of Filipino men sans the vested interests always prevails.  Truly, when he arrived yesterday, not one mentally-dehydrated politicians contacted a paparazzi for a souvenir.  Thanks to the pork barrel scam, they are too busy for advertisements!  

Finally, Dondon was free and he is home.  However, he may have been freed but the ordeal, the trauma would always linger.  The post partum experience is always heavier and greater – that’s what they said.  Like most victims elsewhere, the damage that certainly brought havoc in their respective lives would always manifest.  Let’s pray that he will soon overcome this.

Working overseas is not a heaven-made-on-earth paper bill.  Working overseas is risk; it is a sacrifice to begin with.  For one, being separated from loved ones is an agony expressed in different, melancholic tone.  Two, stepping on a stranger’s place is as furious as eternal damnation.  Three, it is literally and figuratively an experience of advanced waterloo.     

His story is a tale to ponder upon.  Lo and behold, in here lies the other tale!

Cocktail Mix

By Rolo B. Cena

Hushed Poppies
Dumaguete Star Informer

15 September 2013

Juxtaposed with other priorities this administration has on its plate, the pork barrel scam authored by Janet Lim-Napoles is by far the most disquieting of all.  For one, it has tainted the image of the non-government organization (NGO) community; two, it has painted a bizarre mural of corruption in the high walls of the two chambers of the Congress.

And while the former is somewhat relatively new; the latter is absolutely an old concoction re-engineered to produce the same punch but this time with different zing. 

One thing this country of fun-loving Filipinos doesn’t actually know is that Ms. Lim is a good driver, too.  For one, re-routing the transport of the red meat called “pork in a barrel” is damn harder than re-routing the Erap-Sa-Mahirap jeepney trips within the major thoroughfares of the Imperial Manila Metropolis.  Two, Ms. Napoles was never apprehended by traffic officers even when recklessly driving the transport of this “red meat” from the nautical highways of Ate Glo to the Tuwid-na-Daan road links of P-Noy in the last ten years.  Interestingly, it was an ordinary citizen who grabbed the whistle of the traffic officers and did the first blow.

Thanks to Benhur Luy, her cousin.  After all, he ain’t heavy; he is a brother! 

The calculated driving which resulted to ten-billion-peso damages, notwithstanding the damages Ms. Napoles caused to the one-hundred-million hungry Filipinos, is an act of betrayal.  Betrayal in the sense that these publicly elected congressmen and senators infringed their own oaths and pledges to protect the interest of the state and the government and their constituents.

Dumb if you do; dumb if you don’t.   After all, everyday does it!

What added confusion in the minds of the public is when one national daily published the photo of P-Noy and Janet Napoles taken in November 30, 2012 at the dinner party in Shangri-la Hotel.  What business does P-Noy have with Napoles?  If the allegation of Talent Manager Lolit Solis holds substance, then the Chief Executive is liable to his “boss” - the Filipino people.

Thinking out loud, are P-Noy, Enrile, Estrada, Revilla, Reyes et al in the same boat?  Are they synchronically paddling towards the same coastline, or are they thinking of the same end in mind?

Most recently, the Supreme Court issued an order to temporarily stop releasing and using the pork barrel while they hear petitions to abolish it from different personalities and groups.  There have been attempts before but these petitions had never succeeded.  For one, this is money; it makes the world alive and crazy.  Two, the pork barrel is their lives.  Senators and congressmen would die protecting their interests in the guise of helping the majority poor Filipinos. 

Sadly though, we kept on singing the old song.

The author of the pork barrel during the heydays of Aquino administration must have been inflated with cholesterol, if not filthy rich.  Too much red meat is unhealthy and therefore unsafe and dangerous to health; and so with consuming too much of the pork barrel; it is addictive and paranoiac. 

And addiction paralyzes; it just did to the petite lady who formerly occupies the Palace.  Worse, paranoia kills.  It just did to one defense secretary years ago.

Several personalities have been linked to this newest and hottest primetime sensational drama.  Showcasing a different twist of elements, the episodes dramatically depict a new dimension of greed mixed with power and the abuse of it, incest and betrayal.  It is a powerful fusion of two sets passionately fashioned to produce a glaring inter-connection of several subsets.  This inter-connection becomes the cross pollination process that brings to the fore dramatic political conflicts, which should bring about a grandest action plan of looking deeply into authority and accountability, and the application of these, at the end of the day.  

Truly, what a cocktail mix!   

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.