MANILA, 31 August — The recent allegations that elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Basilan Gov. Wahab Akbar accepted payoffs from the Abu Sayyaf to let them escape with hostages from a military cordon in Lamitan town last June, are not surprising.

The Abu Sayyaf have been all about money from day one of their existence, their modus operandi being to kidnap foreign nationals and Filipinos, chop off a few heads, and collect handsome ransoms for the other hostages that they eventually release after a lengthy cat-and-mouse game with the military. Indeed, many Filipinos believe that the Abu Sayyaf were originally created by the Philippine military itself with the indirect assistance of the American CIA.

All these accusations of connivance with the Abu Sayyaf should be thoroughly investigated by Manila, and no stone should be left unturned. It is a well-known fact that the military is not well-paid, so it is not surprising that some within its ranks would actually be tempted to accept money from these bandits in order to be allowed to slip away in the jungles of Basilan. The troubling point here is that they were allegedly allowed to slip away last June in Lamitan when they had several hostages with them, including the American missionary couple. Several witnesses have come forward to testify that they saw the military actually pull back after having cornered the bandits behind a hospital in Lamitan. Now, Rep. Prospero Pichay, chairman of the House Committee on National Defense, says he has several witnesses linking Gov. Akbar to payoffs from the Abu Sayyaf.

It is to be expected that a governor of Basilan, the Abu Sayyaf’s stronghold, would inevitably have contact with the group and perhaps even have to look the other way on certain non-critical occasions. But to actually accept money from the group, for helping them get away with hostages, is unforgivable.

Congress should fully investigate all these charges of collaboration with the enemy and if enough evidence is there, endorse the cases to the courts. The military heads and Gov. Akbar should have their day in court, but if found guilty they should be fired from their jobs and face possible jail time.

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Wiretapping, anyone?

I REALLY don’t see what the big deal is about Sen. Panfilo Lacson having bought wiretapping devices last year from Germany, when he was chief of the Philippine National Police. Obviously, he had the permission of former President Joseph Estrada, and it is a well-known fact that most national police forces engage in secret surveillance of suspected criminal targets in one form or the other.

Yet I also don’t see why Lacson can’t admit to having bought the equipment, instead of saying that he only went to Germany to “look” at it. The fact is that as long Lacson had the PNP use the wiretapping equipment solely against legitimate targets, then he has nothing to fear. His critics though are claiming that the equipment may have been used against Bubby Dacer, the PR executive who was kidnapped and murdered allegedly by pro-Estrada forces, for the assassination of labor leader Popoy Lagman, against critics in media and political rivals of Estrada.

Going by the tone of some newspaper reporting on this subject, a foreigner reading about this for the first time would feel that the Philippines never had secret wiretapping of individuals by the government either before the Estrada administration or after it. This is obviously absurd and untrue. The point that should be made clear in investigating Lacson’s covert operations is whether unauthorized wiretapping was ever conducted, i.e. surveillance that needed a court’s approval first but was never gotten. That type of surveillance would have been illegal, and should be fully probed.

As most security experts would tell you today, e-mails and phone conversations, be they by landline or mobile, can easily be intercepted by government agencies all around the world. The most worrisome example of this is the super-secret Carnivore program of the US government that monitors all phone and email messages in the world.

My advice to anyone who wants to keep their conversations secret is to not use phones or e-mails. If you do, encrypt your messages, and don’t assume that someone is not trying to listen in to your conversation or intercept your email. There are millions of eyes and ears in the world ready to pounce on what you say!

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Saudis who mistreat their maids

THE RECENT story in Arab News about the Filipina maid who kept running away from her Saudi employer (“Accusations fly in Filipino maid controversy”, Aug. 25, 2001), reminded us all that female domestic helpers remain the most vulnerable and exploited segment of the OFW workforce.

After the sad and celebrated stories of Sarah Balabagan and Mary Jane Ramos, both having stabbed their UAE employers to death after they attempted to rape them, it should come as no surprise that maids are far too often exposed to the lecherous and unwelcome advances of their employers.

Poor, desperate for an income to support their families back home, Filipino maids accept jobs around the world. Unfortunately in this part of the world, maids are not covered by labor laws and are often kept under lock and key, never allowed to have a day off or meet other Filipinos for social support. Forced to work long hours, many maids are not paid for months on end, becoming indentured servants in a form of modern-day slavery.

This latest maid in question, Vanessa Abdullah Ali, claims she hasn’t been paid for seven months by her Saudi employer. He claims that he bought several appliances for the maid, and that in lieu of a salary she received the appliances. Whether this is true or not is beside the point. How many appliances could the maid have asked for that cost the equivalent of seven months salary?

After repeatedly running away from the employer, after he kept making unwanted advances, and being sent back to him by the police, the maid finally made her way to the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh, where she remains until today pending a resolution of her case.

Philippine Ambassador Rafael Seguis, in the meantime, advised the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency in Manila that the Saudi employer be blacklisted and not allowed to either hire more Filipinos or enter the country. When he traveled recently to Manila, he was barred from entering the country at NAIA, and forced to pay $4,000 fine before returning to Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi government should take the lead in trying to alleviate the problems that all foreign maids face in this country. Special social services units should be set up in major cities to deal with runaway maids.

Ideally, they would be staffed by Saudi female welfare workers assisted by women from the various countries that the maids come from.

They could house these maids in special protection centers, provide counseling and decide what should happen to the maids (should they go back to their employers, be sent home or found new employers?) Police stations are not equipped to handle such social cases, and should not be sending maids back to potentially abusive employers.

I also don’t see why Saudi labor laws cannot cover maids. If they were, maids who didn’t have their salaries paid for months on end could file complaint cases before labor courts. As it stands right now, they have little recourse except to run away or in extreme cases to burn their employers’ homes down.