JEDDAH, 28 June — The spectacular naval attack by Philippine Navy commandos on Abu Sayyaf members in Sibuco, Zamboanga del Norte, last Friday (June 21) left three of them dead and four captured. The problem is that the body of one of its leaders, Abu Sabaya, is still missing. The military proudly presented his recovered belongings the next day to the press: His trademark wraparound sunglasses, his satellite phone, skin whitening lotion, deodorant, three tubes of Close Up toothpaste, a mango, flashlight, pistol, and driver's license.
That revelation left everyone chuckling at what 'Eskinol boys' the Abu Sayyaf men were. According to a military source, the Abu Sayyaf fighters could live without food for several days, but couldn't pass up on their daily beauty regimen of Eskinol, Ponds cream and cotton puffs. Although extremely vain and concerned about their looks, these bandits obviously lacked any compassion for their kidnap victims, chopping their heads off and executing them by shooting them in the back. These were conceited and well-groomed monsters.
Abu Sabaya had reportedly been hit several times by the gunfire during the surprise encounter, and had fallen into waters that are 38 meters deep and shark infested. Whether his body will ever surface remains to be seen, but conspiracy theorists were already saying how this had been a faked encounter to allow Abu Sabaya to simply disappear and remain alive and well, living off the millions in ransom he had collected over the years.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was quick to squash such rumors, insisting that the Philippine public should have faith in the military's capability to capture or eliminate criminals such as Abu Sabaya. The speculation on Abu Sabaya's fate became so intense this past week, that Arroyo was on Wednesday forced to reveal some classified US intelligence that she had seen to quell the wagging tongues.
The president revealed that she had seen film taken by US spy planes of the whole encounter using infrared and thermal cameras, which allegedly showed Abu Sabaya clearly falling in the water. She also revealed how two military informers who had infiltrated the group, and were with Abu Sabaya that night, were wearing special reflective necklaces which would distinguish them from the real Abu Sayyaf members when the gunbattle began. They were instructed to jump into the water once the attack began, and according to the president followed their instructions. One of them even collected the 5 million-peso award for giving the military information on Abu Sabaya's location.
Despite the fact that the Philippine government cannot account for Abu Sabaya's body, the war against the Abu Sayyaf and other rebels in Mindanao seems to be finally paying off with the use of US intelligence, US troops training Philippine forces, the donation of US military equipment and the possible participation of US Special Forces in both sea and land operations. Of course the bulk of the planning, intelligence and execution is still being done by Filipinos, but access to US technology and methods is clearly paying off and giving the Philippine military that extra edge they needed.
THE PULSE ASIA survey results released this week, that showed one in five Filipinos feels hopeless and wants to live abroad, should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the Philippines' bleak economic situation.
President Arroyo was furious with the survey and the way the press presented its results, emphasizing the negative aspects of it, while ignoring the fact that 60 percent of Filipinos want to remain at home. Maybe so, but the president should have been honest enough to admit that the Philippine economy is not doing well, with expected growth this year of only 3 percent. While that is preferable to no growth or negative growth, the fact remains that the country needs a much higher growth rate to absorb the growing number of unemployed and those underemployed.
As Sen. Ralph Recto said on Wednesday, emigration is the only exit from poverty for many Filipinos. Witness the 700,000 Filipinos who leave the country every year to work abroad. Do you think they don't leave their country with a heavy heart and with many doubts? Of course they do, but they also realize that earning those dollars and riyals abroad will help pull them out of the depths of despair, and open up possibilities that are not available to the poor and always struggling.
If only politicians would spend less time politicking and instead focused on alleviating poverty by producing more jobs for the jobless, building homes for the homeless, and providing a decent education to students, the Philippines would be a better place.
The flip side of this line of reasoning is that Filipinos should also be ready to help themselves instead of always whinging that it's the fault of government. Finance Secretary Jose Camacho on Wednesday criticized what he called "the loser's mentality" of Filipinos, and said that Filipinos lacked a sense of nation building. According to him, Filipinos find ways to avoid paying taxes but are always ready to blame the government if something goes wrong.
I think he has a point there!
OVERSEAS Workers' Welfare Administration head Wilhelm D. Soriano reacted to my May 17th column ("Squeezing Blood out of OFWs") by sending me a letter in which he says there was nothing sneaky in the implementation of the $25 OWWA membership fee that all OFWs are required to pay before being deployed abroad.
"In fact, the said membership contribution has been the prevailing rate since 1982, when the OWWA was still known as the Welfare Fund for Overseas Workers (Welfarefund)," writes Soriano. "The payment of contribution is made each time a contract is submitted to POEA for processing, including documentary processing or returning/vacationing workers."
Soriano then continues to elaborate on how OWWA helps OFWs in distress and supposedly helps develop their skills. Nothing new there, we already know these facts. What the administrator fails to answer is what has happened to the millions in OWWA funds that have been badly invested in a housing scheme (P664 million for the Smokey Mountain housing project), and the estimated $473 million in annual revenue that OWWA is making from the $25 charged each OFW who leaves the country.
He also fails to address the squabble he has been having with Labor Secretary Patricia Santo Tomas over how OWWA funds are spent. Sto. Tomas has been trying to put brakes on how OWWA lavishly spends its money, something that has irked Soriano no end, even provoking him to announce that he wanted OWWA moved from under the Department of Labor's umbrella to the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Instead of repeating OWWA's stated mission statement over and over again ad nauseum, Soriano would do well to provide some real answers to the real concerns raised by concerned OFWs. Filipinos abroad are not idiots, and Soriano will not placate them by repeating the useless mantra that he has been repeating. Try again, Mr. Soriano!
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