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Thursday, November 11, 2004
Maxey: The blaming game
By Ram Maxey
Bar None
'If OFWs in Iraq think the money is worth risking their lives for, that's their call. To each his own poison, I say.'
CITY Councilor Angela "Angging" Librado-Trinidad blames US President George W. Bush and President Arroyo for the predicament that has befallen Davao City accountant Robert Teodore Tarongoy in Iraq where he is being held hostage by militants.
If there is any one person to blame, it is Bobby Tarongoy himself. He knew that his countryman Angelo dela Cruz almost lost his head literally while in the hands of his Iraqi captors, and that therefore foreigners working in Iraq these days are putting their lives on the line. Bobby was aware that his government has banned Filipinos from going to Iraq so they would not fall prey to militants who do not value their own lives, much less the lives of total strangers.
By ignoring the ban means that Bobby must have accepted the odds against his being abducted. He gambled and lost, now 82 million of his countrymen, along with his family, relatives and friends are in a state of suspense, agitation and fear that he may not be as lucky as Angelo dela Cruz.
Angging also blames the local Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) for "harping" on Tarongoy's undocumented status to make him "less of a human being". The POEA was simply stating the truth without trying to make Tarongoy less of a human being. Do you know who are less than human beings? Those cutthroat Iraqi militants who delight in slitting their victims' throats and after severing the head from the body, lift it by the hair for the benefit of the video camera, blood still dripping from it. Ugh!
And what if Filipinos are earning ONLY $12,000 a year in US military camps in Iraq while their American counterparts are paid $80,000? The transitory provisions of our 1987 Constitution mandates that the President of the Philippines shall receive an annual salary of P300,000 (P25,000 a month); the Vice President, Senate President, Speaker of the House and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court P240,000 (P20,000 each), and the Senators, Representatives and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court P204,000 (P17,000 each). Their pay pales in comparison with the earnings of our OFWs.
Is $12,000 peanuts? That's roughly P55,000 a month--more money than the president of this country gets as monthly salary. What's wrong with that? If OFWs in Iraq think the money is worth risking their lives for, that's their call. To each his own poison, I say.
And what's wrong with 8,000 Pinoys working abroad remitting $7 billion (P350 billion) to the country every year, but are discriminated against and treated as second or third class "citizens" of the country they are working in? Our OFWs are the new heroes and heroines of the country. Would Angging rather have them come home where they will be treated as first class citizens sans discrimination, but earn the minimum wage? Bobby Tarongoy probably would rather work for $1,000 (P55,000) a month in Iraq than be a member of the Davao City Council who earns P25,000 monthly plus COLA.
The new president of the United States Nurses Association (USNA) is a Filipina. Far from being an example of discrimination, that is a badge of honor and respect. And the 6,000 Filipino nurses in New York City alone are not crying discrimination either. They never had it so good.
(November 11, 2004 issue)
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