Sangil: Are the Koreans now safe?

THE two big stories that were in the front pages of most national newspapers for the past months and were subject of commentaries on radio and television happened in Angeles City and Clark Freeport. These were the kidnapping and murder of Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo in his residence at Friendship Plaza subdivision in Barangay Anunas in Angeles City and the arrest of more than one thousand Chinese workers at Fontana Leisure Estate at Clark Freeport.

The two incidents jerked the Philippine Senate into full throttle investigations. And the result was the revelation that the Korean businessman was killed inside Camp Crame, the headquarter of the Philippine National Police ( PNP). The Fontana incident resulted in the expose of two Bureau of Immigration (BI) commissioners reportedly extorting P100 million in exchange for the release of the arrested 1,316 workers on the on-line enterprise. Wow! P100 is no small amount to sneeze at.

In the Jee Ick Joo case, PNP Chief Ronald 'Bato' De La Rosa motored Wednesday last week to Pampanga and met in the convention hall of Royce Hotel inside Clark Freeport thousands of Koreans who are residing and doing business in the province and assured them of their safety.

I hope the Koreans will feel safe now when they see posted policemen in uniform instead of shaking in fear once they are in view. But they should not let their guards down.

Meanwhile in the Fontana case, it is the senators conducting the hearing that are benefitting most as they get media mileages. Pogi points, they call it. With the beamed cameras of several television channels and carried live by most popular radio stations, they never had it so good. But there are good revelations though. That corruption in BI was exposed. That on-line gambling operation in Makati and other big cities exist and not only in Fontana. The senators should ask BI and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) and the other agencies why the raid was only on Fontana and stopped there. What about the others?

And also, in the succeeding Senate hearings, it was learned for the first time that on-line gambling is not illegal after all. Yet, Department of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre insist it is. The basis of the Chinese workers arrest was due to lack of visas and working permits. There is yet a law to be passed governing such business activity. Congress should pass one now.