Frank Chavez is at it again

It's out. Fidel Castro, Cuba's strongman who had been regarded as virtually indestructible during his almost 40-year hold of his country, has been found to be suffering from cancer of the intestines. A surgery performed on him after symptoms of bleeding has confirmed it. I guess Castro, who is turning 80 a week from now, realizes that he is only human, and has decided to be transparent about it all.

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What about his brother Raul, now also a septuagenarian, at 75? It is said he is an even more rabid communist than Fidel. Does he have a spare tire, too? So far, nothing has been heard from him, he hasn't given any statement, nor has he spoken about the health condition of his elder brother. In the meantime, Cubans are divided, into those hoping that Fidel will survive, and those wishing that he bows out at the earliest possible time.

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Meanwhile, in the Philippines, the hottest topic is still the plight of Filipino overseas workers in Lebanon who have been coming home in trickles amid controversies over the accounting of the funds supposed to be in store for them at the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration. They say we have about 30,000 Pinoys in that bombed-out country, but only about 2,000 have, so far, been repatriated. This, despite reports that a supplemental budget of some P500 million has been dug out for their transport home. The big question of the day is "What happened to the OWWA money?"

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Apparently not convinced by the explanations of the concerned government officials, former Solicitor General Frank Chavez, our kababayan, has come out and filed plunder raps against President Arroyo, former OWWA chief Virgilio Angeles, former PhilHealth chief and now Health Secretary Francisco Duque, and then executive secretary (now Foreign Affairs secretary) Alberto Romulo for the alleged "raid of OWWA funds for unrelated expenses". He reportedly filed the case with the Ombudsman on July 20.

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In his complaint, Chavez claims that he has documents showing that, for one, $293,500 was taken out of the OWWA funds to be used for our country's assistance to the coalition in the war against Iraq. He also claimed that the money had been converted to something like a discretionary fund of the president. Well, Chavez is a lawyer, once the country's top lawyer at that, so he must know what he is doing. As far as I know however, the president is supposed to be immune from suit - expect impeachment, of course - while still in office. So Chavez's charges may be just "written on the wind". For now, at least.

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As for the OFWs in Lebanon, their route home has been made more difficult and hazardous with the recent destruction of the bridges leading out of Beirut by Israeli bombs. So now they have to be bused out, then boarded on ships out of the country. I hear our government is sending two navy vessels each of which can carry 300 passengers. Can we not do better than that? On TV last night, Senator Nene Pimentel was shown suggesting that boats from our commercial shipping companies that can carry thousands, be sent instead. Why not, indeed, unless we are taking our terrified workers out as "tingi-tingi" in Tagalog, or "utay-utay" in Ilonggo, which both mean in tiny amounts or in small numbers.

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The police has announced that it already has 35 suspects in the killings of journalists and activists. See? It's easy, once you are given a number and a deadline. The president only wanted ten in ten weeks, and not even a week has passed, they have 35 already. Don't be astonished if they turn up 35 more in the next few days, after all these are suspects only. Unless they already understand that they should confess to the crimes. Meanwhile, leave the burden of proof to the courts, and give the suspects several months, even years to prove they have nothing to do with the crimes. Or to hang themselves in their detention quarters.

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Manila made a big fuss over martial arts legend and movie actor Jackie Chan on his flying visit to that city recently. From his statement to the media during his press conference, Chan, who is also an astute businessman as well as a popular actor, revealed some things about his beginnings that made some media people compare him to our champion from General Santos City, who also had a very poor and deprived childhood Chan said he grew up in an orphanage, but look at him now. A multi-millionaire, he also shows a big heart for the poor, especially children. Let us hope Manny Pacquiao hones his philantropic qualities, too.*

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