In a state of evacuation

Yesterday the news said that the government is evacuating 50,000 people from the vicinity of Mayon. Earlier, we were also talking about evacuating 30,000 from Lebanon. Sadly, what is going to happen if we succeed in doing all that is we will have 50,000 more homeless and 30,000 more jobless in an instant.

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Anyway, we might not have that many to bring home from Lebanon. As interviews with our workers there have shown, there are a lot of them who are not leaving, or will not allow themselves to be dragged home. That is to say nothing about those who have been spirited away by their employers who do not want to be left without domestics, having become used to them already. Others truly sound as if they are happy there, claiming that their bosses are treating them well and also paying them fairly. They must be the exceptions, since many of the arriving ones have nothing but horror stories to tell.

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A middle-aged woman OFW was very blunt about her reasons for staying, bombs or no bombs. "Here, every end of the month, I have my dollars," she said. "There, every end of the month I have my utangs (debts)." Anyway, she justified, "Wherever you are you can die anytime". On that point, at least, she is still very Pinoy, ever the fatalist. In the meantime, thousands of her compatriots cannot wait to get out of that country and are accepting any mode of transport just to get away.

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Yesterday, most newspapers carried photos of the Coast Guard vessels supposed to sail to Syria, or wherever they can connect with the Filipino evacuees. However, even if they leave today, it will be a long wait for the returning Pinays, since the boats are rather slow (reason why smugglers easily get away) and will take 15 days, at least to get there. If they take the same vessel coming home, that will be another 15 or 16 days - a full month at sea in what may not be the most comfortable accommodations. Well, that's evacuation. The ones who were flown back are lucky.

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Meanwhile, back here at home they are still wrangling over the whereabouts of the OWWA money, the funds supposedly collected by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to serve as standby for emergencies. So where's the money? Yesterday the Philippine Star said: "COA: P7.1-B OWWA FUND INTACT". The Daily Tribune on the other hand said in its headline: "OWWA FUND JUGGLING CONFIRMED BY COA". Which is which? Which one does former Solicitor General Frank Chavez believe?

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Why do we always have events with parallels? As in evacuations from Mayon and Lebanon, we also have fugitives in the Philippines and in the U.S. A few days ago, a team of lawyers flew to California to work for the return of wanted man Jocelyn "Jocjoc" Bolante. We don't know yet how far their quest has gone. In the meantime, police and military men here raided an hacienda in Masbate said to be owned by former Senator Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan, who has eluded dragnets for months now. The Masbate raid, however, as they say in police parlance, was "negative".

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Has Malacañang killed the fatted call and prepared a feast for Emily Boncodin? From the exultations of Presidential Chief of Staff Mike Defensor and Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, having former Budget Secretary back in a partly government-owned corporation, Petron, must be as much a moment of rejoicing as the return of the Prodigal Son. But why is Emily's fellow Hyatt 10 rebels saying that Boncodin may be back, but she still wants GMA to resign? Also, the Malacañang boys are crowing that it's no longer Hyatt 10, but only Hyatt 5. Will this end like the nursery rhyme of the Ten Little Indians that says: "And then there were none …"?

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Dead in the water. That is what happened to the proposal to include boxing among the sports to be promoted in schools. No, it was not the hazard to the health of the children that caused the scrapping. Undersecretary Fe Hidalgo of the DepEd said ruefully that we have no resources for adopting another discipline. Well, that's a relief. Basketball and football are hazardous enough. Boxing could cause fatal accidents, or lifelong infirmities.*

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