One brief, shining moment

What hundreds of tongues cannot do, including all those hoarse appeals for unity was achieved by the fist of one man. When Pacquiao floored his legendary Mexican opponent in that blue-colored ring in Nevada, the whole country was one. Nothing mattered except that the fight was over, that Pacquiao had his revenge, that the Filipino is as worthy as anybody on the face of this planet.

The only fly in the ointment, so to speak, is that the moment of ecstasy would not last. When one has reached the peak there is nowhere to go but down to the usual valleys. In the case of Pacquiao, it may not be too brief a moment. When he comes home there is a big welcome planned. All the political establishment, as is usual, will be in attendance and who can blame them? There's enough glory to go around for every Pinoy.

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The House has proclaimed that it has officially ended the Hello Garci probe. In fact, the conclusion of this matter has been already made, many months ago. Everyone has arrived at his or her personal conclusion.

The Hello Garci will go down in our political history as one of the most divisive event --- a president admitting to communicating with an Election Commissioner shortly before the elections. The details of the talk could not be established but imagination supplies what's lacking. And this is the mischievous aspect of the whole affair. Leave a matter in the air the background of which reeks of suspicion and you have a classic case of public scandal. Well, maybe memory will dim somewhat and what cannot be forgotten can hopefully be forgiven.

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The matter sounds familiar. A Filipino worker in the Middle East, unable to bear further abuse from her employer, kills. Islamic law dictates that the life of the killer will be taken, unless the so-called "blood money" is paid.

The case of 33-year-old Marilou Ranario, a Filipino teacher who worked as a domestic, now hogs the pages of our newspapers. The unusual thing however, and one that poses grave danger to Marilou Ranario is that the relatives of the slain employer will not accept "blood money." That is also the privilege of the relatives. It is to be noted that in many instances of killings done by Filipinos, "blood money" was accepted. Not this time. However, who can say that there can be no change of mind?

The main note of course behind these tragic events affecting our countrymen is that they are driven to work abroad due to poverty. To work however in the Middle East is somewhat dubious because the rate of pay is not as attractive as say, working in Europe or in the U.S. or Canada. On top of this is the reputation of Arabic employers as prone to harass sexually their female employees. Of course, the problem becomes complicated in case the wives become jealous of their maids who they suspect being courted by their husbands. It must be remembered that without the earnings of the OFW sent home, the economy of this country would have collapsed a long time ago. We call them heroes. We, therefore, have the moral obligation to keep Marilou Ranario from being executed. We keep our fingers crossed and utter a prayer.*

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