Stepping over the bodies

There's a move to ask Congress to declare a moratorium on the importation of airline pilots and I hear it is my friend, the former president of Philippine Airlines, Avelino Zapanta, who is spearheading it. Even if he is already retired, Zapanta is still very much concerned about the increasing number of Philippine pilots being pirated by some of the world's biggest airlines. I guess it is because Philippine pilots are reputed to be among the very best.

***

The moratorium being sought is for five years, perhaps to give us some time to train and produce more aces. But they better act on that soon, because the pilots are reportedly being offered salaries that cannot be refused. Compared to what local airlines can pay, which foreign ones consider peanuts, what pilot will not be tempted, especially if he has a big family to support? I wish Mr. Zapanta good luck in his cause.

***

But what are we not importing nowadays, in terms of manpower and services? We send out household helpers, engineers, architects, doctors, nurses, carpenters, teachers, masons, electricians, plumbers, computer experts, dancers, singers, factory workers, drivers, caregivers, and so forth and so on. Anybody who has the chance to go, departs as soon as he or she can get a working visa - sometimes even without any, risking deportation, even imprisonment.

***

Of course the government, especially our finance officials are gloating because remittances from those who went away have propped up the country's economy. As of last month, all these overseas workers had sent home what business reporters called an "all-time high" amounting to $10.7 BILLION. Never mind the broken homes, the straying spouses, the wayward children left behind. The important thing is to have the dollars pouring in to give this government a semblance of success.

***

No wonder more and more Pinoys are agitating to leave the country. Statistics also say that in year 2005 alone, almost one million Filipinos left the country. And that is not mere guesstimates, the figures came from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, who gave the exact number as 981,677. Most of the Filipinos, the report further says, are now working in the United States, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Italy, Hongkong, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and Singapore.

***

The International Monetary Fund, meanwhile, is advising the Philippines to concentrate on tourism because it is the best hope for recovery of the country. Indeed, we can only look at the examples of Spain, France and Thailand as places that tourism has helped greatly. I wonder if the tourists we are trying to lure here do not get curious why, if ours is such a beautiful and blessed country, our very own children do not want to live here?

***

Now, now, what is this? President Arroyo reportedly said that her Proclamation No. 1017 actually upheld the freedom of the press! Now, why did everybody in the media fail to understand what it was about? Why did all rise up in great umbrage to condemn it, and why did foreign media organizations also fail to grasp the fact that we were protected by the proclamation? I hope poor Ninez Olivares and the Tribune staff get to know the true situation.

***

"On with the fun!" Or, in his own words in Tagalog, "Tuloy ang saya!" That was reportedly the first statement that TV host Willie Revillame called out to his fans when he resumed the program "WOWOWEE" in Manila the other day. My God, what a callous, insensitive, and shocking way of reviving the program that had caused the gruesome death of so many poor people. When I learned that he had said that, I immediately pictured Revillame stepping over the corpses of those who had been lured to their death by Revillame himself and his Wowowee.*

back to top