LOVE LETTER TO FILIPINOS

A sentimental open letter from an American teacher to the Filipino people (PLEASE TAKE TIME TO READ THIS. Taken from a Facebook post)

LOVE LETTER TO FILIPINOS

By David H. Harwell, PhD

I am writing to thank Filipinos for the way you have treated me here, and to pass on a lesson I learned from observing the differences between your culture and mine over the years.

I am an expatriate worker. I refer to myself as an OAW, an overseas American worker, as a bad joke. The work I do involves a lot of traveling and changing locations, and I do it alone, without family. I have been in 21 countries now, not including my own. It was fun at first. Now, many years later, I am getting tired. The Philippines remains my favorite country of all, though, and I’d like to tell you why before I have to go away again.

I have lived for short periods here, traveled here, and have family and friends here. My own family of origin in the United States is like that of many Americans—not much of a family. Americans do not stay very close to their families, geographically or emotionally, and that is a major mistake. I have long been looking for a home and a family, and the Philippines is the only place I have lived where people honestly seem to understand how important their families are.

I am American and hard-headed. I am a teacher, but it takes me a long time to learn some things. But I’ve been trying, and your culture has been patient in trying to teach me.

In the countries where I’ve lived and worked, all over the Middle East and Asia, it is Filipinos who do all the work and make everything happen. When I am working in a new company abroad, I seek out the Filipino staff when I need help getting something done, and done right. Your international reputation as employees is that you work hard, don’t complain, and are very capable. If all the Filipinos were to go home from the Middle East, the world would stop. Oil is the lifeblood of the world, but without Filipinos, the oil will not come from the ground, it will not be loaded onto the ships, and the ships will not sail. The offices that make the deals and collect the payments will not even open in the morning. The schools will not have teachers, and, of course, the hospitals will have no staff.

What I have seen, that many of you have not seen, is how your family members, the ones who are overseas Filipino workers, do not tell you much about how hard their lives actually are. OFWs are very often mistreated in other countries, at work and in their personal lives. You probably have not heard much about how they do all the work but are severely underpaid, because they know that the money they are earning must be sent home to you, who depend on them. The OFWs are very strong people, perhaps the strongest I have ever seen. They have their pictures taken in front of nice shops and locations to post on Facebook so that you won’t worry about them. But every Pinoy I have ever met abroad misses his/her family very, very much.

I often pity those of you who go to America. You see pictures of their houses and cars, but not what it took to get those things. We have nice things, too many things, in America, but we take on an incredible debt to get them, and the debt is lifelong. America’s economy is based on debt. Very rarely is a house, car, nice piece of clothing, electronic appliance, and often even food, paid for. We get them with credit, and this debt will take all of our lifetime to pay. That burden is true for anyone in America—the OFWs, those who are married to Americans, and the Americans themselves.

Most of us allow the American Dream to become the American Trap. Some of you who go there make it back home, but you give up most of your lives before you do. Some of you who go there learn the very bad American habits of wanting too many things in your hands, and the result is that you live only to work, instead of working only to live. The things we own actually own us. That is the great mistake we Americans make in our lives. We live only to work, and we work only to buy more things that we don’t need. We lose our lives in the process.

I have sometimes tried to explain it like this: In America, our hands are full, but our hearts are empty.

You have many problems here, I understand that. Americans worry about having new cars, Filipinos worry about having enough food to eat. That’s an enormous difference. But do not envy us, because we should learn something from you. What I see is that even when your hands are empty, your hearts remain full.

I have many privileges in the countries where I work, because I am an expat. I do not deserve these things, but I have them. However, in every country I visit, I see that you are there also, taking care of your families, friends, bosses, and coworkers first, and yourselves last. And you have always taken care of me, in this country and in every other place where I have been.

These are places where I have been very alone, very tired, very hungry, and very worried, but there have always been Filipinos in my offices, in the shops, in the restaurants, in the hospitals, everywhere, who smile at and take good care of me. I always try to let you know that I have lived and traveled in the Philippines and how much I like your country. I know that behind those smiles of yours, here and abroad, are many worries and problems.

Please know that at least one of us expats has seen what you do for others and understands that you have a story behind your smiles. Know that at least one of us admires you, respects you, and thanks you for your sacrifices. Salamat po. Ingat lagi. Mahal ko kayong lahat.

David H. Harwell, PhD, is a former professor and assistant dean in the United States who now travels and works abroad designing language training programs. He is a published author and a son of a retired news editor.

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Marcos loss automatically makes Duterte a lameduck President

Backbencher
Rod P. Kapunan

The dismissal of the election protest filed by Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos, Jr. against Maria Leonora Robredo carries deeper political implications. As one columnist asserted, the draft decision penned by a shameless classmate of the former but lackluster President and now head of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) was intentionally leaked to put his colleagues in the Supreme Court on the defensive. According to Rigoberto Tiglao, the draft decision “dismissed” the petition.

In effect, the magistrates will be forced to accept the shoddy decision without touching the merits of the cause of action raised by the petitioner. In that, one could surmise that the decision to dismiss is nothing more but glaring a case of “gagohan.”

With utmost indulgence, the decision would be some kind of judicial debauchery or in Tagalog “lokohan.” The Court is duty-bound to make a decision. It is its formal reply to the valid cause of action raised by the petitioner. The court has to decide for to say otherwise would be equivalent to telling the petitioner that no election took place in November 2016. The huge amount of protest fee paid to the PET just for it to do its work would now have the effect of an “extortionary” fee. The classmate should be reminded that the issue is beyond the proper counting of the ballots to determine who actually won but to validate our democracy to which the yellow hypocrites have been shouting as their political mantra.

There is law and logic to this argument; that when the court demands from the petitioner a fee for his protest or for a recount of the votes, it equally promises to litigants to do its assignment. Failing to do this, the court is morally obligated to reimburse the whole amount. This explains why this shameless classmate of the one who appointed him to that majestic court cannot just dismiss the petition without touching on the merits of the case.

To deny that would amount to absolving the respondent of all the financial liabilities poured into her office while coyly pretending to be the elected vice president. Aside from the fact that the dismissal meant she is not guilty of the anomaly that transpired, the court then becomes an active party to this blatant swindling of litigants protesting the electoral fraud committed on them by the political rascals.

To quote columnist Tiglao of the causes of action, “Marcos filed three other causes of action each of which could invalidate Robredo’s slim margin of 263,473 votes, which are totally independent from the examination of votes in a set of precincts in Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental. 

“These are the following:
“First, that the certificates of canvas were not authentic and came from tampered votes counting machines…Second, that there was massive fraud in Basilan, Lanao del Sur, and Maguindanao such that there was no valid in those places. And third, that there as malfunctioning of vote counting machine in 22 provinces and five highly urbanized cities.” The PET which is presided by the classmate hasn’t even started an investigation of the cause’s action.” According to Tiglao, “how could Robredo claim that the Marcos protest has been dismissed?”

There is no doubt there was manipulation to purposely delay the promulgation of the decision. This alone is an indelible marking that something fishy happened in the recounting process to favor the party who proclaimed herself as the defender of freedom of democracy. Respondent Robredo cannot admit the third cause of action - that there has been a malfunctioning of the ballot counting machines owned by Smartmatic. PET cannot admit this allegation for that would fall flat on their face that allegedly the counting machines are foolproof.

For instance, when the PET demanded the posting of P36 million protests free, the classmate knew the petitioner would have difficulty withdrawing that amount in so short a time. PET purposely issued that order on a Holy Week to coincide when banks were closed. The petitioner was only given two days to comply and that was without extension. Another was the time to post the required protest free. The time to file given appears to be whimsical and arbitrary. Even if the Supreme Court sets its time to file the required bond, it sees to it that litigants are equally accorded time to comply and not to break the rule.

But that was not in the mind of the classmate who was dead set in wanting to derail petition. Third, the ingratiating classmate ordered petitioner Marcos to produce 8,000 witnesses in the province of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Basilan within five days non-extendable. There was malice knowing that it is not easy to gather 8,000 witnesses to testify in behalf of the petitioner. Paradoxically, the classmate forgot that he is the same magistrate who also gave a go signal to allow former communist rebels, terrorists, detainees and those who claimed to have suffered “human rights” violations be compensated without any of them testifying in court and executing affidavit in support of their claim, except for their signature as alleged victims paid by the government and not by their alleged oppressor.

Objectively, the reason why Robredo is determined to hang on to her position is the fear that a reversal of the decision could delay her timetable to capture political power. Invariably, affirming her victory could reduce Duterte to one of a lameduck president. Both local and foreign investors will have second thoughts in going ahead with those projects like the construction of new airports to promote tourism, a rehabilitation of our railway line in Bicol and a new one Mindanao to provide easy access in the delivery of agricultural products, construction of new dams to improve our water system, the breaking up of the telecommunications industry by allowing another party to join the industry, and the building of more bridges and new one along Pasig river, the assurance to import our fruits and agricultural products to help our farmers.

Some suspect President Duterte is wavering whether or not to throw support in the bid of petitioner for the vice presidency as a way sustain the continuity of his administration. Admittedly the Duterte administration has similarity to the Marcos administration in many ways. His independent foreign policy and populist economic approach to economic development made them overwhelmingly popular. But should he deviate from this line could reignite the possibility of another Edsa to justify by extra-constitutional means to scuttle all the programs initiated and entered into by the Duterte government.

Surely and expectedly, Robredo will revive the arbitration court decision to instantly renew the country’s antagonism with China, viz. to the delight of the US. Our shift to the old geopolitical order would be devastating and costly. The viability and effectiveness of the five US military bases could be revived, seeing them as our best deterrence against China. Particularly, pro-American lackeys will drumbeat alleged the encroachment by China over some of the islands in the South China Sea. There is also the possibility that the memorandum of understanding the country entered into with China could be dropped to affect our exploitation of natural gas and oil in the Reed Bank. This means we will back to getting crumbs as our share in the exploitation of our own resources.

Should Robredo succeed in her grand-design with the active sponsorship of the US, all the plans of President Duterte will all end in a junkyard. The grim prospect is not about the non-viability of the projects but of the startling truth that she is the next leader being groomed by the US to lead under the renewed auspices of pax Americana. (rpkapunan@gmail.com)