Business Circuit

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”- Martin Luther King, US pastor and civil rights leader

*  *  *

How we treat our heroes

Considering the harrowing experience – if not indignities – they were subjected to during the Christmas holidays, we should stop calling our overseas workers heroes. They were never considered as such by the regime of Gloria M. Arroyo.

Instead of enjoying their vacations with family and friends, 4,000 of them spent one full day in the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration for Philhealth and OWWA membership.

The applications and forms of 3,000 of them were processed and approved the same day on Dec. 27.

I cannot see the logic of buying health insurance from Philhealth. I would assume they have health insurance from the companies they work for abroad.

Nor can I understand why Philhealth deputized the POEA to do its job.

As bad as the mandatory OWWA and Philhealth membership is the mandatory requirement exemption from paying the travel tax.

The long line of overseas workers does not end with POEA.

They have to form another line at the airport where some people, presumably from POEA, stamp their membership receipts before they are allowed to board.

Of course they pay for membership. That’s fine with them. It’s the long wait that almost killed them with anger and hatred for the Arroyo government.

In years past, Philhealth membership was processed by accredited banks. Why they changed the more efficient system is for cynics like me to understand.

A lot of us cynics are beginning to see what we consider to be symptoms of fascism. One of the most glaring is extra-judicial killings which have remained unsolved.

There was an effort, thwarted by the Supreme Court, to impose emergency rule through Presidential Proclamation No. 1017. The attempts at suppression of press freedom are becoming more and more palpable.

Just as palpable – in fact, very visible – is the way the Arroyo regime pampers the military and the police. We have a national security adviser who has not been held liable for thousands of extra-judicial killings.

We see at least two Rasputins in Malacañang taking advantage of President Arroyo’s weaknesses, notably the cheating in 2004 and the unchecked corruption.

The Human Safety Act, more infamously known as the anti-terrorism law, is a potent tool to abuse civilians because the military and the police can, at the drop of a hat, accuse them as enemies of the state. What we see are many symptoms. The disease is yet to come.

There have been several attempts to apply the scalpel. They all failed. Which to me may mean that the Filipino has accepted his fate believing that after suffering for seven years under the Arroyo regime, waiting for two more years for a meaningful change can’t be that long. Or so they think.

Anything can happen before President Arroyo steps down in 2010. She could be thrown out. But she can also extend her term.

The symptoms of fascism are preparations for a more harsh rule. Beyond 2010? We cannot say.

Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, AFP chief of staff, is due for retirement next month when he reaches the compulsory retirement age of 56. He has made it known that he would be pleased if the President extends his term. The possible extension is pregnant with dire possibilities.

It may be the option for President Arroyo to impose martial rule without official declaration.

That fits well with our fears of a fascistic regime in the making. It is not funny that neither Malacañang nor the military establishment has said anything about the freezing of senior military officers below the rank of Chief of Staff.

These officers are denied a legitimate opportunity to move one rank higher. If General Esperon’s term is extended, officers below him will reach retirement age without being promoted.

But soldiers that they are, theirs is to obey, never to question. In the same manner that Esperon and Norberto Gonzalez, national security adviser, have never been held accountable for extra-judicial killings.

Our fear is there could be more, like there was another in Davao two weeks ago. He is the 40th victim of extra-judicial killings in the ranks of media alone.

It has become noticeable that the victims of merciless killings are suspected communists, Leftists or their supporters, and media persons. They are being systematically eliminated.

As the Chinese love to say, we are living in very interesting times. That is not meant to flatter anybody.

The statement issued by the Poblador family saying that one of its siblings, Concepcion, does not have shares in Philippine Overseas Telecommunications Corp. and the Philippine Communications Satellite Corp. suggests nothing but a full-blown feud in the Poblador family. Concepcion against all.

Feuds like this have happened to families far richer than the Pobladors. But I do not remember any member of any quarrelling family trying to even a score by going to Court.

Concepcion got a TRO from the Sandiganbayan. She wants the present unified board thrown out in spite of orders of the President to cast the state’s 35 percent ownership with the private stockholders.

What Ms. Poblador probably did not know is that the old board and management of Philcomsat Holdings, a subsidiary, except Enrique Locsin and her, resigned on Nov. 7.

I suppose she wants to keep her legitimacy although her own family has disowned her.

The new board was installed on Dec. 13. It is valid to presume that the old board, a holdover for about seven years, knew that the President had wanted a more efficient board and management.

But some people like Locsin and Mrs. Poblador just can’t stop. They did not resign. But the two of them did not question the legitimacy of the election of the new board on Dec. 13.

Ms. Concepcion chose to go to Court. The looted PHC is back to Square One although there is very little left to loot. It has been bled bone dry.

None of us will ever imagine that a two-life termer like former Zamboanga Congressman Romy Jalosjos would walk out of his cage in the National Bilibid Prisons without documents showing he has been pardoned.

Jalosjos went home to Zamboanga believing that his crime of raping an 11-year old had been erased with a pardon. But that is not the way it was going to be.

Feeling public resentment against the pardon, finger-pointing started in the Department of Justice. The director of prisons was sacked. Jalosjos has not been pardoned, after all. Executive Secretary Eduardo R. Ermita blames Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales for allowing Jalosjos to walk out of jail.

Jalosjos, having come from media himself, should make public all documents showing that he has been granted executive clemency. That should put the issue on ice but the President (or could it be Gonzales?) is in danger of being embarrassed.

The easier way out would have been for the President to recall the pardon or whatever one might call it. She can always say the public is against the pardon.

Nothing beats the maxim of "vox populi, vox Dei," although sometimes it could be rigged. Gloria Arroyo did not ascend to the seat of power based on that maxim.