My wife and I spent about four hours last
week at the US embassy waiting to be interviewed on our visa
applications.
The consular system is efficient but there are just too many
applicants.
Security at the US Embassy gate is tight. Cellular phones,
lighters, matches and even cigarettes are not allowed in the consular premises.
Fingerprints are taken. I was told that copies are sent to
every US diplomatic station.
I asked the consul who interviewed us how many Filipinos
apply for visas everyday. I could not believe my ears: 1,200 every working day.
No wonder there are 12 windows. Five consuls are at work at
any one time. No noon breaks.
The US embassy has changed the system. Visas are delivered to
the house of the applicant by courier for a fee of P500. We applied on a
Thursday. My and my wife’s visas were delivered to our house early Saturday.
Oppression
A few thoughts crossed my mind last Wednesday afternoon when
policemen served a warrant of arrest on Jun Lozada at La Salle Greenhills where
he is being "guarded" by nuns and priests.
The police arrested him on a perjury complaint field by Mike
Defensor. It is strange that nobody in Malacañang, least of all Defensor, seems
to remember how Lozada was sent P500,000 by an assistant executive secretary (Lozada
returned the money which the Palace official said he raised from his personal
funds, if you can believe that) and how he was literally taken for a ride by
police officials upon arrival from Hong Kong to stop him from testifying on the
corruption-tainted broadband deal in the Senate.
The benign Lozada never thought of filing a complaint against
those who all but abducted him.
Mike Defensor is resuscitating an issue that is almost dead.
He will make a hero of Lozada and people will be reminded of the bribery that
attended the ZTE-NBN contract.
I can’t figure out what Mike Defensor will gain out of all
this, except perhaps to stroke his ego by announcing to the world that he is a
powerful man. Or has the "right connect."
But in the end, he may find himself a tool in the resurrection of Lozada as
the victim of a vindictive government.