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FT OCAMPO

Convenient for them to start blame game

MANILA

By the time this piece sees print, the eight Filipinos
abducted by Islamic militants in Nigeria might have
already made it home safely.

There is reason to be optimistic. Last January, 25
Overseas Filipino Workers were sent home unharmed
and in good shape after a few weeks of captivity by
presumably the same group of criminals and militants
who used them as leverage to extort cash from their
government. Nigeria, by the way, is Africa’s largest oil
producer.

It is a source of hope and comfort for the families of the
kidnapped OFWs to know that the Philippine
government is abreast of the situation and is in
continuous negotiations with its Nigerian counterpart to
attain a happy ending to their common problem.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has been on its toes
since news broke out on the abduction of the eight
Filipinos, together with three Korean nationals, who
were working for a South Korean power company.

It has warned nationals seeking employment abroad to
avoid Iraq and Nigeria for security reasons. The virtual
civil war raging in Iraq has killed hundreds of
thousands and displaced almost two million Iraqis
from their homeland, according to latest reports.

Even innocent non-combatants, like foreign workers
and civilians, were not spared from the genocidal
insanity.

We can just imagine the hypocrites whose hearts are
bleeding for the OFWs and blaming the administration
for not providing enough jobs for Filipinos that they
have to risk their lives in foreign shores and endure the
pain and loneliness of separation from their families.

If it were up to them, they shall give all the 88 million
Filipinos high-paying jobs and such other amenities to
raise their living standard and release them from their
age-old misery.

The patriots who would love this country to death
conveniently forgot that even the world’s richest nations
have their share of overseas and foreign workers who
are searching for their own version of the promised
land in every part of the globe.

*****

The results of the May 14 polls would have been known
by the time you are reading this newspaper. The
senatorial winners, since they are only 12, may soon
be proclaimed.

Those who did not make it to the magic number were
cheated as it has become a humongous culture in this
country that no candidate ever lost an election.

Even a two-bit politician, say, a city or town mayor, must
be cheated of victory or risk losing face with his
constituents and deprive him of his plinth from which
he could look down and feel superior.

A modern thinker, dissecting Plato’s The Republic,
coined the term “political hygiene” as applying to the
great philosopher’s ideal of a Philosopher-King to run
the government. We doubt very much if the politicians
in this benighted country would even care to
understand.

We can just
imagine the
hypocrites
whose hearts
are bleeding
for the OFWs
and blaming
the
administration
for not
providing
enough jobs
for Filipinos
that they
have to risk
their lives in
foreign
shores and
endure the
pain and
loneliness of
separation
from their
families