OFWs in China, Taiwan face grave danger

Batas Mauricio . 

I REALLY don’t know if our readers here are similarly noticing the alarming but consistent absence from media stories of the side of the female Chinese who is being accused of having thrown “taho” (or a local soybean delicacy) to a policeman from Mandaluyong City. Why does it appear that there is some kind of an ongoing censorship or curtailment of the woman’s side of the story?

I had been a long-time reporter assigned to the so-called police beat (or the various police headquarters where I should gather the news reports I was to write daily) when I was younger, and it was grilled into my consciousness by my editors then that it was my obligation to get all possible sides to a news story.

Often, the stories I wrote which did not carry the “other side” did not see print.

This was, and I believe, still is, the norm, for the sake of fairness and truth, even among editors of today. That is why it came as a complete surprise to me that the news reports about the Chinese woman have been featuring only the pronouncements of the National Capital Region Police Office, with nothing about why the Chinese did what was she was being accused of. What is happening here–why is the side of the Chinese lady clearly being suppressed?

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I did, and I still, have many good policemen as my friends, especially when I was a police reporter hounding the police beat but, the truth is that, the current leadership of the national police can certainly not deny that even now, many of PNP’s rank and file elements from across the country continue to routinely abuse their power and privileges as policemen. The present-day headlines would attest to this fact.

As a consequence, many of our countrymen–and even foreigners who have taken up their residence with our people in this country–have been won’t to hold back their angry reactions in the face of grave police abuses, losing their control in the process, and giving way to what would appear as disrespectful behavior towards policemen who have committed the abuses against them in the first place.

In looking at the incident involving the lady Chinese, therefore, it is not right, nor prudent, to immediately condemn her. An impartial and fair investigation has to be carried out first by the PNP, by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and even by the Office of the President. The investigation should even include representatives from the embassy of the country where the woman is a national, to assure that only the truth will come out.

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We should always strive to consider that, whether the Chinese lady came from China or Taiwan, we have many Filipinos who are working in those countries, and many of them have even brought their families with them there. It wouldn’t be farfetched to believe that, because of the incident involving the “taho throwing”, the Chinese from China or Taiwan could get angry with the Filipinos working or living with them, endangering the lives of thousands of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

It should not escape our collective memories as a nation that sometime in the recent past, a sorry incident involving a Filipino and a Taiwanese sparked great hatred against our OFWs on the part of many Taiwan nationals. A threat was even aired thereafter that our OFWs in that country would already be sent home, while, in some instances, Filipinos got mauled by Taiwanese citizens for no apparent reason at all.

We should exercise caution in whatever we are doing against foreigners living with us in our country, including the Chinese woman in the “taho” incident. Not only is the national honor at stake here, but, more importantly, the safety and livelihood of many Filipinos. Fairness and truth at all times are what we should aspire for, even if one of the parties involved in the controversy are policemen!