WILL undergo a stress test before Dr. Ma. Rosan Trani today. It?s my second in three days. I think I passed my own fitness test during the Pacquiao-Morales ?Grand Finale? last Sunday when I jumped from my seat and pumped my fists in the air after the Pacman?s killer left sent his Mexican opponent crashing to the canvas in the fateful third round. I felt good.
So did the entire Filipino nation, I am sure. It is not because we are crazy about boxing but because we badly need a triumph to identify ourselves with and to buoy our spirits amid all the gloom in our midst and the discrimination that we continue to be subjected to abroad.
My second daughter, who is based in Poland, applied for a visa to travel to Belgium because she plans to meet her mother in Brussels early next month. Everything went smoothly until the Belgian Embassy discovered that she is Filipino. She was told that her application had to be treated differently. ?I never felt so embarrassed in my life,? she would later write.
I have heard similar tales of woe from Filipinos traveling abroad and had been discriminated against, one way or another. I had my own share when we visited Paris four years ago. It seems that before the eyes of the rest of the world, a Filipino who travels abroad intends to stay there even if, and almost always illegally, to work, usually as a domestic helper.
But who can blame them? Painful as it is, it is a reputation that we earned and somehow deserve. The world population is rich with Filipino TNTs (tago ng tago). It seems that for every Filipino who legally leaves the country to work abroad, two others jump ship, cross borders and overstay their welcome for years, at times even permanently with a similar view of escaping grinding poverty at home.
Our economy is looking up but at what cost? No, don?t bother answering that. A government that needs to export its citizens abroad to sustain it cannot be capable of looking beyond the dollars, the pounds and the euros that it gets. So what if our name has become synonymous with illegal entrants abroad? Let our reputation be damned.
Oh yes, it will attempt to expiate its inutility by proclaiming, after having martyred them, the overseas Filipino workers as our ?modern day heroes.? Indeed, they are, considering all that they have gone through, thanks to the government.
One of the most painful scenes I saw inside the Thomas & Mack Arena immediately after the Pacquiao fight was a huge Philippine flag being waved presumably by Filipinos. Emblazoned on it were the words ?Pacquiao for President.?
The desecration of the Philippine flag was regrettable and the sign couldn?t have been intended as a campaign pitch for Pacquiao, who is friendly with the administration. Besides, the presidential election isn?t due until 2010.
It could have been a protest against the way the government is being run but do not be surprised if many people actually believe that Pacquiao would make a good president. That?s how badly the Filipino needs a hero to identify himself with.
