OUR story abroad has always been about triumph and tragedy (mostly the latter?), and this can be seen in two recent reports involving Filipinos in two separate countries.
The bigger news is, of course, the wins of Filipinos Manny Pacquiao and Rey Bautista and Filipino-American Brian Viloria in boxing bouts in Los Angeles, which were watched by thousands of people at the Staples Center and millions more through television.
This was something so big President Arroyo was smiling broadly on television as she congratulated what the three boxers achieved abroad.
But the other face of the coin was the reported filing of a murder case against 29-year-old Filipina househelp Guen Garlejo Aguilar in Singapore, which brings to mind Flor Contemplacion, who was hanged in Singapore also for murder 10 years ago.
What makes their cases eerily similar is that Aguilar and Contemplacion were accused of killing people not of other nationalities but Filipinos themselves—Aguilar for Jane Parangan La Puebla and Contemplacion for Delia Maga.
We still do not know where Aguilar’s case is headed, whether it will take the same dimension as Contemplacion’s case that stirred the nation, placed the administration of Fidel Ramos on the defensive and was made into an award-winning movie.
But the point there is that the Arroyo administration should not tarry long on the Filipino boxers’ wins but must proceed with earnestness to deal with the case of Aguilar.
Indeed, it is good to wallow in moments of triumph, but with the understanding that Filipinos’ life abroad is also about tragedies.
Barangay elections
One interesting development in the moves to postpone the holding of this year’s barangay elections is the recent lobbying done by the Liga ng mga Barangay sa Pilipinas for its setting in 2008.
Incumbent barangay officials are actually the last persons to listen to as far as the postponement of the barangay elections is concerned because they are the ones who will stand to benefit from it.
Indeed, one can easily make a case for the Liga’s stand for a longer period of postponement as in keeping with this selfish motive.
Congress can postpone the barangay elections, but let it be because of more important reasons and not because barangay officials are lobbying for it.
