Tourist bus hostage-taking hit
as wake-up call for RP leaders
By: Rose N. Padilla
Correspondent
Pinoy Global News
MALATE, MANILA, Aug. 31, 2010 -- A very desperate Filipino police officer, who had gone crazy, held hostage a bus with Hong Kong tourists aboard, went on a shooting rampage after his demands relayed to the local authorities were not met.
As the gunfire smoke cleared, eight innocent Hong Kongites lay dead, with the slain gunman himself lying near their bodies.
The more than 11-hour hostage drama was covered live not only by Philippine media but also international media.
The immediate outcome: Many foreign governments have issued warnings to their people about the “dangers of travel to the Philippines.” This, despite the Noynoy Aquino administration’s explanation that the incident was only an isolated case.
Yet, many observers felt that there was an apparent “mishandling” of the incident. Lapses on the part of the negotiators as well as the team ordered to put the situation under control and make the gunman surrender peacefully were noted.
But everything has now become academic. The damage has again been done to the Philippine tourism industry – a major foreign exchange earner for the country. It is as if our government leaders have not learned any lesson from the atrocities committed by the Abu Sayaff on many innocent people, including foreigners and tourists.
Is this an omen of worse things to come? After the Edsa Revolution, previous administrations seem to have taken for granted a number of important measures that affect the national economy. The President of the Philippines, as the highest official of the land, is necessarily considered to be “on top of everything.” He has all the resources – the manpower and logistics at his command – to put everything in order.
In the case of tourism and the call for more foreign investments, everybody is agreed that to make us succeed in this endeavor we must first create an atmosphere of peace that would be conducive to the attraction of a greater number of tourist arrivals as well as foreign investors. It’s as simple as that!
The notorious bandit group Abu Sayaff continues to linger and sow terror along the archipelago’s southern fringes – kidnapping and later beheading innocent people, especially those for whom their ransom demands are not met. Some sources say they have teamed up with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) or the MILF “Lost Command.”
But whatever it is, what puzzles a lot of people is why – despite the government’s almost unlimited resources – until now, the Abu Sayaff is still around. Now, there is a Filipino, brave, quiet, unassuming, talented, honest and willing to sacrifice all his worldly possessions just to attain national unity, reconciliation and eventually make the country prosperous and peaceful. For now, his identity will not be mentioned. efi
This man had achieved much as a low-key citizen and provided assistance to the government in whatever way he could. On certain instances, he had negotiated for and effected the peaceful surrender of numerous gun-wielding members of what was then the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). On one occasion was where President Fidel V. Ramos (then a top-ranking officer of the Armed Forces of the Philippines) was one of the witnesses.
Not a credit-grabber and by nature low-profile, he is just desirous of putting peace in place, which, he says, is basic to ensure the success of whatever public projects are to be undertaken at certain localities.
He is not a Filipino Muslim, but a Christian. Can one imagine that? How is he able to convince his countrymen who belong to another religious faith to come down the mountains and go back to the folds of the law? Amazing isn’t it?
Another fascinating thing about him: he has been able to successfully transact big business with various foreign investors and multi-national corporations in the past decades. He has been the leader of a long-existent foundation that seeks to “liberate the Filipino masses from the shackles that bind them to poverty.”
Staying abroad since the last few years, many members and his fellow officers in the foundation want him to return to share his expertise and knowhow in government affairs, especially in resuscitating the economy and transforming it into a sustainable economy.
His foundation, comprised mostly of reformists and those that urge a peaceful revolution, wants to put an end to poverty and graft and corruption.
A spokesperson in the organization says that “danger signals” have been felt by the members, and they serve as the “warning symptoms that insidiously bite into the vitals of our body politic.”
“This is quite apparent in the apathy or neglect of a great percentage of our suffering poverty-stricken countrymen, in the notable decrease in effective communication between the government and the people, also a widening gap between the wealthy and the poor,” the spokesperson added.
“Many of our poverty-ailing masses – including many in our organization (before they joined our group) feel degraded, deprived, and are utterly hopeless,” the spokesperson points out, “and they wallow in the quagmire of despair and helplessness.”
“They want our foundation leader to come back to the country and revive his espousal of the much-needed reforms, his advocacies for he is truly a pro-God, pro-country and pro-people person,” the spokesperson stressed. #