‘Bring Them (Not Only Him) Home’

By Alex P. Vidal  

“You can jail a Revolutionary, but you can’t jail the Revolution.”  — Huey Newton

IF we have a morsel of patriotism in the heart and mind, and real love for fellow Filipinos, we should agitate not only for the release of International Criminal Court (ICC)-detained former strongman Rodrigo Roa Duterte, or now universally known as “Road-reegow Row-whaa Dow-terti”, but also for the other Filipinos languishing in different jails abroad.

The slogan should be “bring them home” instead of “bring him home.”

“Bring him home” alone reeks of zealotry and monomania. “Bring them home” one by one connotes sodality and humanity.

For some Filipinos, to be incarcerated in a foreign land is a fate worse than death. Especially if the inmate is aware his chances of being exonerated and sent home thereafter is nil.

At least 4,775 Filipinos were languishing in foreign jails, based on a report of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), according to Bulalat.

Of the “Prisoner OFWs” (POFWs), 1,103 were reportedly Filipinas.

For sure, many of our jailed compatriots didn’t deserve to spend a minute inside the calaboose; but because they were unknown and without any connection or position in government, their fate had been sealed, so to speak.

-o0o-

If the Duterte die-hards believe in genuine justice and fairness, they should also raise the goblet and storm the Bastille to demand from the governments of countries that detain the Filipinos to “bring them home.”

They are no better than second-rate fanatics blinded by irrational loyalty if they continue to cry and demand only for the release of one Filipino “incarcerated” abroad (in The Hague, Netherlands) while waiting for a full-blown hearing of the cases filed against hime by the ICC for the sensational crimes against humanity.

Bulalat said the number of Filipinos behind bars in foreign lands is about ten percent of the current domestic jail population.

Bulalat also quoted former senator and now finance Secretary Ralph Recto as saying, “The dispersal of Filipinos worldwide has also resulted in the incarceration of a few of them in diverse places. Some of those who joined the great Filipino Diaspora never found their own Promised Land.”

Bulalat quoted Recto as saying a reading of the 430-page DFA “global situationer” on the OFW “would bring one to places, some with exotic sounding names, where you wouldn’t imagine that a Filipino would land in a jail there.”

“From places near the Arctic, in Sweden and Denmark, to the Andes, in Colombia and in Peru, to Libya and Egypt in Africa, to specks of land in the Pacific, and even in the quake-damaged Islamabad, there are Filipinos in jail there,” he said as reported by Bulalat.

-o0o-

Of the 82 Philippine diplomatic posts abroad, only 12 reported that there was no Filipino detained or awaiting trial in their area of jurisdiction.

Most of the Filipinos were hauled off to jail for violation of immigration laws. The report said at least 1,200 Filipinos – or one-fourth of the POFWs – were in detention in Malaysia, mostly in Sabah, following the country’s crackdown on its undocumented guest workers.

Next to Malaysia was Israel, with the Philippine embassy in Tel Aviv reporting that 1,028 Filipinos there were facing charges in court, and those not out on bail, “detained in jails in Ramle, Hadera, Nazareth, Beersheva and Holon.”

Others were caught while trying to sneak into the country without papers, such as the case of 13 Filipinos who were caught in Croatia.

Other countries where there are concentration of OFWs which also harbored Filipinos in their jails last year were Saudi Arabia (213), Kuwait (47), Singapore (192), Hong Kong (77), Japan (314).

But many Filipinos in “five continents were facing charges other than those that pertain to work or immigration concerns,” Recto said. “Name it, they allegedly did it.”

“One OFW faked checks in Vietnam; a nurse in Ireland was arrested for alleged al-Qaida links, a Filipina physical therapist in Michigan allegedly committed health fraud, and an aircraft engineer was arrested for “smuggling contraband into Nigeria.”

In many Muslim countries, Filipinos were arrested and jailed “for drinking alcohol.”

Recto also noted the rise in the number of Filipinas arrested for serving as “mules” or couriers of international drug syndicates.

There were Filipinas in jails in Denmark, Brazil, Hong Kong, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia and in many other countries last year, Recto said.

Other cases mentioned in the DFA report involved crimes of passion. “In one South American country, a Filipino Lothario was sent to jail for seducing teenagers.”

Because of the rising number of “POFWs”, Recto called for the augmentation of the “Assistance to National Fund” component of the DFA budget.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)