“From Psych test to AIDS test, what’s else?” queried by the largest alliance of overseas Filipino workers organizations based in the Middle East reacting to the proposed mandatory AIDS test for OFWs by Senator Pia Cayetano.

“It seems that OFWs are now the target of seemingly endless burden imposed by the government. Now OFWs are discriminately singled out as “AIDS-carrier” when in fact anybody who went abroad, not only OFWs, could be a possible AIDS-carrier, too,” said John Leonard Monterona, regional coordinator of Migrante Middle East.

Migrante ME said the report that concluded that a “huge chunk of (HIV) cases come from OFWs,” should be thoroughly and carefully be re-studied.

“Sen. Pia Cayetano is right on her keen observation on the growing numbers of HIV cases in the country. It is due to the failure of the Arroyo administration through the Department of Health (DOH) under its administrative power to develop the needed HIV/AIDS awareness campaign or relevant program to address this concern despite the 2005 reports by the Philippine National AIDS Council on the increasing numbers of HIV and AIDS cases in the Philippines,” Monterona said.

Migrante’s Monterona said that mandatory AIDS test is unreasonable and may impinge the basic right of individuals such as its freedom of choice in relation to subjecting to the AIDS test.

“Mandatory AIDS test is unreasonable because in the first place the Arroyo administration failed to implement a comprehensive HIV/AIDS awareness program. You can’t force someone to do what he is not aware in the first place,” Monterona averred.

Migrante ME also warned that if the mandatory AIDS test is implemented and charge OFWs the required fees, OFWs and families will protest because it is only an additional burden to OFWs in time of soaring prices and economic crisis.

“OFWs and their families will vow to protest against it,” Monterona declared.

Migrante ME however suggested that it is better for the government to start a massive awareness campaign program on HIV/AIDS so that the public may know.

“As to requiring AIDS test to be compulsory and charging OFWs an additional fee, for sure this will face a strong opposition from OFWs and their families.. Instead, voluntary and free-of-charge AIDS test could be good to be included in the awareness campaign program,” Monterona ended.

Failure in governance gave birth to the MILF. Vested interests, stupidity and deceit produced the MOA-AD with MILF. The MOA-AD resulted in the present bloody and costly Mindanao conflict.

RA 8371 entitled “The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997″ recognized the AD problem and prescribed measures to address it. Because of its dismal implementation by both ERAP and Gloria tribal groups continued to be the embodiment of government neglect or apathy. MILF expressed tribal unrest more harshly than the rest.

Hearings by the Supreme Court showed that the MOA-AD is indefensible. The Solicitor General defends said MOA by saying that the government is abandoning it. It was exposed as plain stupidity or recklessness, but some see it as a veiled attempt to bring about a cha-cha that would make way for Gloria’s extension of term. Displaced families could sue her for damages, if she is no longer immune from suit.

The MILF saw the MOA-AD as a sign of weakness of the government. Why else would it agree to a virtual sell-out? So, it or its lost command, sowed terror hoping that the government would be cowed further into submission. It failed to reckon with a determined military that acted even before the dazed Supreme Commander could issue the command.

Another failure in governance gave rise to a determined group who offer federalism as a permanent solution to the conflict. It is its way of saying that Local Autonomy failed. It did not bother to see why it failed, and what could possibly be done to make it work. It simply issued an invitation to an expensive and dangerous exercise in futility. There is no way voters would approve of more Senators, Congressmen and bureaucracy.

Federalism promises to solve the AD problem by complicating it! The system would integrate two or more indigenous people in a State, and then start thinking of ways to attend to it. It would abandon a simple and doable procedure in favor of a solution that has yet to be studied and legitimized!

The short term remedy would be to run after the criminals and maintain peace and order. The long-term process is to go to individual tribes and attend to their problems guided by RA 8371. An act of genuine concern for the welfare of the less privileged will never be too late particularly since it would also benefits other adjoining communities and groups of people. Also, divide and rule.

Below is a letter sent to us byDr. Gail Bautista about her traumatic experience in a hotel in Subic, Olongapo City were her wedding took place.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR
May 13, 2008

Dear Mr./Ms. Editor,

Greetings of Peace!

I am Dr. Abigail Fernandez-Bautista, 31 years old, a dentist and resident of San Narciso, Zambales. I got married to Mr. Dax Baustista, three days ago at the chapel of San Roque inside the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

I should have been happy and at peace by now that I finally married the man of my dreams. I should have been spending days with him, right now, talking about our future children and planning our lives. But I am not. I am angry. I am in pain.

I have been sleepless the past nights because the memory of what happened to us always comes back to me.

After months of planning and anticipation, we were able to book ourselves and our families and guests a place at Vista Marina Hotel and Resort located at Blk 3 Lot 2, Moonbay Marina Area, Waterfront Road , Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

The hotel seemed to have everything we were thinking of to realize a dream wedding which turned catastrophic for us. Vista Marina, through its website and brochure, promised us this:

You’ve always dreamed about having a beautiful wedding. Make this very special event an unforgettable experience at Vista Marina Hotel & Resort. The resort’s picturesque setting at the pool side is truly the ideal place for this memorable occasion. As you work closely with our certified wedding planner, you’ll choose from several wedding packages and services, which will satisfy your every wish and create the most unforgettable day.

What we never realized was that ‘memorable experience and unforgettable’ day was something that would fill us with so much anger, so much pain.

We were wed on May 10, 2008 at 6:30 in the evening. We then proceeded with our relatives and guests to have dinner at around 9 at the wedding banquet of Vista Marina . The wedding program ended at around 11 pm. We returned to our room, 207, and found that our belongings had been disarranged!

We frantically went over our stuff and found that my husband’s laptop was missing. We had been robbed!

When we informed our parents about the incident, we also found out that our relative, Mrs. Butch was crying because her cell phone and her wallet with cash of about P20,000.00, her credit and ATM cards were stolen too.

We panicked and got so frightened that this incident happened inside the hotel that promised security and comfort to us and our guests. We immediately reported the incidents at the front desk of the hotel lobby.

Our frustration and anxiety only got worse when we were coldly treated by the night shift and security supervisor, Mr. Gener Pangan. We never saw alarm nor concern from him. He acted as if everything that had happened that night was routine procedure to them. He never offered words of assurance that they will do everything to get our

belongings back. We were treated with ominous and disturbing silence. They did not call the SBMA police immediately for assistance.

We had to wait for three hours for the hotel staff to finish its own ‘operation’ before they called the police in. I don’t know what’s the SOP in cases of hotel robberies but three hours of wait could not help us think that evidence could have been contaminated especially if done without the presence of the proper authorities.

We also approached the operations manager of the hotel, Mr. Anthony Bacunawa, who, though he was more cooperative, could say nothing more than ‘Sorry’ and ‘I understand your situation.’ We wanted to talk to the owner of the hotel since the time of the incident but Mr. Bacunawa was insistent that the hotel owner, who is Korean, would not want to talk to us. This was when our suspicion grew and our anger heightened.

We were the aggrieved party, we were the victims of a crime that should not have happened had the security been tight and properly enforced. But it seems that we can only talk to the walls. We were not able to sleep that night mulling over how could this happen to us, and on the night of our wedding.

When it was clear that we would not be seeing justice, we decided to politely ask some of the hotel guests to check their belongings before they leave, fearing that the same things might have happened to them without them knowing it. To our surprise, three hotel patrons, who are not members of our wedding guests, volunteered information that their door was opened by a suspicious woman who also had the same key to their room. The woman exclaimed, ‘Ay may tao pala.’ And she briskly left.

Also, one of our principal sponsors found out in the morning that their door was ajar when his wife swore that she made sure that she locked the door before she and her children went to bed.

Early in the morning of May 10, we asked assistance from the front desk to help us open the safety vault inside our room because the key given to us could not open it. The receptionist sent one of the bellboys up for assistance but still the vault would not budge. My husband and I decided that we would no longer use the vault.

At the time of our discovery of the robberies, we found out that the vault was already open. We wanted to ask the bellboy who brought up a spare key how did this happen. My mother had a vague remembrance of his face so she went to the front desk to ask if the hotel kept I.D. pictures of its staff, Mr. Pangan flatly refused her request saying, ‘We could not do that because it’s administrative policy.’ When we asked why, he merely shrugged, ‘We want to protect our employees.’ I thought we were the ones who needed protection there.

After almost thirteen hours of futile request to the operations manager to let us talk to the owner of the hotel we were ready to leave and settle our accounts. The owner suddenly appeared and went straight to his office. We wanted to talk to him, just to let him know of some of the irregularities that we experienced inside his hotel.

The hotel staff refused our request. They finally yielded when my father-in-law insisted to talk to him. We were made to wait interminably. My father-in-law went directly to the administrative office and politely requested that he be given a few minutes to talk to the owner.

A family friend, Bro. Noel Bava, SJ went in with my father-in-law. We were hoping that the Korean owner would be more cooperative and helpful this time. But he was stubborn and refused to take responsibility over the incident.

The Korean hotel owner kept on telling us that it was our fault that our belongings got stolen. He said that as owners of these belongings, we were the ones responsible for our things, that it was not the responsibility of the hotel to keep an eye on our stuff. .. that even in our own house, we are not 100% safe. He also said that it is the responsibility of the government of the Philippines to provide security to its citizens after all, this is our country.

When my father-in-law asked for his name, he refused and stood up, called security, told his staff to call the police and take my father-in-law and Bro. Bava out of his office immediately.

What shabby treatment from the hotel owner, a Korean, a foreigner doing business on our soil, and from the staff that would do anything to keep their boss blameless and free of responsibility of the crime done to us-this we could not accept.

We are aghast that such business, whom we have also learned from the Intelligence and Investigation Office of SBMA, had a history of robberies the past months and was requested to put up security cameras and additional locks on their rooms, is allowed to continue operating inside Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

Thank you very much and God bless.

Respectfully yours,
Dr. Abigail Fernandez-Bautista, DMD