Desperate hero

The man who held hostage a busload of kids the other day is not a heel — he is a desperate hero. Yes, he is guilty of abduction, of having explosives and firearms during an election season when firearms are banned. But he did what no New People’s Army cadre or revolutionary did — he brought the plight of our poor not just to the attention of our leaders but to the whole world. Yes, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is angry about the incident bringing shame to her government, but it is not just her government which is shamed — it is all of us Filipinos, our leaders for their corruption, we for our apathy. We make our government, we deserve it, we are all shamed. What do people do when they lose face?

This is the question that we must now answer.

As for Armando Ducat Jr., look at the man. He has helped so many; that daycare center and kindergarten school — he paid for them, the uniforms of all those children. A publicity stunt, a political gimmick? Whatever, he succeeded — and not a drop of blood was shed. The man has compassion — the means Ducat used are not the best, but they were effective.

He committed a crime. Then throw the book at him. Sentence him to life imprisonment, and after a week during which he has served his sentence, give him executive clemency. Set him free so that he can continue his charities.

What did Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita say? We are poor because we have not industrialized. Foreign investors are afraid to come to the Philippines — and the hostage-taking caper will serve to perpetuate the image of the Philippines as being crime-ridden.

Alan Peter Cayetano keeps harping on about the deposits of the First Gentleman in Germany. Granting that he has such funds, it must amount to peanuts compared to the billions stashed away by the wealthy Chinese Filipinos, the Spanish mestizos and the Indio oligarchs. How many billions of the Marcos loot is still abroad? Why doesn’t he rake up these billions sent abroad by these Filipinos? This money is made in this country, it should stay here to build factories so our women don’t have to go abroad to work as housemaids and prostitutes. Think of all those billions that went to China to build new hotels, shopping malls, condominiums. Think of those billions that went to Australia, to Guam, to Spain and Europe.

It is a disgrace for Filipinos to be hungry, for so many of us now eat only once a day. Only 25 percent of the land in Japan is arable but Japan is producing more rice than us. Travel from Manila to the farthest point north and in the Central Plain — there are so many areas that are fallow because they are not planted, because they remain idle for speculation.

Each plot of land in Japan, in Taiwan and Korea is utilized. Their land use laws are effective.

We do not need more golf courses, more spas, more condominiums and shopping malls. We need factories to produce cheaper and better products to sell. The giant malls provide jobs, but they are not the kind of jobs that we need. Here is an analogy, which may be unfair, but it proves a point. We open a thousand whorehouses in the country, give jobs to thousands of women, pimps, waiters and cooks. We need jobs that produce, that promote productivity, creativity, not consumerism.

It is perhaps out of desperation that the business icon, Washington Sycip, now prefers a dictatorship rather that a messy democracy. He has a point there. Singapore, Taiwan, Korea — they developed under dictatorships. So did some of the European countries, even Spain. Raise capital necessary for development, then have a strong government oversee that economic development, and most importantly, a people who work hard, who save and who have a strong sense of loyalty to the country.

It is not that Marcos declared martial law, but that he wasted all those years during which he had complete control of the nation.

Back to Armando Ducat Jr. The President is worried that there will be copycats who will again engage in "prank terrorism." Why did Ducat do it in the first place?

The answer is simple. Desperation. Every thinking Filipino aware of the conditions of anarchy and poverty around us is now desperate. We are now 90 million, and still growing. Will the Catholic Church and its conservative views on birth control be able to feed these millions, least of all educate them? The army thinks it can stop communists from taking up arms; you don’t kill desperate people. You convince them there is hope.

So then, another hostage crisis may soon be in the offing.

Perhaps it is time we hold hostage all those rich hierarchs and release them only when they promise to bring back their loot to this country.