Why 200,000 Filipinos happily live in Italy?

Yesterday, Italy’s National Day, gave me the occasion to ponder what our active Ambassador Philippe J. Lhuillier (of the jewellery and "pawn shop" fortune, incidentally) told this writer last week as we had dinner in the Terrasse dell Eden at the Hotel Eden, just around the corner from our hotel, the Excelsior, on the Via Veneto.

Would you believe, this was the first time I had met Lhuillier, but over the nine days my wife and I had spent in Italy, traveling from Milan, Bologna, Parma, Breschia, and, finally to Rome, we had heard favorable reports regarding his three years as our envoy to, as they say, the Quirinale. For example, I was informed, he was one of the rare ambassadors who personally visited Filipinos who were in prison, and exerted considerable effort in trying to get them out.

In any event, he seemed to be one of our most peripatetic ambassadors in his place of assignment. He had just returned from Florence (Firenze) and was due to leave in the morning for Vicenza where he had another conference (involving other Association of Southeast Asian Nations envoys) scheduled with the local guilds, chambers of commerce and business clubs. (If I’m not mistaken, Lhuillier is the Dean of ASEAN ambassadors in Italy.)

I found Lhuillier knowledgeable, sophisticated in the arts and sciences, fluent in Spanish and French, and, presumably, competent fluent in Italian as well. (Since my fractured Italian isn’t up to scratch, I can’t judge him on that score.) What was most interesting, though, was that he told me that, contrary to the modest "official" figures, there are actually 200,000 Filipinos living and working in Italy.

Although many of our Pinoys and Pinays in Italy are supposedly "illegal" (perhaps only half their number, or less, are registered at the local Questura), the Italian government generously turns a blind eye on almost all our T.N.T.’s, which is a misnomer since few of them bother to make tago, or hide. The carabinieri and local vigili urbani don’t crack down on Filipinos to whom they appear to entertain a tolerant, if not friendly, attitude since Filipinos are mostly well-behaved (although, admittedly, there are a few "hellers" and there had been a stabbing incident or two).

One stupid and senseless act, for instance, got Rome’s Filipinos "banned" from their former Thursday afternoon (when they got a midweek halfday off) and weekend rendezvous, the Termini or central railroad station in Rome. Here’s what happened, as my friends narrated to me, in an incident which involved the cavalieri – the snappy, beautifully uniformed "mounted police" who patrol the well-known tourist centers and the railroad terminal – much like New York City’s famed mounted cops "police" Times Square and Broadway.

The cavalieri – in their blue-gray uniforms, their gleaming buckles and polished boots, expertly astride their magnificent brown steeds – are always the tourist "snapshot" artists’ delight. I would make it a point, since I usually stay at the Excelsior, to time my "breakfast" on the ground floor restaurant overlooking the Via Veneto so I could see that morning "platoon" of police cavalry come prancing by enroute to their duties from the nearby hippodrome.

One New Year’s Eve, however, I think it was two years ago, a mischievous Filipino reveler stupidly and recklessly threw a firecracker right underneath the horse of one of the cavalieri on station at the Termini. The stallion reared up in fright at the explosion right at its feet, and threw his rider to the ground. Fortunately, the police officer didn’t suffer any fractures or injure his spine (which would have paralyzed him for life). The cavalieri had, thanks to God, not been seriously hurt – but what had been grievously injured was his bella figura (to Italians, a fate worse than death) and, equally deplorable, the dignity and honor of the law enforcement agency had been affronted.

Even then, the Italian government did not act harshly or rudely. The authorities politely "instructed" the Filipino workers and "residents" who used to crowd the Termini (like they do Statue Square and the Star Ferry landing in Hong Kong) to move somewhere else. The warning was courteous but final.

* * *

The strong presence of Filipinos in Italy had been confirmed earlier by our very capable and hardworking Consul General in Milan, Mila Perez. When we met her, Mila – whom we’ve known since her stint as Consul General and Chargé Affaires in Bonn (Germany) – said that in Milan alone there were 30,000 Filipinos, and probably 45,000 in Northern Italy.

Mila meets frequently with most Filipino groups. When we were there, she had a "get-together" scheduled with the "teenagers" and younger Filipinos.

It’s too bad she’s due to retire in a few months from a lifetime career in the foreign service. Hopefully, Vice President and Foreign Affairs Secretary Teofisto "Tito" Guingona and DFA Undersecretary Frank Ebdalin will extend her term, at least until next May so she can properly wind up her affairs.

If she can somehow manage to "revive" the orchard and farm properties her family has in Zambales, which have been devastated by Mt. Pinatubo’s lahar, Mila plans to go into farming and other agricultural pursuits when she eventually comes home. That’s what she said.

As for our Pinoy and Pinay OFWs in Italy, many of them work as trusted mayordomas or housekeepers for Italian families, or "helpers" and "companions" for geriatric or elderly persons.

Others "clean" as many as five homes or apartments weekly for Italian families. (They can earn from US$800 to as much as $1,200 per month, depending on what they do.)

Alas, there’s a downside to our Filipino "population" there. Quite a number of husbands, who were petitioned to come over by their wives, and grown-up sons, spend too much time in piazzas or parks, either just standing around, or gossiping, or gambling. Their favorite card game, allegedly, is tong-its – a popular card game which saw its zenith during the previous Erap administration.

When all is said and done, Filipino workers are normally treated generously by their Italian employers who find them simpatico and easy to deal with (being fellow Catholics). So, here’s to our "friends", the 58 million-strong Italian people on their National Day! May our hearts continue to beat as one.

* * *

It’s now confirmed that US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz (as was predicted in this column) came to Manila to request the President to allow the Americans to station their aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) off Basilan in the Sulu Sea.

The Kitty Hawk has a length of 1,046 feet or 318.8 meters, a displacement of 60,100 tons standard (80,800 full load), a speed of 33 knots, a range of 7,700 nautical miles; with a crew of 2,800 plus, and an "air wing" complement of 2,150 officers and men. It normally carries 80 aircraft, more or less.

One can’t help thinking that Wolfowitz, who just came from a security conference in Singapore, also has next-door Indonesia very much in mind when he makes that request concerning the Kitty Hawk and its Carrier Battle Group of several attack and protection vessels.

Mr. Wolfowitz had told the weekend conference (organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies – which, by the way, publishes my annual bible on military establishments, The Military Balance) that terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda were waging "a war against all of us. Terrorism is no stranger to Asia."

Yesterday’s Financial Times of London revealed why Wolfowitz is so keen in Southeast Asian defense. FT correspondent Alexander Nigell wrote that "in June 1986, Paul Wolfowitz was in his office in the US Embassy in Jakarta discussing preparations for July 4 celebrations when a mortar bomb set by a Japanese Red Army terrorist landed in the courtyard.

"The bomb did not go off. But the former Ambassador now the US Deputy Secretary of Defense recalled the incident yesterday as he prepared to tell an Asian security conference in Singapore that the war on terrorism was not just America’s war, but one for the whole world – and notably, for more than half a billion Muslims living in the Pacific Basin region."

The FT added that "Wolfowitz… is known for his hawkish views within the Bush administration on how to deal with Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi president. But belying the image of a rightwing Washington going its own way in the world, the deputy defense secretary will emphasize strong commitment to Asian security and to a continued US role in maintaining it."

Wolfowitz has said that terrorist acts committed in the name of Islam were aimed principally at "recruiting" Muslims to "a cause that tries to condemn a billion Muslims to a medieval view of the world."

The USS Kitty Hawk versus those medieval jihadis in Mindanao – and, uh, elsewhere in the region? Well, why not? How carrier-launched aircraft can penetrate the Basilan jungles is mystifying, but what the heck. Let’s smite the bad guys – hip and thigh!