The hostage crisis' collateral damage on the OFWs

That tragic “dog day afternoon’’ hostage crisis, on August 23, which definitely inflicted an irreparable damage on the Philippine reputation, has also caused serious collateral damages on OFWs, all over the world, especially our domestic helpers in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.

That horrible incident has shown the whole world, courtesy of CNN, BBC, Aljazeera, and other global networks, what is worst, what is most unpleasant and undesirable among the character and traits of Filipinos.

It thus highlighted, albeit unwittingly, whatever is to be deemed the black side of the Filipino psyche. That despicable incident might even adversely affect the drug case against Congressman Ronald Singson in Hong Kong. It has the potentials of affeccting all thee pending criminal cases being faced by many OFWs in many countries. And, who knows, Miss Venus Raj could have won the 2010 Miss Universe contest if not for the negative publicity that such hostage crisis generated in the international community.

My staff in Taiwan opted not to wear his polo barong on the day following the tragedy, for fear of adverse reaction by Chinese and Taiwanese here. Generally, Filipinos all over the world, are showing embarrassment at, as reactions to, the reprehensible acts of a bemedalled police officer who went berserk due to his alleged illegal dismissal and his having been supposedly a victim of injustice.

While no one among them has the moral right to pass judgment on the person of the late Capt. Rolando Mendoza, they bewailed the manner of his retaliation because it victimized innocent foreigners and it caused a major embarrassment of the new administration, not to mention the collateral damages brought upon the Filipino migrant workers.

The Filipinos abroad are also disappointed considerably at the lousy manner by which the police handled the crisis situation. Of course, I had to caution them that, whilst it is very convenient, from where they stand, to hurl innuendoes at the police, we need to appreciate the difficulties that they faced, working non-stop for ten hours with heavy rains pouring and with a batallion of media people and bystanders who exacerbated the tensions and pressures on the belaugered police.

The Filipinos who saw the Miss Universe Beauty Pageant, on the day following the tragedy, observed that the hostage-taking might have affected the final standing of Ms. Venus Raj, because there were judges with business interests in Hong Kong and some Chinese connections.

In the Question and Answer portion, the Filipinos, in the audience in Florida, and the millions watching the tv coverage, were apprehensive that the hostage drama might have been asked as a question on Ms. Raj, and if so, it might have been very disconcerting and rattling on the part of our bet.

But, of course, the dreaded question was not asked at all. Nonetheless, it is expected that all the other candidates might have overwhelmed Ms. Raj with so many vexatious questions about the whole incident, a day before the pageant, and such vexations might have affected the poise and composure of our candidate.

The reaction of the Hong Kong government officials was very strong, emphatic and damaging to our country’s image. While our Consul General Claro Cristobal is handling the situation quite well, the more than 150,000 Filipinos in Hong Kong might have been gnashing their teeth.

The ultimate hostage was our country and our people. The stock market went down immediately. And many foreigners started to look at OFWs with “slings and daggers’’, trying to discern perhaps whether their Filipino workers have homicidal tendencies in their minds and murderous desires in their hearts.

Let us not forget that there are many murder charges being faced by OFWs in various courts abroad. No one can tell how damaging that tragic inccident might be to the outcome of these cases. Ergo, the worst collateral damage inflicted by that “dog day’’mayhem was on the Filipino migrant workers.