The politics of travel advisories

The OFWs all over the world do not believe that there is any reason to single out the Philippines, of all countries, to be a target of terrorists attack. In fact, they are sad, angry and exasperated, with the peremptory slapping of the travel advisories by powerful and allied countries, at a time when Christmas vacation plans are being finalized by their foreign employers, boyfriends and fellow workers.

Liza, a DH from Davao, was excited with her wealthy employers' plan to spend the Yuletide with Liza's family in Davao. Helen, a Secretary in Kuwait has already paid for the tour package with her Arab husband to experience the Sinulog. And Rosanne, a factory worker in Taichung, Taiwan is getting married in Ronda, with her wealthy Tai-wanese prospective husband, and the Labor Attache as Ninong. With these travel adviso-ries, Liza and her employers may end up in Bali. Helen and her husband may go to Viet-nam or Burma instead. And Rosanne's boyfriend may end up marrying another girlfriend from Sumatra.

Whatever the information in the hands of the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and France, neither the Philippine government, much less the OFWs have a ink-ling on it. The Filipino workers, however, are neither dumb nor stupid. They are smart enough to discern that there is much more to this than meets the eye. They know that these rumors about terrorists' attacks started to percolate in the rumor mills, after our Senate started to make noise about the plan to review the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

In fact, the OFWs love Sen. Miriam Santiago and Sen. Kiko Pangilinan for raising this issue because they were angry at the fact that our women could be raped by Ameri-can servicemen, and the culprits could enjoy the comforts of the US Embassy while trial was pending, and then, at the end, go scot free just like that. Therefore, this Agreement which gave rise to such crimes, to the minds of the OFWs, should be abrogated, aside from the fact that it undermines the sovereignty of our State and the integrity and national pride of our people.

It is not far-fetched for any thinking OFW to put two and two together, and con-clude, not baselessly, that these travel advisories are psy-war tactics in geopolitics. Or, to put it mildly, the migrant workers believe that these are not too subtle reminders that we better not stray away from the official line of Washington, or else, when Bin laden throws a bomb at our airports and malls, Uncle Sam won't be there to salvage us.

The OFWs have developed some degree of sophistication in their analysis of the dynamics of global politics. They know that, with the stunning debacle of the Democrats in the last mid-term polls, they are weakened in the domestic front. Time Magazine has dislodged Pres Obama from his position as the most powerful leader in the World and was replaced by the Chinese Prime Minister. And so, they need to gain some major headway in international front.

Pres. Obama went India, Indonesia and Yokohama for the APEC Summit, by-passing again the Philippines, the home of thousands of veterans who died under Ameri-can flag in its war against the Japanese, against North Koreans, and against North Viet-nam, the country that supported the USA in all its wars in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan. The least the US should have done was to whisper to Malacañan why travel advisories should be slapped on our country at the most unlikely timing.

Our good Pres. Noy went to Yokohama with a little embarrassment, courtesy of our allies in the global alignment of forces. Meanwhile, Liza of Penang, Helen of Kuwait and Rosanne of Taiwan will just have to grin and bear it, and perhaps begin to embrace the hard reality, that not all is fair in politics and love. The OFWs are smart enough to accept this.

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