Non-materiality

Recently, the Philippine Medical Association admonished a doctor who made a very public diagnosis of our top boxer based on what he saw on television. The doctor caught a video clip of Manny Pacquiao after that stunning knockout loss, thought he saw early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and advised the boxer to retire.

The doctor clearly crossed the line of science and ethics in this case. Fortunately, there is an authoritative association to call him out and establish the lines of professional responsibility.

Unfortunately, there is no such check on people who do crime scene investigation from afar and peddle conclusions without a shred of evidence.

Last week, a minor hood named Dennis Aranas died inside his Lucena City detention cell, in an apparent suicide. The prisoner was in jail for the murder of one Walfredo Martillano in that city. His co-accused for that murder is Rodolfo “Bumar” Edrad.

Incidentally, Aranas and Edrad are part of that bungling team of assassins responsible for the killing of broadcaster and local politician Gerry Ortega. They implicated former Palawan governor Joel Reyes in the conspiracy and offered to be state witnesses in exchange for protection.

The Ortega family seems convinced of the version of the crime offered by the Edrad/Aranas tandem. They, of course, have the right to hold whatever version of the crime they choose. That does not entitle them, however, to draw conclusions without evidence.

Immediately after news of the death of Aranas broke out, Gerry Ortega’s daughter Mika was interviewed (Wednesday last week) on DZMM’s Dos por Dos program. There she said there was foul play in the prison death and then proceeded to insinuate Joel Reyes was involved.

Strangely, the very next morning, Mika was interviewed once more in DZMM’s Rated K. She was asked exactly the same set of questions asked her the previous day in exactly the same order. She, of course, answered in exactly the same way.

It was obvious both interviews drew from the same script. The media facility has crusaded for a quick solution to the Ortega murder and seems to share the Ortega family’s convictions about who might be responsible.

They are surely entitled to that. They are not entitled, however, to preempt investigation of Aranas’ death, much less to implicate people on the assumption of foul play. To begin with, they were nowhere near the scene of the death.

On Friday, February 8, BJMP chief superintendent Diony Mamaril issued a report attributing the death of Aranas to asphyxiation. The NBI concluded Aranas committed suicide.

Fellow inmates at the Lucena jail testified that Aranas had talked about taking his own life. He was distraught over his removal from the witness protection program and the loss of income that meant. In addition, according to an inmate, Aranas was depressed over the fact that his live-in partner had apparently left him.

The DOJ says Aranas was removed from the witness protection program because of a “certification of non-materiality” issued by prosecutors handling the case. What this means is that his testimony has little value in the prosecution of the case. What it also means is that there can be no motive of other interests to see an immaterial witness dead.

The insinuations made by Mika Ortega are, at best, unfounded because no evidence of foul play was found by the proper investigators who were actually at the scene. She was, like the doctor who diagnosed Pacquiao from television footage, drawing conclusions without basis.

At worse, the insinuations are part of black propaganda to insist on a particular version of the Gerry Ortega killing.

Facilities

San Juan City Rep. J. V. Ejercito Estrada correctly observes that realizing the great potential of the country is now less a problem of promotion and more a problem of building the facilities that would accommodate the flow of visitors.

The infrastructure gap haunting our economic development is as profoundly felt in the tourism industry as in all other sectors. Compared to our competitors in the region, our airports are substandard. Existing overland transport and hotel facilities are inadequate to support tourist inflow on a scale larger than what we already have.

The country is well sold as a tourist destination. The influential travel magazine Conde Nast Traveler includes the country in the list of emerging tourist destinations in 2013. The Chinese English-language daily Oriental Morning Post awarded us Best Tourist Destination last year. A survey done by the Shanghai Morning Post names the country the most romantic tourist destination.

The positive reviews from the two Chinese papers are significant. If our tourism is to grow significantly, it is because we are able to tap into the mammoth Chinese tourist market: a middle class 80 million strong. Unfortunately, we remain on the Chinese blacklist because of the handling of the Luneta incident and the diplomatic problems between our two countries.

Ejercito Estrada points out that sluggish infra investments will not enable us to catch up with our neighbors notwithstanding our great potential. Malaysia, for instance, accepted 24.7 million tourists last year compared to our 3.91 million arrivals, counting in returning Filipino expatriates.

What have we done to prepare for increased tourist flow?

NAIA’s Terminal 3 is still not fully operational and Terminal 1 has been repeatedly labeled the world’s worst airport facility. A number of vital provincial airports remain on the drawing board. Road networks need to be built.

It really won’t be more fun in the Philippines unless we address the infra deficiencies with a little more urgency than the DOTC has shown.