Hong Kong lawmakers: Finding our weak spot

Many Filipinos are just amazed with President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III’s hardline stance in refusing to issue an apology to the people of Hong Kong for the August 2010 deadly hostage taking incident, where senior police officer Rolando Mendoza commandeered a tourist bus filled with Hong Kong tourists, taking them hostage at the Quirino Grandstand. Eight of them were unnecessarily killed when Police SWAT units made their ill-fated rescue attempt and caused an international furor that only exposed the incompetence of our Philippine National Police (PNP), making them look like keystone cops!

That was three years ago. Just when we thought that this issue was behind us already, suddenly it resurfaces in national headlines, and now we have learned that the people of Hong Kong still wanted an official explanation as to what happened and that apology from P-Noy. Mind you, it is not only the people of Hong Kong asking for this apology, but the whole of China as well.

Since P-Noy refused to issue that apology, a new development has cropped up where Hong Kong’s lawmakers Albert Chan Wai-yip and Ray Chan Chi-chuen proposed a new bill that would put a stop to the issuance of visas for domestic workers. The second phase of this proposal calls for a stop in the renewal of existing job contracts for our overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and lastly, a total ban for all Filipinos travelling to Hong Kong.

Clearly, these lawmakers have found our “weak spot,” taking aim on Filipino domestic workers as a way to “punish” us for our President’s intransigence in refusing to apologize for that ugly incident three years ago. Call it a class of civilizations. Filipinos are known worldwide for having very short memories, which is why we thought that this case was already forgotten and hopefully forgiven. But the Chinese people have long memories. Allow me to take a page in China’s history in what was called the Rape of Nanking that happened on Dec. 13, 1937.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War when the Japanese Imperial Forces invaded China and captured the City of Nanking, an estimated 300,000 Chinese civilians were massacred, their women brutally raped and their bodies mutilated. That was 76 years ago, but for the Chinese people it was like it happened yesterday. Our hostage-taking incident may not have been on the level of the brutality that the Japanese did in Nanking, but for as long as our President refuses to apologize for that incident, our relations with China would always be strained.

Mind you, these Hong Kong lawmakers didn’t stumble on this idea by themselves. They actually copied it from Taiwan, when three months ago Philippine Coast Guard personnel fired upon a Taiwanese fishing boat that intruded in Philippine waters, killing the unarmed fisherman. It stirred a diplomatic row, which resulted in Taiwan’s freezing the hiring of Filipino domestic workers into Taiwan. It even got the Taiwanese people angry with Filipinos to the point that our OFWs were exhorted by the Philippine government to stay home lest they get the ire of angry Taiwanese.

That controversy was only resolved when Netizens came up with a photograph of the Philippine Coast Guard laughing while firing at the Taiwanese vessel. Then a joint RP-Taiwan investigation was set up and soon charges were filed against our erring Coast Guard personnel and things started to cool off. So one problem solved, but because we didn’t solve the previous problem on that Hong Kong hostage incident, so we’re literally back to square one looking for solutions to this problem.

But if these Hong Kong legislators succeed in convincing their colleagues to enact a law stopping the issuance of visas for domestic workers, then we’re off to another serious problem that would affect those whom we call modern day heroes. But instead of showing some kind of humility, the President himself said that we are readying for any backlash that would result from his refusal to apologize for this incident. Wow! Aside from having no humility… P-Noy is showing his arrogant pride that the Philippine Government is ready for anything that the Hong Kong government would pursue in order to satisfy their rights. You wanna bet that we are not ready for this?

I call this misplaced braggadocio! While Hong Kong is not in the Middle East and it is easy enough to bring some 130,000 jobless OFWs back home, if this happens, the ripple effect would be a disaster for the families of these OFWs who today have decent jobs in Hong Kong. If you bring home 130,000 OFWs, I guarantee you that these OFWs will be so indignant, they will certainly march into the streets in angry protest against the Aquino regime. This is a hole in the head that P-Noy should avoid at all cost.

But then, -Noy lives in his own video game world, believing that he is winning this game with his arrogance, pride and a lack of humility.

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