Spoiler alert to ‘More fun in Phl’

 LOCARNO CITY — While it should not be rare to find Filipinos at every nook and cranny of the world, it is still a pleasant surprise to bump into a fellow countryman in this far away city of Locarno in Switzerland. One of them is Arah Cruz, a 22-year-old Filipina who works at the reception desk in a hotel where we were billeted. She has been living in this Swiss city for the past 20 years and is currently working while on school vacation.

As far as she knows, there are only five Filipinos living in this quaint part of the city called Ticini. After all these years in Ticini — located near the border of Switzerland and Italy — she has apparently assimilated the culture and way of life of Italian-speaking Swiss people here.

From Google search, we found out, there are four languages used in Switzerland. In the city of Zurich, Swiss people speak the German language.

But in this Swiss city, it is not only in language used but also most establishments, especially restaurants, are Italian. That’s why we did not initially recognize the Filipina receptionist whose looks can be mistaken for an Italian-Swiss. It was only after she began talking to us in English with typical Tagalog accent that we got to know she is our kababayan.  

From Google search also, it says there are about 10,000 Filipino migrants all over Switzerland. It is not strange if there are not many Filipinos in Switzerland. Though it is one of the more progressive economies in Europe, Switzerland could be quite prohibitive. While the Swiss have one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, they also have high cost of living.

Arah was two years old when she and her parents left the Philippines to migrate and became permanent residents in Switzerland. She only gets to hear about the Philippines when their hotel is visited by fellow Filipinos who check in to the hotel where she works. And those chances to see fellow Filipinos are few and far between.    

So she is very interested to hear from us what are the latest news and developments in the Philippines. Fortunately, the hotel has very efficient free wifi that makes it convenient to surf the internet. I showed her how she could monitor reports from The Philippine STAR digital edition through the Web, including latest breaking news from PhilStar.com on Twitter via mobile phone and i-Pad.    

While modern information technology gives us this advantage, it also has the downside of how fast the news, good or bad, spreads seamlessly around the world.  

A case in point was the killing last October 5 of two Swiss tourists who came to the Philippines. The two Swiss nationals, namely, Robert Erich Lober, 67, and Balthasar Johann Erni, 78, were shot at close range while they were in a beach resort in Misamis Oriental.

More than two weeks after the crime, suspects in the twin killings remain at large. Gov. Yevgeny Vincente Emano offered a P100,000 reward for any information leading to the capture of the still unknown killers. Except for supposed cartographic sketches, investigators from the Philippine National Police (PNP) have yet to find and capture the suspects.

Long before the news was reported in the Philippines, the Swiss media picked up the local news in Misamis that very Sunday evening after it happened. Swiss ambassador to the Philippines Ivo Sieber told me he was already reading about the incident through Swiss media online services. “It’s really tragic that such incidents happen regardless of the nationality of the victims,” the Swiss ambassador pointed out.

A few days later, another Swiss national was reportedly found dead in Surigao City. Police identified the victim as Florian Mayer, 23, of Geneva, Switzerland. His body was found in Barangay Togbongon with his driver’s license from his wallet and other personal valuables recovered intact. Investigators theorized Mayer may have gone to Siargao Island since he had a boat ticket and a terminal fee dated Oct. 5. One day later he was found stabbed to death.

“Indeed, the 3 murder cases with Swiss as victims over the course of just 2 days were very tragic. Naturally we hope that Philippine authorities will do what is required to apprehend the culprits and hold them accountable according to the law,” ambassador Sieber urged.

These heinous crimes that claimed the lives of three Swiss nationals a day apart come as a spoiler to the fact that Switzerland has become actively involved in the ongoing peace process in Mindanao. Switzerland chairs the Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) as an independent body established under the “Normalization Annex” to the comprehensive agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB) with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

This is not to say the involvement of Switzerland in the Mindanao peace process had anything to do with the two separate killing incidents on Swiss nationals. But since Philippine authorities have not yet come up with early solutions to both crime incidents, this possible angle should not be closed.

Two other foreign nationals are, in fact, being held as hostages by kidnap-for-ransom Abu Sayyaf bandit group that have links with both the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front as well. German doctor Stefan Viktor Okonek, 74, and his wife Henrike Dielen, 55, have been in captivity since they were seized by the Abu Sayyaf from their yacht last April while sailing near Rio de Tubbataha off Palawan.

Last month, the embassy of China in Manila issued a travel warning to mainland Chinese nationals against coming to the Philippines. The embassy reported cases of Chinese tourists victimized by kidnap-for-ransom criminals, with some victims being killed even after payment of ransom. Much earlier, the embassy of South Korea in Manila sought immediate solution by the PNP on murder crimes that victimized at least nine South Korean nationals since January to August this year.

And then we had this latest case of sensational murder of Filipino transgender Jennifer Laude who was believed killed in a crime of passion by a visiting US Marine officer while on R&R in Subic, Olongapo City.  

Whoever the victims are, the PNP and other investigating authorities should speed up solving these crimes. Or are they waiting first for these foreign embassies to raise travel alert or warning notices to their nationals to avoid going to the Philippines?

Unless these crimes are solved, it will be — as Swiss-speaking Germans say, “auf Wiedersehen,” or goodbye for the country’s tourism program. Don’t wait for spoiler alert to be issued again on “More fun in the Philippines!”