I hate to touch the topic of politics even with the end of a broomstick but, with the many issues I’ve been reading lately, I can’t help but break my silence. Our editor’s lamentation about his NAIA ordeal on last month’s issue of TF Newsmag is just one of the countless incidents of extortion, bribery, corruption — in short, pangingikil — that many OFWs and pinoys back home are subjected to. And that’s just in the airport… Step out and you’ll meet more of the crooks in uniform, be acquainted with the many faces of corruption.
In July 2007 Korean embassy suspended visa issuance for OFWs. The move sprang from alleged extortion by Bureau of Immigration (BI) officials to Koreans. No wonder. What a “welcoming”, green-bucks-sniffing committee we have in the country, guaranteed to turn off foreigners and scare them away. Last month, complaints against BI and NBI officials at NAIA are made by OFWs bound for the Middle East. GMA newsreport stated that 500 OFWs (500?!!!) were refrained from leaving the country until they paid the officials a certain fee. These OFWs were suspected as illegal workers despite having the proper documents and going through the right channels in the process. Talk about these greedy officials “biting the hands that feed” them (darn crooks) and the country’s economy, forcibly squeezing out the last peso from every debt-ridden OFW just about to embark on a journey to an honest job overseas, while these crooks are sitting on their fat bums on the job or running after and extorting money from hard-working souls.
The corrupt practices of the few had tarnished the whole lot of the Bureau. Someone I know who works for BI is sickened by the conduct of his greedy colleagues. Many are doing their job right but the rotten ones are shining a bad light on them. Be a whistle-blower and you’ll gain the crooks’ wrath. Whistle-blowing, by the way, is also a corrupt politician’s way. Squealing on a fellow crook is a crook’s way of getting even… when the share of the loot had not been fairly distributed, with the whistle-blower at the losing end. “Isusumbong kita sa bayan, sakim!” would then be the tune the whistle-blower is singing. Guess what? He’ll get high praises for what is deemed by dim-witted few as heroic act. Later on, the corrupt-politician-who-blew-the-whistle get appointed or even elected to a new public office. What kind of society could tolerate that? Sick, stupid, corrupt — that is.
On board a taxi 3 years ago, we were hailed by a uniformed traffic enforcer. Huli! The taxi driver got off and talked with the enforcer. When he’s back, I asked what was that about, seeing him reached out for his wallet and handed some bills to the traffic enforcer. He said, “Bawal ho pala dito dumaan. Di ko nakita ang sign. Nawala tuloy pang-boundary kong pera.” Holdap! The taxi driver gave the crook P200. A classic case of “hulidap“. That wasn’t the first time I’d been a passenger of hulidap victim in Manila. There wasn’t probably a road sign or it had intentionally been placed in a corner hard enough for drivers to spot.
These traffic enforcers would just appear out of nowhere. They know just where to hide themselves until a traffic offender’s where they’d want him to be, then they’re in full view, up close, and personal — lagayan time.
There is no reporting of a hulidap better than that of a fellow blogger, Leo. In his blog, Anatomy Of A Hulidap, he took pains in recounting, step by step, how a hulidap takes place… complete with 8 still images. The crime, involving a group of 5 traffic enforcers and 2 biker victims, was caught on Leo’s camera. One image was that of a pot-bellied traffic enforcer inserting the money (lagay) in his buttoned uniform — the belly area, yes. Bwaya talaga. The crooks were unaware that a few meters above them, a camera-crazed and frequent hulidap victim himself, was keenly observing the ongoing hulidap below, from his office window. Leo’s animated story-telling made me laugh out loud but the greedy traffic enforcers filled me with disgust.
The low- and middle-income bracket are most likely affected by petty extortion like hulidap. Bikers, ordinary motorists, taxi and jeepney drivers are among the few. What happens when these enforcers unknowingly flagged down, for traffic violation, someone with a “badge of immunity”? The “powerful” offender gets off scot-free, tax-free, lagay-free, minor scolding (if ever), and oftentimes, it’s the traffic enforcer who says, “Sorry, sir,” to the offender. ID lang ang katapat… as what happened when my old schoolfriend was pulled over for minor traffic violations, with me in the passenger seat. The first incident in Edsa, Cubao, my friend pulled out his government ID and said he’s Atty. So-and-so. The enforcer was very apologetic, “Sorry, sir. Sorry, sir, bawal ho kasi. Pasensya na. Sige po.” No ticket. No lagay. Just an exchange of “sorry” from the enforcer and “thank you” from a government agency officer… who later bragged about what a bit of “power” can do. That so-called “power” still worked on the second traffic violation in Roxas Boulevard. Though not apologetic, the traffic enforcer didn’t issue a ticket. A bit of reprimanding in response to the flashed government ID, “Tingnan nyo na lang maige ang traffic light sa susunod, sir,” was all that was said, which is not even counted as mere slap on the wrist.
You got a government ID, that’s a “badge of immunity”, you’re above the (traffic) law. Otherwise, give money to the darn traffic enforcer right then and there… or else, you’ll get a ticket, settle everything at wherever hell they’ll direct you to, claim your driver’s license and pay some more at LTO — which is a big inconvenience on your part. So you decide to settle everything on the streets — you pay the enforcers. Lagay is the fastest and easiest route to peace of mind for you at that moment, however huge a strain in the pocket. The next time it happens, you’d be moaning about the hulidap again. You’ve learned your lesson when you realized you’ve been contributing to a societal ill by pushing money to the dirty hands of corrupt government workers — the fat-assed-big-bellied traffic enforcers.
A balikbayan, Bernie, posted on the forum, “Customs Officials Are Corrupt“, of the Philippine government’s website his encounter with them at both NAIA and the domestic airport. When told by the officer to give him $10 in exchange for not prying open Bernie’s baggage, Bernie declared loud enough for everyone to hear, “Sige buksan mo, di ako magbibigay sa ‘yo ni sentimo!” The embarrassed officer let him off without opening his baggage. Bernie must have felt the same anger and utter annoyance my editor, Mr Bartolome, and everyone else, did in dealing with these greedy airport officials unabashedly soliciting dollars (no, the kapalmuks don’t ask in peso) and lai see. These two OFWs refused to contribute to a sickening culture of corruption by standing up to the damn crooks. That’s making a change though it won’t make a dent… not yet. If we join in, in standing up against corruption, we surely can make a difference.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, March 8th, 2009 at 7:14 am Filed under Journey, Opinion, Social Issues and tagged Bureau of Immigration, corruption, hulidap, NAIA, OFWs, Philippine government, social ills, traffic enforcers.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
