I DREAM of one day seeing Filipinos not as DHs or construction workers but as tourists savoring the thrills of top destinations in Europe, in the Americas, in nearby Asian nations. If that day comes, I will be happiest. Imagine the once dirt poor Pinoys spending their dollars in more expensive hotels in London or Tokyo or New York in careless abandon.
That may be too farfetched to happen. Our Asian neighbors were once as destitute as the Philippines today. But look at their transformation. Singapore and Hongkong have developed into economic tigers, a status exploited by their people who can be found in exotic places around the globe, enjoying the sights and smell and sounds, spending money like water.
At the moment, Filipinos can only salivate at such intoxicating prospects. But if a miracle from heaven occurs and this country outsmarts today’s rich Asian lands, even the South Pole will be within our reach. Filipinos will find it easy to save for foreign travels.
Tourists who spill over to our shores come from prosperous countries. Europeans, Americans, Koreans, Chinese, Arabs, Africans have been in our shores searching for something to satisfy their senses. Not all have millions. But in their own lands, they have comfortable sources of income that allow them to save and fly to exotic destinations regularly.
This, however, is a remote dream for today’s Pinoys. With 80 percent living below poverty level, allocating money for travel abroad is near impossible. How can they stash away a few pesos when their daily income is not enough for three square meals a day?
In impoverished barangays and squatter areas, three meals a day are a luxury. In these places live the poorest Pinoys who do not have time to look at the beautiful sunset because they worry about the oil to light the lamp at night.
We have Filipinos in almost every continent but they are there not to see beautiful places but to enslave themselves in the households of rich employers, some of whom look at Filipinos with contempt. The cruelty they show to servants is due to their hatred for anybody toiling for them.
They consider toilers as animals.
The horrible experience of a Filipina DH in Saudi Arabia reportedly raped by her employer’s male members and their friends is an example of what awaits our women abroad. Probably many have met the same fate but won’t surface.
Our government officials should be ashamed of what is happening to our women in foreign lands. Do they feel a sense of guilt? From the way they talk, they feel nothing akin to sympathy or guilt.
Our women whom we worship in this country have suffered indignities abroad, raped and maltreated, even murdered and our officials would not lift a finger against the perpetrators. Have you heard of foreign rapists or killers dragged to jail and beheaded in public plazas?
If our country’s economy will improve, jobs with good pay will be available and our women won’t head for distant shores. But unfortunately, very little has been done to achieve the elusive goal.
Everybody knows, however, it is the practice of every administration to trumpet its achievements, its way of lulling the people into a false sense of progress. The bright statistics will silence the critics, the officials would argue.
But the country does not actually move forward. And everybody can feel it. Our condition has worsened with every new administration taking over from the old one. Little is achieved in the economic front.
Juan de la Cruz is as destitute as ever. His dream of getting out of his backyard, of seeing much-publicized beautiful places abroad has been stopped by his empty pocket. He envies the good fortune of his more well-off Asian neighbors.
