First, there were headlines about hackers breaking into Philippine government websites. Then came the news about millions of pesos in lost tourism revenue for the Philippines. It’s been a week since the horrifying Quirino hostage took place, and the Chinese have definitely been showing their anger in more ways than we deserve. I have to admit I admire Hong Kong citizens for being united enough to gather 80,000 people for a rally, considering they’re a small population. But I don’t admire the many ways that some private citizens have been retaliating against Filipinos.

An article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that “a series of unconfirmed reports of Hong Kong employers trying to vent their anger by sacking or attacking their helpers has been widely circulating among Filipinos.” Domestic helper Joy Fajardo told the newspaper that more than 30 Filipino maids were sacked after the tragedy, and that she heard rumors that three maids were killed (acid was allegedly splashed on one of them). “We don’t know if these cases are true. But we are very scared,” she said.

The paper went on to say that another Filipino worker, Julie, said her 60-year-old employer, for whom she has worked for 14 years, did not speak to her after the hostage crisis. “She watched news on TV about the hijacking. She did not talk to me and did not give me dinner on Wednesday,” she said.

Read More…

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

—Henry David Thoreau

It seems that the whole world was glued to the news today after word went out that Rolando Mendoza, a senior inspector charged with extortion, took a whole bus of tourists hostage. The situation was slow for the most part, and many believed that it was going to end on an uneventful note. But when the media started airing footage of Mendoza’s brother being arrested, he snapped and shot two Hong Kong tourists.

The tourists were allegedly supposed to fly back to their hometowns this evening, but many of them didn’t make it out of the country alive. People died when we heard those gunshots, but they were hidden behind curtains. But that doesn’t take away the fact that we witnessed their deaths.

At the hostage scene. Photo from CNN.com

What seemed to be the entire world watched the hostage situation unfurl live on television, with newscasters emotionally stammering out the news in between gunshots as the SWAT team unsuccessfully tried to enter the bus using sledgehammers. The image of the PNP on television was laughable: crouched behind shields, the blue-clad officers cowered in fear as they nervously poked the bus with their guns. Twitter was full of jokes; allusions to various action movies (and even Thor, no thanks to the hammers) were the jokes of the hour. SWAT was given an endless number of acronyms: “Sobrang Wala Akong Training,” “Sugod! Wait.. Atras.. Takbo!”

Read More…