How much is Angelo... err Juan de la Cruz worth?

Depending on which side of the fence you belong to… there are only two sides to the question of whether the Philippine government should capitulate to the demand of the Khaled Bin Walid Brigade in Falluja, which is holding Filipino truck driver Angelo de la Cruz hostage, for the removal of Philippine troops from Iraq. Of course, we completely understand the pleas of mercy coming from the De la Cruz family, but as far as Bayan and all those leftist organizations, they are using this issue to hit their favorite target — America — while at the same time, embarrassing the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (PGMA). These guys have always been traditionally on the side of the bad guys! Yeah! Did you hear them lambaste the kidnappers?

But many of us are foursquare against capitulating to the demands of the terrorists, even at the expense of the life of Angelo de la Cruz. Sure, we submit that this is very easy for us to say; after all, we’re not related to Angelo. But then history has proven that when one succumbs to terrorists, you won’t see the end of it, and soon more Filipinos would also be held hostage.

But yes, there are people out there who are offering various solutions to this problem. There’s a group who wants Angelo beheaded because his cause has made this nation united. Really now? Meanwhile, a lawyer-friend of mine dared to suggest that a clandestine group also abduct an Iraqi national and warn the terrorists that if they kill Angelo, the Iraqi captive will also be killed. Actually, that suggestion surfaced in dire desperation to search for solutions to this problem. My lawyer-friend apparently believes that Muslims only know one kind of law… an eye for an eye! But then of course, that would make us no different from those criminals!

So how do we really solve this problem? For sure, I wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of President Arroyo nor would I say that we have the solution to this problem. But think of it, when Filipina maid Flor Contemplacion was hanged in Singapore, it brought a nationwide howl and pleas to save her from her death sentence. With Angelo de la Cruz held hostage in Iraq, once again cries for mercy for this father of eight children were heard around the archipelago.

This brings us to ask… "How much is the Filipino worth these days?" Perhaps, some of you prefer to resurrect the late Sen. Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino’s famous declaration —"Is the Filipino worth dying for?" But really, I’m serious… how much is the life of a Filipino really worth these days? Should we rephrase this question: "Is the life of a Filipino worth saving in these harsh times?

No doubt, Angelo de la Cruz is in grave danger of losing his head from the hands of mindless terrorists like the Khaled Bin Walid Brigade. However, you should know that day in and day out, thousands upon thousands of Filipinos risk their lives and limbs by just living in this country. All they need to do is to take a ride from their homes to their places of work on a "habal-habal," the motorcycle taxi which you know is not a public conveyance yet a great majority of our commuters, especially in areas not served by jeepneys, take on their way to work. They have no helmets, no means to ensure their personal safety, and therefore, they’re in dire danger because a lot of these habal-habal drivers are very reckless and equally stupid, especially when driving in rainy weather!

What about those people who ride a trisikad? Aren’t they also facing some kind of danger, more so that the trisikad is nothing but a rickety set of steel tubes which could disintegrate when hit by a motorized vehicle and driven by a little boy who shouldn’t be given the privilege to ply our streets?

What about the passengers of that infamous Rough Rider’s Bus Line, which figured in another nasty accident last week? Weren’t these passengers also in grave danger of dying before their appointed time? After all, through the years, Rough Rider’s has earned a bad reputation of having their old and rickety buses manned by drivers with a death wish. Now, why the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) hasn’t revoked the franchise of this bus company is beyond my imagination. How many more accidents resulting in deaths should the Rough Rider’s drivers commit before the bus firm is permanently shut down so they won’t be a danger to our commuters anymore?

What about wooden-hulled vessels? They were supposed to have been phased out long ago, yet the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) continues to allow such vessels to ferry passengers despite the obvious danger to the lives of passengers. What about the squatters who live along the banks of our creeks and rivers? Why aren’t they being relocated to safe places even after numerous incidents of children drowning during floods?

To answer this question, nobody really knows because nobody really cares. In truth, the people who daily take a ride in a Rough Rider’s bus, a trisikad, a dilapidated jeepney, a habal-habal or a wooden-hulled vessel or pedestrians simply crossing the street are in a greater danger of losing their lives just as Angelo de la Cruz is also in grave danger of losing his head! But then, Bayan doesn’t hold rallies against these obvious dangers because this won’t get them on the front pages of our national dailies or on television newscasts!

You want more? The Philippines made so much fuss about the SARS scare last year and the government went to extreme lengths to keep the SARS virus away from Philippine shores. Yet, thanks to God, He spared this nation from SARS. But did you know that more people, especially children, die of dengue fever daily yet our health centers don’t go on high alert because this is considered "normal" to us? Of course, we know the real reason: no one cares because the life of the Filipino in his own country is so damn cheap!

So how much really is the life of a Filipino worth these days? Just ask anyone whose child had been run over by a bus and you’d know that they’d been paid a pittance! In fact, in Cebu, drivers of a certain bus company were once notoriously known to intentionally run over their victims again if they didn’t die the first time they got hit because it was cheaper to pay for a dead person than shoulder the enormous hospital bills! So if we want to save the life of Angelo de la Cruz, we should be consistent and also ask the government to protect the lives of other Filipinos who are in dire danger just by simply going to and from work!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.