Taipei should thank, not threaten, Manila

NO APOLOGY: Malacañang did right in deporting 14 Chinese criminals victimizing their compatriots from China. Deportation of undesirable aliens is a sovereign act of government that no other country may question.

No way should we apologize to Taiwan for doing the right thing. It should be Taiwan apologizing to us, and thanking us for past favors.

Taiwanese officials should stop blackmailing the Aquino administration by threatening to lay off the 70,000 or so Filipinos legitimately working in Taiwan. That is not a friendly act.

Philippine officials, including those of the Manila liaison office in Taipei, should not talk and act scared when explaining to their counterparts the expulsion of Chinese members of an international criminal syndicate.

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PEOPLE LEVEL: In international interaction, there are three levels — system, state, and individual. These are intertwined, but actions on different levels may not always be congruent or mutually supportive.

For instance, government-to-government action does not always coincide with the popular sentiments or dealings on the people-to-people level.

Sometimes a state, through its leaders, acts belligerently against another but has no support among the people who are on friendly terms with the people on the other side. There have been cases of misguided leaders involving their unwilling people in unnecessary conflict.

The decision of the Bush administration to invade Iraq in 2003 did not find wide support among Americans despite their tendency to rally around the Chief in times of war. In fact, that war contributed to the defeat of the Republican presidential candidate in 2008.

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THEY’RE BLUFFING: It could happen that the bellicose bluffing of Taiwanese leaders smarting from the deportation may not find resonance among the Taiwanese population at large.

It would not be surprising if plain Taiwanese do not care where criminals are deported. Some may even be glad that the undesirable elements were dumped somewhere across the strait far away from home.

I have been told by vacationing OFWs that many Taiwanese of means, including government officials, are happy with their Filipino help and would pay ransom to keep them.

If these thousands of domestics suddenly vanish, who would look after the children, cook meals, press clothes, clean the house and make the master’s life comfortable while attending to his work and leisure?

Just because the 14 criminals were flown to Beijing, will a Taiwanese factory owner fire hundreds of Filipino workers who have proved to be skilled, honest and dedicated — and go through another tedious and costly process of recruiting new workers?

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WE GAVE THEM A HAVEN: It is likely that the Taipei government’s belligerent bellowing does not rhyme with the interests of Taiwanese households, office managers and factory owners.

A check on the officials threatening the Aquino administration with mass layoff might just reveal that they themselves have faithful Filipino domestics they would not want to give up.

Somebody should refresh their memory that when the communists overran the China mainland in 1949 and the Kuomintang remnants had to flee, Manila gave them safe haven.

From then on, many of them were able to reestablish themselves in Manila’s hospitable environment and go on to pile up riches and gain influence.

We have been good neighbors to a fault. Now Taiwan does this to us? Filipino workers do not suck from their wealth, they contribute to it!

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OFFICIAL PRIDE: The main reason for the Taiwanese protest is that our sending the deportees to Beijing embarrassed them. As the tail that wants to wag the dog, they cannot live with Manila’s patting the dog instead of the tail!

But since Marcos’ time, Taiwanese have lived in relative equanimity with our One-China policy except for occasional official snorting for show.

Their sudden overreaction raises suspicion that some of those crooks may be enjoying a kind of protection from some powerful personalities in Taiwan.

The common objective of Manila, Taipei and Beijing is to crush criminality, especially big-time transnational fraud. Taiwan should be glad that the problem is out of its hands and the swindlers have been sent to China which is known for its severe handling of outlaws.

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MODUS OPERANDI: International syndicates have been using the Philippines as base for operations that involve blackmailing hundreds of Chinese from the mainland.

Sources said the syndicates use Internet and telecommunications facilities to harass their victims. With technology being so advanced, it is difficult to pinpoint where the calls and the emails are coming from.

In some instances, the syndicates threaten targets with reports they are “being investigated” by Interpol or other agencies for money laundering, credit card fraud and other crimes — and that they are about to be caught.

To prevent “arrest,” the syndicates propose a “compromise.” The victims are made to open bank accounts, deposit thousands of dollars, and give the syndicates the access code to the account. The money is then withdrawn by the syndicates.

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DOMESTIC QUARREL: Operatives of the National Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Immigration soon caught them in the act.

Exercising its inherent powers, the Executive determined they were undesirable and summarily deported them before the usual fixers could spring them.

Now, Taiwan wants us to apologize? If the 14 Chinese are indeed its citizens, Taiwan should apologize to us for failing to check their criminal activities in the Philippines.

Taiwan should also apologize to Beijing since the victims are Chinese. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima is right in saying that Taipei and Beijing should sort out their differences and keep Manila out of their domestic quarrel.

If Taiwan wants to get the criminals, it should demand from Beijing to turn them over — instead of blackmailing Malacañang and threatening inhuman retaliatory measures.

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