“Compania con personae non grata”
Foreign companies and individuals operating in the Philippines should behave as guests and therefore must manifest even the barest form of respect for their host country and host people. Whilst we need investors and foreign locators, we also have a fundamental sense of self-respect and national dignity.
And we do not just refer to Honda which folded up, let their top honchos depart by the dark of the night, leaving 387 workers jobless. Not just Wells Fargo dislocating 700 BPO workers, and Nokia whose 700 professional employees are left behind without a source of livelihood. Rather, we specifically refer to POGO operations allegedly owned, managed, and controlled by Chinese visitors, many of whom are undocumented (I did not say ''illegal'' as I don't want to prejudge them). The problem with these aliens is that they do not respect our laws and authorities. While our migrant workers are immediately arrested, jailed, and even executed in foreign lands, including China, here in the Philippines, we see a lot foreigners, mostly Chinese, who make a mockery of our government and our laws.
I hate to indulge in xenophobia but it is of common knowledge that thousands of Chinese here in Luzon, mostly in Metro Manila, and even in Cebu and Davao, are giving a lot of problems to our authorities. They spit at the faces of our traffic enforcers, they allegedly traffic women for prostitution, and they have been reported to engage in illegal gambling and even alleged kidnapping of their compatriots, for ransom. There are reports that a number of them are allegedly involved in drugs. Just a few days ago, our immigration operatives have apprehended hundreds of undocumented Chinese, and they are being deported and repatriated.
In general, however, our government is too liberal with the Chinese and just look the other way when these aliens blatantly and arrogantly violate our civil, criminal, tax, and administrative laws in cavalier fashion. The sad and mysterious truth is that the strict protocols we apply to Europeans and Americans, we seem not to impose on Chinese. What then appears to be too special to these people whose government is abetting the encroachment into our marine and terrestrial territories? Their undisguised covetousness of our territories, their lack of respect for our government and their alleged involvement in high crimes (like kidnapping) should be subject to judicial scrutiny and judicial review.
The totality of their undesirable behavior should constitute as enough basis for us to impose a ban on them as well as on all those who are similarly situated. There are many good Chinese, and perhaps some of them have done amazing things in extraordinary ways. But a growing number of them do pose many social, economic, and cultural threats to our people and to our national interests. If we can be harsh to Americans with whom we share a rich reservoir of past cooperation and common history, why are we inordinately tolerant of these troublemakers and notoriously undesirable visitors?
I have Chinese blood, and who doesn't? But I am outraged at these people who are virtually personae non grata and keep on insulting us with their cavalier attitude towards our government and people. If you ask my honest opinion, without second thought, I would say, that those proven to be truly undesirable among them must be sent home on the next flight to their homeland. No ifs, no buts, no exceptions.
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