Dual citizens: Targeted for corruption?

There’s no doubt that there’s a lot of people who are against Charter change, but I’m willing to bet it is only because they hate the Arroyo administration or they just don’t want to change this country for the better. We have been for Charter change since the time of former President Fidel V. Ramos because we’ve strongly believed that there are too many defects in the present Constitution.

But rather than convince people in Cebu of the pros and cons of changing our Charter, we’ve gone to the other extreme, asking the Regional Development Council (RDC-7) to come up with a educational campaign on decentralization. Hence today, a two-day Regional Conference on Decentralization kicks off at the Marriott Hotel to educate us on federalism and the best way of adopting it for our country. I hope you can join this!

* * *

Here’s a good news, bad news story that I’m sure would be of great interest to a lot of Filipinos, especially now that we already have a law on dual citizenship. According to Commissioner Alipio Fernandez, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) has already relaxed its rules for Filipinos seeking dual citizenship. This is indeed great news; after all so many Filipinos have already gone abroad and have become citizens of their host countries… yet they still have properties left in the Philippines and dual citizenship means that they can still keep their properties back in the old home country.

However, this relaxation of BI rules has triggered a new wave of corruption in the Bureau of Immigration, as if they didn’t have enough stiff rules to use in order to extract money from poor and unsuspecting victims. Actually, this story was triggered by a blind item about the experience of three Fil-Ams in consulates in New York and San Francisco that they found to be so efficient, they got their documents all within the hour or within the day. But in Cebu, as the story goes, before the papers could even move… the requirement was 35,000 bucks!

Well, this story triggered a phone call from a very close friend of mine whose brother is already a Swedish citizen. When he learned about the relaxation of the dual citizenship rules, he huffed off to the BI office and asked for the requirements. He met the same reply (I would now say a standard one) that if he pays a certain fee… the papers would move in a jiffy! Being a law-abiding citizen, the brother of my friend insisted that he would rather risk getting into the bureaucratic mess than pay tribute to corrupt BI personnel.

So this BI personnel with initials B. E. made him pass virtually the eye of the needle, until the final stage came, where his signature and thumb mark were required and B.E. told him that this would have to be done in Manila. The applicant protested:"What’s the use of having a regional office in Cebu if we have to fly all the way to Manila for a mere thumb mark and signature?" The applicant asked for a Manila contact and placed a call to this person… supposedly a higher BI officer and yes, the final requirement had to be done in Manila. Hmmm, smells like a nationwide syndicate!

Frustrated, the applicant asked, if he gave the money, how was this process going to be done? B.E. replied that they would just give him a form to sign and that’s it… So the applicant asked B.E. again, why can’t he just sign it in Cebu? And the reply was, there was no form available. I find this story quite disturbing, that corruption still permeates our BI offices.

Like we said, I believe that there is some kind of syndicate within the BI, where Manila officers help their Cebu counterparts extort money from Filipinos who are now citizens of other countries. What many corrupt BI officers cannot understand is, these Filipinos have already acquired the ways and culture of their host countries where corruption is like a plague, where you do not even want to touch it or go near it.

We are writing this piece so that the graft-busters of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) can swoop down on the BI offices and start arresting these crooks in the government. Let me point out that the Bureau of Immigration is akin to a doormat of our nation because they are the first Filipino officials whom foreigners or Filipinos coming home meet. If our BI officers are corrupt, it means the rest of the nation is rotten to the core!

I just wish that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) would issue a directive to the BI to ensure the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Pinoys who want to avail themselves of their status as dual citizens, would be able to get this document in just one day. If other countries can do it, why can’t we?

* * *

As promised, here’s another bit of World War II history that few Filipinos, including the majority of Cebuanos, never read in our history books, no thanks to the National Historical Institute (NHI) for failing to give this account to the Department of Education (DepEd) so that it would be included in our history lessons, even just for Cebu alone.

Sixty-one years ago today, the 182d’s 1st Battalion under Major John T. Murphy supported by the 716th Tank Battalion met stiff resistance as they tried to push through Go Chan Hill (this is only 300 yards behind my house; it’s known today as the Ecotech Center, bounded by Gorordo Avenue and Peace Valley Subdivision). It was to be the first major battle for the liberation of Cebu since the Americal Division landed in Talisay on March 26, 1945.

The battle for Go Chan Hill lasted for three whole days, after which the Americal Division revealed a total of 85 pillboxes or machinegun nests that were neutralized (through flamethrowers) and more than 200 Japanese soldiers killed… with an American Sherman tank destroyed and a good number of US casualties. They had to strip Company A of its remaining officers and men and merge them with Company B and C.

Before I read the book of Capt. Francis Cron entitled "On the Southern Cross," I used to hike up Go Chan Hill from our house (we live on the hill just next to it) and near its top, there’s a huge, concrete room with a low ceiling which the Japanese apparently used as a command center. Only later did I know how important this battle was for the liberation of Cebu as it was the first line of the Japanese defense, which formed a line from Hills 18, 19 and 21 up into Horseshoe Ridge, Coconut Hill, Bolo Ridge all the way up to Babag Ridge, where the worst fighting between the Americans and the Japanese ensued to regain the Island of Cebu. The battle to liberate Cebu ended in August 1945.

* * *

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 talkshow, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.