And only last week President Arroyo was telling people in La Union that in an emergency, they should call 117.
Filipino-Chinese have another worry: they suspect that the illegal aliens from the mainland identify potential Tsinoy kidnap victims to members of Triads or criminal gangs.
In two weeks six outstanding individuals will receive the 2002 Ramon Magsaysay Awards. Of the six, most Filipinos have heard of only one, which is probably why the awards have generated little excitement in this country.
The other day industrialist Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala II, chairman of the award foundation’s board of trustees, asked a small group of journalists how the message of the awards could be disseminated better.
Going through the list of awardees, five of whom were unknown to me, I nearly suggested that next time the trustees should launch the search in each Asian country on a popular TV show such as Game KNB? and announce the prize money. Then there could be a yearlong buildup of anticipation about the awardees. Perhaps board trustee Jaime Ramon Paredes (APO singer Jim to you) could write a song about the awardees. People have such a short attention span for good news – especially good news about unknown, self-effacing individuals – that spreading the message of the awards can be a hard sell.
Someone noted that the awards suffered from their association with the United States. My second brilliant idea was that in this land of Amboys and "mental colony," the association with the Rockefellers and the US Central Intelligence Agency could in fact be an asset and could grab public attention.
But of course that’s not the way the award foundation runs its business. And of course I kept my mouth shut.
Korean Buddhist monk Pomnyun Snim, awardee for peace and international understanding, has been organizing relief efforts both in his country and abroad to assist the people of North Korea and speed up reconciliation of the two Koreas.
Dr. Ruth Pfau, the awardee for public service, was born in Germany but has devoted her life to the eradication of leprosy and its stigma in Pakistan, her adopted country. Bharat Koirala has worked to develop professional journalism and turn a free press into a catalyst for democracy in his country, Nepal. He is the awardee for journalism, literature and creative communication arts. And 37-year-old Indian Sandeep Pandey, the awardee for emergent leadership, is being honored for his numerous projects benefiting the poor in his country.
The awardee for public service – and this one most Filipinos know – is Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. The award has drawn flak from the opposition, which has pointed out that the foundation’s trustees are mostly people identified with EDSA Dos, where Davide played a key role.
Among the Magsaysay awardees are the late Mother Teresa, former President Corazon Aquino, former Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, former Indonesian President Abdulrahman Wahid and social worker Rosa Rosal. About 150 people are nominated each year, and an average of 70 make it to the short list, according to foundation president Carmencita Abella.
Some awardees, such as the Korean monk, are so humble they think they do not deserve the award and refuse to go to Manila. The monk was finally persuaded to accept when told that the award is meant to serve as an inspiration to others.
"It might just promote a thought in (a person’s) mind that hey, maybe I can make a difference too," said Zobel de Ayala.
With so many problems facing each country, the trustees noted, it is easy to give in to despair and think: what can just one person do? Magsaysay awardees do not think that way, the trustees said.
The recipients of the award created in his honor are people who do not wait for others to solve their problems for them. It’s an inspiring message that has special resonance in this country riddled with crime and corruption, a land where many of us believe the answer to our problems is to find a new life abroad.