Of sterner stuff

I thought the "sex-for-flight" issue has died down already, or at least got relegated to the sidelines as more current, and more controversial scandals, surface to grip the nation's interest. I was wrong. Early on Wednesday, two women in masks showed up on TV to make the same accusations against foreign service officers.

The accusations, to recap, involve allegations of sexual harassment of displaced Filipino women working in troubled places in the Middle East in the hands of their own compatriots in Philippine foreign missions.

Some of the specific allegations dealt with having to engage in sex with these foreign service officers in exchange for airline tickets that enable these displaced female workers to go home to the Philippines, hence the ignominious "sex-for-flight" tag.

If true, the accusations make for some of the most hideous crimes any person can level against another. Not only have these women suffered enough already from human conflict but, as a result of their displacement, they have been harassed and exploited by their own countrymen.

So far, however, we only have the word of these women on the matter. And in a manner that I expressly do not like and trust. In the television interview I just mentioned, they were in masks. And that is something that takes away much of my confidence in the veracity of what they are telling the public.

If I remember correctly, those accused in any wrongdoing not only enjoy the presumption of innocence, they also have the right to come face to face with their accusers. It is a great injustice to be accused of something and not be able to see who your accuser is.

To be sure, the accusers may need to be protected from harm. But that is another problem for which there is another solution. You just cannot right a wrong by committing another wrong. The accusers cannot hope to hide forever in anonymity without suffering some loss of credibility.

As it is, I already have a hard time believing their story, even if the accusers come out from behind their masks. And while I believe there are always exceptions, I still cannot get around to convincing myself that a true Filipino woman would sell herself for sex for the price of an airline ticket.

More so when it comes to overseas Filipino workers. OFWs already made a great sacrifice leaving their families and friends just to be able to have the chance to make their own lives a little bit better. I do not think they will throw all that away for a ticket.

I can understand that displaced workers undergo very difficult times in a foreign land. But I still think the price of a ticket is too paltry for anyone, no matter how desperate, to parlay for their dignity and self-respect.

I do not think, short of being raped, that Filipino women can sink to such depths of desperation as to willingly submit themselves to sexual advances for an airline ticket. Filipino women, I believe, are made of sterner stuff than that.

Here is what I believe about women displaced in foreign lands and left in the care of our embassies until they can be repatriated, either with the help of our government or some humanitarian organization, or through their own means and initiatives.

I believe that if these women managed to find their way overseas, there is no reason why they cannot find their way back home. They can sell, mortgage or borrow whatever there is to sell, mortgage or borrow. But I do not think they will do it with any ticket-waving dirty old foreign service officer.

Any Filipina who values her dignity and self-respect will reject sexual advances, especially for something like a plane ticket. For the Hope Diamond perhaps, or the Crown Jewels of England. But a plane ticket? Come on. A Filipina strong enough to go abroad should be much stronger in a situation like that.