A big blackeye for Phl image overseas

Only in the Philippines can you see a German national getting away with climbing over a fence at a military base and then shoving aside a Filipino soldier who tried to stop him from proceeding any further. The incident, footages of which have been shown and reshown on television, does not speak well of our country regardless of the issues that may have prompted the incident.

It probably helped to embolden the German, and then restrain the soldier from doing what was expected of him under the circumstances, that members of the media were present to record the incident, after being quite obviously informed in advance to be at the site. But media presence or not, had the incident happened in another country with enough self-respect to enforce law and order, that German would have been, at the very least, tackled to the ground and hauled away to be charged.

Even the media were in a restricted area where they were not supposed to be and it was probably only through the tolerance of the camp commander that they were not arrested as well. Press freedom is not absolute and there are areas that not even a press card can allow access to. A military base, because of the sensitivity of its nature, is one such place.

Not that an outsider can never enter a military base. But there are rules governing such access and no one is exempted from compliance with these rules, more so with the members of the media who are, by the nature of their calling, supposed to be the very watchdogs for what is right and proper. Members of the media, or at least the responsible ones, know and understand fully well the limitations of their responsibilities.

What happened at Camp Aguinaldo did not serve to promote the interests of those who are fighting for justice for that slain transgender, suspected of having been killed by a US Marine who is now being detained in that military facility. With due respect to the family of the victim, and those who are making it their cause to highlight the issues they think are involved in the case, what they did does absolutely nothing to ensure that justice will be served.

After all the anger and all the senseless acts that unrestrained anger provokes have been made and done, it is still the courts that have jurisdiction over the case. It is still in the courts where the real battle for justice will be served. It is there where evidence and not sentiment will be weighed and assayed and be given due course until a verdict is reached.

Outside of the courts, everything can go out of hand for which many might be sorry. Unfortunately, there are things that no amount of regret can rectify and set aright. One of them was the big slap in the face that the whole world saw courtesy of that German lover of the slain victim and the victim's sister. Here in the Philippines, we may see the incident as an offshoot of the case. Abroad, foreigners will see it as a stupid display of Philippine military weakness and inutility.

Here we can get caught up in the passions generated by the case. After all it is still a local incident despite the international flavor provided by the suspect being a US Marine. But nothing is ever local anymore and the television footages of the security breach at Camp Aguinaldo made sure of that. Foreign viewers do not care for the murder as much as we do. What will forever be etched in their minds is how we can allow a German to climb over the fence and shove our soldier aside.

Frankly, I do no know which is more damning of us as a people -- the footages of that German shoving away our soldier or those video clips a few years ago of our hapless policemen trying to deal with   an angry cop who took hostage a busload of Hong Kong tourists in what has now come to be known as the Luneta bus standoff. Perhaps the bus hostage incident was more embarrassing. But I think they are the same in their demeaning effect on our uniformed services.

I am very particularly about the uniformed services because this is the sector that is most readily associated with discipline and law and order. In the heirarchy of official respect, I would rate the uniformed services way up higher than government officials, especially the elected ones who we all know as politicians. Politics, as we know it, especially here in the Philippines, is a game absolutely devoid of any rules.

But when it comes to the military and the police, there is supposed to be an air about them that should inspire confidence. But how can anyone feel confident when a soldier simply allows himself to be pushed aside by a German who has clambered over the fence of his very own military base? If China, with all its military might, graduates from push to shove, I can grudgingly understand we we might be forced to just stand down.

But an unarmed German who has been in the country for only a few days? And who clambers up the fence of the country's premier military base and then jumps over inside and pushes aside the first Filipino soldier who tries to stop him? And then the soldier just stands meekly as the German is the one actually berating him? My God, please tell me something, anything, why the incident does not diminish all of us Filipinos.

Whatever may be the issues involved in the killing, the matter of security at our military bases is an entirely different thing. And even if military security at our bases is not what security is cracked up to be in other countries, certainly we should be a little more circumspect in our shortcomings. We do not have to advertise to the whole world what a big fat joke military security is at our bases.