Undiplomatic diplomats

Our ambassador to Papua New Guinea, Bienvenido Tejano, should be recalled from his post for bringing shame to our country.

Tejano was charged in court with sexual assault by several Filipino women and at least one Papua New Guinean before the courts there.

However, he has invoked diplomatic immunity, so the charges against him were dropped.

I learned about the charges against Tejano from Dorothy Kenneth, a senior reporter for the Post Courier in Port Moresby.

I had an overseas call with Ms. Kenneth, who was in Port Moresby, on Wednesday, June 23.

Tejano is a sex fiend, if reports about him are to become the bases of charges against him.

He’s also a pedophile if the same reports about him are to be believed.

The ambassador’s own niece and grandniece have gone to the Parañaque Prosecutor’s Office and filed sexual assault charges against him.

Tejano’s grandniece, Joanna (not her real name), told me she was “fingered” by the ambassador when she was seven years old.

Joanna is now 20 years old.

Joanna’s mother, Rose (also not her real name), complained to Isumbong mo kay Tulfo. She was the ambassador’s niece. She said she was raped by Tejano when she was 12 years old.

Rose, 56, can no longer file rape charges against Tejano, since the 20-year prescription period has lapsed.

Rose’s father is Tejano’s elder brother, now deceased.

Why did Rose complain only now, I asked her.

Rose said she totally forgot about the rape, charging it to bitter experience until her daughter told her that Tejano also abused her.

Rose said another niece of Tejano’s, her cousin who now lives in Los Angeles, California, was also raped by the ambassador years ago. The cousin is now married.

Rose’s cousin’s mother is Tejano’s sister. The cousin, Rose said, also did not complain about the rape because it would bring shame to the family.

I accompanied mother and daughter to a meeting with Greco Belgica, chairman of the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC), for the filing of an administrative case against Tejano.

The PACC has jurisdiction over presidential appointees, from Cabinet members to bureau directors, including ambassadors.

Belgica said he would report the complaint to President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte, so Tejano could be recalled.

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Tejano is not the only ambassador who has brought shame to our country.

Philippine Ambassador to Brazil Marichu Mauro was recalled from her post after closed-circuit television (CCTV) video footage showed her maltreating her Filipino housemaid.

Alex Lamadrid is yet another pasaway (delinquent) ambassador.

Lamadrid was recalled from Syria after some maltreated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), who had sought refuge in the Philippine embassy in Damascus, complained of being snubbed by him.

The OFWs, whose plight this columnist exposed in a column in another broadsheet, said Lamadrid always held parties for his handsome Syrian friends, but didn’t deign to visit them at the embassy basement.

Methinks all our diplomats should undergo neuro-psychiatric tests before being sent to their assignments in other countries.

Perhaps these diplomats should also be tested for emotional quotient (EQ), which includes empathy for fellow Filipinos abroad.

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President Digong was ill-advised when he made that pronouncement that people who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19 would be sent to jail.

Some lawyers, including Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, said that refusing to be vaccinated is not a crime.

Guevarra said there is no law “criminalizing” the refusal to be vaccinated.

Oh my goodness gracious, even Digong’s alter ego at the Department of Justice has contradicted him!

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque or presidential legal adviser Salvador Panelo should have advised the President against making such a pronouncement.

“There is a crisis being faced in this country. There is a national emergency. If you do not want to be vaccinated, I will have you arrested,” said Digong.

I can understand the President for saying that out of frustration. Many citizens don’t want to be vaccinated out of fear of the vaccine’s adverse side effects.

But Digong could have just appealed to the anti-vax people’s sense of humanity because they could be potential carriers of the coronavirus if they don’t get inoculated.

It’s the job of the Department of Health to assuage people’s fears of adverse vaccine side effects. But the DOH, it seems, is natutulog sa pansitan (sleeping on the job).

Sonamagun! Health Secretary Francisco Duque should be kicked out for being negligent when it comes to informing the citizenry that deaths caused by adverse vaccine side effects are one in a million.

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It seems the Office of the Ombudsman sides with the rich against the poor.

The Office of the Ombudsman suspended for one year Mayor Mary Jean Feliciano of Brooke’s Point, Palawan for stopping the operation of a nickel mining company in her town.

Feliciano was just granting the request of her constituents, who are environmental advocates and groups representing indigenous people (IPs) in her town, to shut down the mining operation.

The mayor led town residents and anti-mining advocates in demolishing the gate, fences, guardhouses and office buildings of Ipilan Nickel Corp. (INC) in 2018.

Residents of Brooke’s Point had complained that the town’s water system, which supplies water to six villages, is located within INC’s mining site.

If Gina Lopez, former secretary of environment and natural resources, were alive today, she, too, would be complaining about the ombudsman’s decision.

During her time as environment secretary, Lopez ordered the closure of the INC mining site for destroying the environment.

It’s a pity Gina Lopez is now gone.

By the way, Gina’s appointment was turned down by the bicameral Commission on Appointments, most of whose members are miners or mining protectors.

Gina died of cancer, most probably out of depression for the humiliation of being kicked out of the DENR for protecting the environment.

Poor Gina!