The Aftermath

The hostage taking tragedy surely has put the Philippines in the world map once again. And admittedly, another black mark on our ittle nation.We all blamed the police and our government in their inability to control the situation, thus leading to tragic deaths of the HK nationals. Nobody wanted these to happen. But it did. But it saddens me to hear of fellow Filipinos humiliating and ridiculing our very own.

Browsing thru the internet, I could see and feel the anger by the Chinese. Mostly directed to the Filipinos. While I understand their anger, what troubles me is the way Filipinos react to their own, to the point of ridiculing their own country. We may have a lousy Police Force in the planet, inept government officials, but hey, crabbie, THEY ARE OUR police force and government officials. We may be a poor under developed country in the whole of Asia, but that doesn't give the Chinese, or any foreign nations, the right to push, bully, dictate and judge the Filipino nation as a whole because of that tragic incident.

Our President has already expressed sympathy over the tragedy. But they want the Philippine government to express a public apology to the Chinese government. What arrogance! The Chinese are, by the way,  are not exactly a role model in human rights. I shall not go into details here. And the Chinese does not hold the monopoly of being the safest place to visit in the whole world. Filipino tourists, (yes, OUR VERY OWN) has been attacked and killed in one of the supposed safest place in China -- Tiananmen Square in Beijing. It was 2005 when SHELL executive Emmanuel Madrigal and his family were attacked upon alighting from a tourist bus by a knife wielding man named Wang Gongzou. Emmanuel Madrigal and his daugther died in that attack.

Did the Filipino nation expressed indignance over the tragedy? Did we demand an apology from the Chinese government? And did the Chinese offer a hint of regret over the tragic incident? Did they apologized for their inability to keep Filipino tourists safe from attack? Did we issue a travel ban because of that incident?

And the Chinese government has the gall and temerity to blame us over the Luneta tragedy! The have the gall and temerity to ask for an official apology! What really bothers me is the way our OWN media has been acting like they were the representatives of the Chinese. Not one media organization, as far as I know, has attempted to defend our sovereignty as a free independent nation.

But at least one Filipino lawmaker , Sen. Pangilinan, has the patriotic sense to defend our sovereign nation against giant China : " ... we are both sovereign nations and trust that China in the final analysis will respect Philippine sovereignty and not bully a small nation like the Philippines despite the recent hostage taking tragedy involving their nationals".