We know it's you, Gloria!

THE ONGOING drama over the wiretapped conversations between President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Commission on Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garciliano is reaching absurd heights because of the president's deafening silence on the issue of whether or not it is her voice on the tapes.

You and I, and everyone else in the Philippines for that matter, know that it is GMA's voice on the tapes and that yes, she was improperly discussing the election returns last May 2004. There is no need for the House of Representatives to have the Federal Bureau of Investigation or Scotland Yard verify their authenticity. The president's refusal to comment on the tapes, and the fact that they were first released to the press by her own spokesperson Ignacio Bunye last week, says all that needs to be said.

The filing of incitement to sedition charge against former NBI official Samuel Ong for possessing tapes of the president's phone conversations, and for stirring people to rise against the president, is patently ridiculous. It is the act of a desperate president and administration that find themselves sinking deeper and deeper into a quagmire of their own making.

Is not the behavior of President Arroyo and her cohorts just as bad if not worse than that of what they accused former President Joseph Estrada of doing? At least Estrada didn't cheat to win in the election, unlike GMA who now seems to have cheated badly to squeak by with her supposed 1-million vote margin and just 40 percent of the votes. That's hardly a healthy majority of votes cast, which just shows that her presidency has been weak and unrepresentative from the very beginning.

President Arroyo has basically sold her soul to the devil by making crooked deals with so many different power brokers. These sleazy deals have inevitably contaminated her whole administration and her close family members and that is why she is so silent now. The illegal and dirty business of jueteng has exploded under her benign watch, with a wink and a nod from her.

It is highly unfortunate that the whole exercise that propelled her into the presidency in the first place, the EDSA II protests in 2001, was contaminated with sleazy jueteng to begin with in the form of celebrated whistleblower and self-confessed jueteng-lord Ilocos Sur Gov. Chavit Singson.

I always thought it was a big mistake believing in Singson, and it was an even bigger mistake not throwing him into jail along with Estrada! Watching Kris Aquino fawn over him on morning television whenever Singson would appear with his pet tigers struck me as not only strange but repulsive.

How could such an obviously corrupt man be so publicly celebrated and treated with respect? Only in the Philippines I guess. Now the Arroyo administration is using Marcos-era tactics of intimidation to get people to stop talking publicly about the vast amounts of corruption that surround them. People like Ong are being slapped with sedition charges; youth leaders are being arrested in Manila for putting up anti-Arroyo posters and also being charged with sedition, and TV and radio stations are being warned not to air the controversial wiretap conversations or risk not having their licenses renewed.

What happened to freedom of expression?

The accusations that the president's son Rep. Mikey Arroyo and her brother-in-law Iggy Arroyo have been accepting payments from jueteng lords are serious ones that should be properly investigated. It is so sad and tragic that even President Arroyo, who was once celebrated as the squeaky clean alternative to down and dirty politics, has turned out to be equally contaminated by sleaze, corruption, lying and cheating.

I'm sure most Filipinos are sick and tired of the seemingly endless People Power revolutions because of the inherent instability that arises whenever they take place. Unfortunately, I don't think Arroyo will be able to complete her term in office. The avalanche of sleaze is just too great to ignore.

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Are Filipinos Better Workers?

A READER responded to my column last week in which I complained about the way foreign workers, including Filipinos, were being maltreated in some instances in Israel. Garry "Big Sarge" Davis (I'm not kidding, that's how he signed his e-mail) wrote to me to complain about how awful he has found Filipino workers to be.

"Filipinos continue to be the most problematic of all foreign workers. Give me Indians, Bangladesh (sic), Sri Lankans, Thais, etc. They do not complain, do excellent work & are easy to get along with," writes Davis.

"Filipinos on the other hand, start complaining about their contract from day one. Are lazy, to say the least. Many continue to abuse alcohol. Place getting together with other Filipinos every evening above their work, which they spend most of the day planning, texting & emailing about," continues Davis, concluding, "Filipinos should be very grateful that they are allowed to work in foreign countries. However, their days are coming to an end."

I wrote back respectfully disagreeing with him and pointing out that perhaps Filipinos were complaining about their contracts because they are screwed over so often as soon as they land in a foreign country, be the employer Arab, American or European. I also pointed out that being servile, like many workers from the Subcontinent are, is often mistaken with being a good worker. It is after all the Americans who taught Filipinos to stand up for their rights and encouraged them to form unions. For an American to now complain about that is patently absurd.

I also pointed out that an employer should be glad if their workers are happy and sociable, rather than being grumpy and depressed. But Davis wouldn't have any of my explanations. "No I would not agree that wasting valuable work time (on the clock) as important to keeping Filipinos in a good mood. Other nationalities are not in a servile mode; they value a good work ethic which Filipinos haven¹t a clue about," wrote Davis.

I beg to disagree. I still think that the lack of servility of Filipino workers and their courage to speak out when they are being abused by employers is what really irks Davis and others like him. I have often heard my Saudi friends say that they prefer Filipinos working in companies, shops and restaurants because they are friendlier, cleaner, better looking, speak English well and are well educated (often with university degrees), unlike workers from other countries. I must agree with my friends. Give me a Pinoy any day!

Comments or questions? E-mail me at rasheed@arabnews.com.