RUDY Rosal lived in the squatters’ area across the creek from our house in Paranaque when I hired him as a driver. But he had lofty dreams for himself and his family that he felt he couldn’t achieve by ferrying me and my family in our jalopy. Thus, at the first opportunity, he and his wife signed up with a labor recruiter and went off to work in Saudi Arabia.
Rudy and his wife became Overseas Contract Workers or OCWs. That term is no longer in common usage, having been replaced with the term Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). According to Google, “The term OFWs was officially adopted under the President Fidel V. Ramos Administration to give recognition to millions of Filipinos who sacrifice by working in other countries.”
At any rate, there is a world of difference between OFWs and the other kinds of overseas Filipinos, namely, immigrants or naturalized citizens of their country of residence or foreign students, as in the case of Sen. Grace Poe-Llamanzares, based on her account of her initial stay in the United States.
Joe Molano, the former executive director of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, has taken pains to make this distinction, perhaps because of the unique status and the travails of the millions of Filipino contract workers laboring – often suffering – in foreign countries.
On one of my visits to Manila, Rudy suddenly appeared at our house, driving a nice-looking van. He was rightly proud of his possession, referring to it as “katas Saudi” – literally, the “juice” (or fruit) of working in Saudi Arabia.
“I just want you to know that my family and I are doing well,” said Rudy. “Our children have all finished college. One of them is an engineer, another one is a teacher. We’re no longer squatters. We bought a little house in Paranaque. Lahat iyan, kuya, katas Saudi.”
I told Rudy that I felt really good, hearing that from him. But, at that point, the sheer hypocrisy of Sen. Grace Poe-Llamanzares suddenly came into stark focus. You see, she has often described herself as “also an OFW.”
Apparently, in an effort to ingratiate herself with the millions of Filipinos working abroad, in oil fields and factories, as seamen, teachers, caregivers, nurses or domestics, Poe-Llamanzares has tried to portray her life in America as being similar to that of the overseas Filipino workers.
Does she realize how spiteful she is when she compares her affluent life in America with that of the average OFWs?
Being an overseas Filipino myself and having lived in the US for nearly 30 years, I would be embarrassed to compare my relatively comfortable circumstances with that of our countrymen trying to earn a living in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and in Hong Kong and Singapore. It’s like rubbing salt on a wound.
In case Poe-Llamanzares is still blissfully unaware of the harsh realities of eking out the equivalent of “katas Saudi,” here is an excerpt from an article by Shakira Sison of Rappler, published in May 2014:
“…there are a few things they don’t tell you about the OFW life; things that are often kept secret from those we leave behind…hard and menial work, long hours, or getting scolded by an employer. Nobody talks about the constant immigration struggle, or the fear involved in the life of an undocumented immigrant.
“Cramped quarters and poor living conditions rarely make it to Facebook posts. We don’t talk about bad bosses, layoffs, or the complete physical or emotional exhaustion overseas jobs guarantee. Nobody puts in a status update that they came as a nurse or a scientist but actually work as nannies. Nobody brags about being a tenured professor in the Philippines who works as a factory worker abroad. We do what we can and we keep the drama away from home, even if our lives aren’t exactly what we imagined. At least our families can imagine otherwise.”
Needless to say, Poe-Llamanzares never experienced any of that. To claim that she has is not just hypocrisy but dishonesty. By trying to sell herself as something completely detached from reality, she is no different from a used car salesman glibly pushing a newly-painted heap to a naïve and unsuspecting first time buyer.
Sadly, the counterfeit OFW claim isn’t the only problem with this person who would like to become president of the country. In recent weeks, the unraveling of the many facets of the life of Poe-Llamanzares has begun to make one wonder who or what she really is.
She has portrayed herself as the epitome of honesty and integrity but recent public records unearthed by investigative journalists indicate that she may have a dark side of her ostensibly pristine character.
Records in the US exposed by Philippine Daily Tribune editor-publisher Ninez Cacho-Olivares indicate that a certain Llamanzares Grace P., with the same date of birth of the lady senator, used two sets of social security numbers, one of them belonging to a deceased person. According to US law, that is a felony punishable by imprisonment and a fine.
Poe-Llamanzares has acknowledged both SSNs while claiming that the supposedly illicit one was really her school ID number at Boston College. In fact, a student enrolling in a US college is routinely asked for a social security number. Lacking one, the school may assign a number to the student. But, unless, there have been coincidences that only the supernatural can explain, the fact that her school ID number is exactly the same as the SSN of a deceased US national could mean that she claimed that number as hers, which was why it was assigned as her school ID number.
Another coincidence that perhaps the supernatural can explain is why and how that same combination of numbers – 005-03-1988 – has appeared in US records as having been used by a certain Llamanzares Grace P. in circumstances remote to Boston College.
Poe-Llamanzares has accused a rival presidential candidate of refusing to appear before a Senate sub-committee investigating allegations of corruption, criticizing him of resorting to denials.
And yet, when Cacho-Olivares took up the dare to come up with proof of the allegations of illegal use of a deceased person’s social security number in America, Poe-Llamanzares resorted to exactly the same tactic: Denials.
Apparently, she has had the advantage of having media that have conveniently failed to print any follow stories on a matter more serious than the gossip they have routinely sensationalized.
Poe-Llamanzares, according to the findings of the Commission on Elections, willfully misrepresented her residency in the Philippines in order to qualify as a presidential candidate. She also applied for dual citizenship as a “natural born Filipino” by claiming that she was the biological child of Fernando Poe, Jr. and Susan Roces. She must have known that it was not the truth. Was it really an “honest” mistake?
Her own presidential platform is founded on a fictional premise: She will ostensibly continue the good work of her father, the late Fernando Poe, Jr.
As someone who used to work in the Filipino movie industry, I am aware of the many acts of kindness and beneficence that FPJ showed to people in the industry, but beyond that, he never really did any “good work” that would qualify as a meaningful presidential platform as, say, achievements in land reform or employment generation or social welfare or national defense or the fight against poverty or criminality or even achievements in local governance.
FPJ’s achievements were mainly those depicted in his many fictional roles as a defender of the oppressed. Thus, Poe-Llamanzares, by promoting herself on the basis of fictional achievements and credentials and claiming to be a person of unsullied integrity, is no better than a used car salesman passing off a heap to an unsuspecting buyer as a vehicle in tip-top condition.
In sum, this presidential candidate still has to tell us the truth about herself. Will the real Grace Poe-Llamanzares please stand up? ([email protected])