By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
It was the other week when I read about Canada sending its military to take over some hospitals and elderly homes because most of the medical front liners there (nurses, doctors and caregivers) ran away or were not reporting for work. I got a the feeling that these were not Filipinos or Filipino-Canadians.
I used to have a Cordilleran lady client who worked in Canada as a caregiver. She related that their co-workers who were not Filipinos used to hate them because they were loved by the institutions they were working for as they were not so picky about the things they had to do as part of their jobs. So they were derisively and condescendingly referred to as the “black tops” by their blond or red headed co-workers.
While many Filipino health front-liners abroad had died, they did not die in vain. Not the least because they bravely perished in the line of duty but they also further strengthened the reputation of Filipinos that they don’t chicken out at the slightest sign of danger. Am sure they were generously rewarded in the afterlife and their loved ones left behind will reap some important blessings due to their having paid the ultimate sacrifice. God is just and very fair.
On the lighter side, the grandfather of the popular Canadian singer/actor Michael Buble’ posthumously rewarded his Filipina nurse or caregiver a big house and lot and the singer even had it renovated, so it was very beautiful, before turning it over to the nurse. Such reward was in accordance with the wishes of the late grandfather. This would not have transpired if the Filipina nurse was not deserving. She must have been performing well her duties that she was counted as a member of the family.
Everybody has to face some danger on the job. Even us lawyers who are often looked at as just sitting in their offices and going to court have to pray to the savior in rare circumstances. One such occasion is when one is representing a party in a very heated labor strike and things become very nasty. This happens when the laborers are already hungry due to a protracted labor strike and yet their employer is not giving in to their demands, often unreasonable. The lawyer for the employer would even be threatened with death.
Sometimes the threat would be right there on your face as when you are facing the laborers in a negotiation, hundreds of them who are already sufferig the pangs of an empty stomach, and you shout at each other and you only have one or two bodyguards who would certainly be no match to the employees if a frenzy mob psychology sets in resulting in a rampage, and everybody would be crying for your blood. What could the Dep’t of Labor hearing officer and your two body guards have done to stop such a mob? Nothing. You would have been lynched.
Have I tried that? Several times in Metro Manila. They would even sue you criminally and administratively. I am a veteran of such cases, even a number (4) of disbarment cases.
Another dangerous instance is when a lawyer represents drug lords. I used to have a very seasoned opponent in Quezon City regarding the ownership of some machineries which, upon my instruction, were carted away by my client as we had enough proof these were owned by him. Nothing dangerous there although I ended up suing a squad of police investigators.
This was just to illustrate that that opponent lawyer who was at his prime while I was just a kid lawyer, turned out to be the lawyer for several drug lords whom he got acquitted. One morning his name was in the headlines. He was gunned down by—as the story around legal circles had it—by law enforcement officers. In short, he was “salvaged.”
As one Cordilleran lawyers advised other lawyers, when you represent a member of the “acetylene gang” in a case in the lowlands and you manage to have him acquitted, chances are the police officers who collared him will take it personally. So don’t ride with your client on your way home. The police officers or their hit men might indiscriminately spray with bullets the vehicle your client is riding in.
Only in the Philippines?
Moral of the story? As long as you are morally certain that you are on the right side, you will be taken care of by the Lord. Not just legally right. The more important thing in dangerous cases is being morally right.**
