Deadly fiction

The courthouse bloodbath last Jan. 22 knocked the public to its senses on the country’s justice system and the general state of insecurity in our community.

It also left a lot of questions on the Philippine government’s policy of making the country “a leading and significant destination for the world’s retirees, seniors and elderly” – the vision of the Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA).

As a public policy, the Philippine government issues Special Resident Retiree Visas (SRRV) if an expat invests a certain amount to the PRA, a government-owned and controlled corporation.

But after issuing the SRRV, aside from our tourist destinations, there are no other programs that would make an expat’s retirement meaningful.

They are left to the care of their partners or just left meandering with their pension money which is equivalent to a Filipino manager’s pay. You google the word “sexpats” and on top of the search would be about expats engaged in sexually exploitative activities in the country.

The bloodbath caused by retired Canadian journalist John Holdridge Pope may be an out-bounder when it comes to misdemeanors foreign visitors, whether coming here as retirees or tourists, commit.

But it nonetheless makes a case on the public policy of having these expats loiter around the country with special privileges, while day-in and day-out we receive sordid stories of Filipino modern-day slaves abroad.

While Pope may have been up for deportation, his investment in the PRA withdrawn already, his predicament reflects on the lives of many retired foreigners in the country – left on their own.

With no visible support system, Pope, who has substantial higher education toyed with the Philippine justice system. He even branded it as corrupt – which may be true, but a closer look at his writings would reveal his poor understanding of modern legal systems.

He accuses prosecutors, among them Maria Theresa Calibugan-Casiño, a young lawyer with two little children who’s still struggling for dear life as being corrupt on account of her being the public prosecutor assigned in his grave threat case.

He begrudged the lady prosecutor for notarizing the affidavit complaint against him. This is clear and present danger to the legal profession.

Although an affidavit is sworn under oath as the truth, when a lawyer stamps his/her name on it does not necessarily mean all things in the statement are true, aside from the name and personal circumstances of the one executing it. ‘Truth’ here is legal fiction that needs to be substantiated by proof.

Reading between the lines the voluminous writings of Pope on his legal travails in the country (contained in his journal “Justice Denied”) which he furnished media days before his gruesome act shows a disturbed man that should belong to an institution that could have taken care of his physical and mental health.

If anything can be said of the courthouse bloodbath last Thursday, it was fiction made deadly by the failed promise of retirement paradise and the general failure of government to protect its citizens.