Angelo Dela Cruz this! Angelo Dela Cruz that!

If you watched recent news, CNN or whatever, I guess you heard about this guy from here ,the Philippines, named Angelo Dela Cruz who was taken as hostage by Iraqi militants. The story was that he was working as a driver there cause the pay was like twice the usual because Iraq was still practically at war. It was just his bad luck that he was the one captured by militant Iraqis at that time. So the militants used him as a hostage to force the Filipino peace? forces to leave, which succeeded since our great but small president(just newly re-elected at that) just recently ordered all troops to go home. In the end, Mr. Angelo was freed (just got home today in fact) to the rejoice of many.

Now there's no problem in all that, everybody lives happily ever after, right?

Wrong.

Let me tell you the events that happened in the background
1) News about Mr. Angelo is plastered in practically all newspapers, radios blared and TV's projected. The headline, "Iraqis to behead Mr. Angelo if Filipino contingent does not leave Iraq".
Practically everybody pleads for the president to follow their demands.

Fair or Not Fair: Mr. Angelo is not the only OFW(Overaseas Filipino Worker) who is currently in danger abroad. As of writing, there are about 3 OFWs in a Saudi Arabia jail who are scheduled to be beheaded also. OFWs in Hongkong and Singapore are abused by their masters, etc etc. Nobody cares? After all, Mr Angelo is about to be beheaded right?

2)Our Great but small President almost instantly announces for the retreat of the Filipino contingent (not really instantly, about a week or so after the announcements). People rejoice, Yahoo™, Mr. Angelo is saved, the President just solved the mysteries of life...(well not really :P) unlike the Korean, Bulgarian, and Americans before him who were beheaded.

Fair or Not Fair: Well, okay, it's not as if they really did anything there anyway. Its a good thing they weren't caught on tape abusing prisoners like some other people

3)Militants relent, Mr. Angelo is saved, ignorant people fawn over him as though he was God. Even more ignorant people fawn over the Great but small President as though she was also God. Big Whoop!!!, Yahoo™ again.

Fair or Not Fair: So Mr. Angelo is safe for now. Big Deal, so what happens next, nothing really, just that. In my opinion, our Great but small President is just milking the poor man for all the attention that he is worth and everybody is following that Good Example. A construction company donates a house and lot to Mr. Angelo and family(how nice, all this just for Mr. Angelo, how about the other OFW's?). Our government is giving scholarships to Mr. Angelo's children too.(Aren't Mr. Angelo's children lucky? How about other children?) . The government shelled out about 300,000 pesos to bring Mr. Angelo back here, thats about 5,300 dollars (Does it really cost that much to bring one person back?)

That's about it, the newspapers today had Mr. Angelo and Mrs. President's photos plastered on front. Samples of headlines today, "GMA(initials of the president),nation rejoice over Angelo's release","Euphoria sweeps town, grand welcome set","Daddy lost so much weight","President Arroyo, a time of trial and triumph", and all this came from just one newspaper. The same newspaper even had a photo of Mr. Angelo's dog sleeping in the front page (What's up with that?). I don't understand why everybody has to sensationalize this. Honestly, there are far more pressing issues than this. How about our budget deficit for one.

On a side note, its been one month since the last post. :(