By Alex P. Vidal
“What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson
IT’S a silly argument that a city hall task force has focused on running after sex workers in Iloilo City after it received reports “they were demanding for food instead of cash” in exchange of sexual services amid the COVID-19 quarantine measures.
Money is hard to find nowadays because of the extended lockdown but not food.
Food is always available and can be bought in any public market and grocery store as long as there is money.
Our agriculture and factories can still produce abundance of food.
We aren’t yet experiencing a famine or extreme scarcity of food.
Our problem is the pandemic, a coronavirus that has spread worldwide and killed more than 340,000 and infected more than five million people.
No prostituted woman in her right mind will demand a food for her body, at least not in a highly urbanized metropolis like Iloilo City.
Prostitution is always synonymous with money. No money no honey.
Some women resort to the oldest profession on earth because they want a quick cash, not instant noodles or hotdogs and hamburgers.
Granting for the sake of discussion there are sex workers who want only food for their services, is this a valid reason for authorities to prioritize their arrest and incarceration while the coronavirus threatens to decimate the human race?
Whether they demand food or money as a mode of payment for a sexual transaction, prostitution is still illegal and wrong morally and spiritually.
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WHO are “V” and “E” or the couple exposed by Iloilo first district Rep. Janette Loreto-Garin in her recent privilege speech as being involved in the overpriced COVID-19 test kits charged to PhilHealth?
Instead of charging only P800 for each RT-PCR test kit, suppliers V and E made a killing at the expense of the people by charging P8,150, according to the lady solon who served as health secretary during the administration of President Noynoy Aquino.
The unnamed suppliers must be well-connected in the Duterte administration the reason why they were able to corner the rich deal.
This is probably the same reason why Rep. Loreto-Garin was adamant to reveal their true identities for fear they might get back at her.
Or the former health secretary was only apparently trying to hold her punches and reserve her bullets just in case the President will not lend his ears to the “expose.”
Unravelling the true identities of the COVID-19 test kits “scammers” would have been perfect during a privilege speech.
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But if President Duterte is determined to minimize if not totally stop graft and corruption in his administration, he will press the Leyte-born congresswoman from Guimbal, Iloilo to spell out the letters V and E so that the President can begin cutting off their tentacles to pieces.
The President would be obliged to initiate drastic measures once the media started revealing the “scammer’s” names based on damning pieces of evidence to be provided by the feisty congresswoman.
Failure on her part to name names would render her “expose” inutile and become an exercise in futility.
Failure on her part to go beyond the initials will embolden the people to think she wasn’t serious in her crusade to cripple the anomalies involving the COVID-19 test kits.
Of course, we believe she is sincere and has no ulterior motive other than to correct the wrong hounding the government efforts to arrest the growing number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the country.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)
