Quirogas in Our Midst (An Addendum to Stanly)

I heard through the television news reports that the present rice crisis in our country is being aggravated and taken advantaged of by the so called "Mosquito Gang." 

Who are these people?  They are non immigrant Chinese traders.  They are newly arrived in our country and hardly speak the native languages.  However they have the capital to manipulate the rice distribution cycle in the Philippines.  They are doing this through hoarding.  And right in the middle of the two provinces that are the "food baskets" of the Philippines: Isabela and Nueva Ecija.

What is sad is that they are doing this very legally but inconnivance with some who are what I can call unpatriotic Filipinos.  The latter are not part of the government but common citizens: the native wives of these Chinese and others who serve as their "fronts."

I personally do not have proof that the "Mosquito Gang" exists and the NBI, as well failed to find evidence of their existence in the two provinces I mentioned.  But, the presence of newly arrived Chinese in the Philippines who are dipping their fingers into business and trade here is real, very real.  Some us might have encountered them or better heard them in Divisoria in Manila.  However, they are not only in the capital, and of this I have proof: they are already in the provinces as well. 

These are the Chinese that we all should be angry at.  They are not our countrymen, whether native, mestizo, Fil-Am, Chinoys or whatever term we use to unwittingly divide ourselves.  They are not Filipinos.  They are not even legal immigrants.  They have no loyalty of any form to this land that have given birth to all of us Filipinos of the various shades of the color brown. The Philippines means nothing to them but a geographical place that they can milk dry.  Very Quiroga.

Let us stop discriminating against one another.  We Filipinos share a common heritage for at one point in time we share the same history that is rooted from the fact that we share the same land.  Let us instead be vigilant against business dealings with real aliens who do not have any shred of the good of the Philippines in mind.  The Philippines, our country and our people cannot gain anything from them.