The Oscars for public service

Apollo Quiboloy, the self-anointed son of God, must be rolling over with laughter. Unlike him, Alice Guo, who allegedly escaped in the dead of night on a speed boat just like in a spy movie, is back after being caught by Indonesian authorities.

Quiboloy, on the other hand, is still in hiding, despite the fact that his flock’s compound in Davao is surrounded by hundreds of policemen in full battle gear. Alice, too, must be laughing at us, because for someone facing criminal complaints in the Philippines, she’s actually getting the celebrity treatment – selfies, hilarious poses, a private jet for her ride home and a warm welcome. You’d think she won the Olympics.

What a joke. Our nation of 119 million just keeps getting more surreal by the day. Truly, we’ve become a bizarre wonderland for Alice and others like her who are facing criminal complaints.

It’s a challenge perhaps for every Filipino not to lose faith in our public servants – policemen, soldiers and teachers, for example.

Filipinos, as always, resort to humor when the going gets tough. There’s a photoshopped photo of Quiboloy, dressed in Baroque-era fashion, going around with a caption: “Quiboloy to Alice: Amateur.”

Sadly, the joke is on us, the taxpayers. Our money is being wasted on officials who end up either coddling fugitives or are simply too incompetent to catch those who violate the law.

While ordinary Filipinos fall in line for hours just to get through our Immigration counters at the airport and not before filling up those useless eTravel forms, the rich and notorious can just slip past our borders, whether by land, sea or air, just like in the movies.

If we aren’t a failed state yet, there clearly exists a parallel, deep state where anything goes.

But hope is eternal. It’s etched in my heart like a tattoo and last week, I was reminded of this again as I witnessed the conferment ceremony of ten outstanding public servants – teachers, policemen and soldiers – this year’s Metrobank Foundation Outstanding Filipinos.

At the ceremony held Wednesday night at the glittering ballroom of Grand Hyatt Manila, it was an honor for me to witness their moment of glory, which may well be the Oscars for public