WHEN BANKS BECOME TOOLS FOR HARASSMENT

Folks, you do know the kinds of writings I churn out, don't you?

Well, they make me a target for surveillance all the time. Did you know that in every bank I go to, the janitors always wipe the floor and make sure that the cloth touches my shoes?

Then the guards of the bank start to smile. 

Last week, I really got very angry. And the janitor gave a big smile as if he had been expecting my reaction. But I continued talking to the bank clerk about it: " You know what he has done is intentional. The floor is spic and span and you could even use it as a mirror. But he purposely drew very close to my seat and then swept the floor with the cloth swishing very near my shoe. You know what he is doing? He is making me feel insecure about the security of the bank. And I am apt not to patronize the bank because of that." Because of that last sentence of mine, a senior bank official stepped in to apologize. But I told them, this is not a rare occurrence here. And that guy is not going to do it by himself alone. He has been told to do that by the guards who get the license of their company from Crame. It is a form of harassment so that I would not be able to make a decent transaction in your bank. And so he is sabotaging the operations of your bank by doing that. This has occurred to me in other banks, as well. I am sorry but I have to write about this."

And thus, I am telling you Folks, that the PNP intelligence group has a not-so-subtle ways of harassing me, as if in a public place I would not make a scene. But I do make the scene because I want the public to know that freedom of expression is not respected in our  country and that disrespect occurs in every corner of every critical citizen and/or writer like me. 

The next time this occurs, I shall name the banks where I find such janitors. For this time, I am withholding their names to give the officials the time to discipline their guards and the janitors. 

When banks become tools for political harassment, they are no longer performing their pristine function of guarding our money. They have become agents of corrupt national and local officials. 

It is time to review the functions of the PNP intelligence groups, as well as their policies on dealing with critical writers. Are they serving the public good or that of certain officials?