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"I would like to tell you a story."
"About what?"
"A Filipino man named Bolante - a former Agriculture Minister in the Philippines."
"Never heard of him."
"Anyway off he went to the US on a B1/B2 visa."
"Do Philippine former ministers also fall on hard times..."
"What do you mean by hard times?"
"Multiplicity of corruption charges!"
"Well it does apply to Mr Bolante."
"Reminiscent of another country you and I know well."
"Indeed."
"Anyway Mr Bolante's visa was revoked because of an arrest warrant issued by the Philippine Senate after he was kinda not over-enthusiastic about attending the inquiry into a Peso 728 million fertiliser fund scam."
"If that were to happen to our leaders on self-imposed exile then..."
"See it hasn't happened to other world leaders if you know what I mean, so Mr Bolante is crying foul."
"Whatever do the Americans want from him?"
"There is this case of four marines who raped a Filipina woman at Subic."
"Right and since the enlightened Hudood Ordinance does not apply in the Philippines..."
"Don't be facetious."
"OK and since blood money offered by the Americans to the victim's mother did not hold because again Philippines does not have such laws..."
"Hush."
"OK, but now Bolante says the US wants him to exert pressure on the government to free the four marines and..."
"And has he filed in the US courts?"
"Indeed he has."
"But you know he didn't put the money in his pocket."
"Whose pocket then?"
"For Arroyo's election campaign in 2004."
"Ah, so the plot thickens."
"Indeed. Sounds so much like another country we both know."

Copyright Business Recorder, 2006

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