THE case of former Senator Francisco Tolentino of being banned from going to China reminds me so much of what happened to me many years ago when I was banned from going to China.
In those years of the 90s, I used to write so many bad things about China’s People’s Liberation Army because of the position of communism during the incumbency of Chairman Mao Tse Tung.
When my wife and I wanted to visit China in the 90s, my travel agency told me that I could not get a visa because the visa department of the Chinese Embassy said “Emil Jurado is banned from traveling to China”.
But my travel agency told me that I could try getting a visa to China upon the recommendation of the travel agency that was put up by the Chinese government in Binondo to get an exemption from the ban. I have forgotten the name of that Chinese travel agency.
Coincidentally I was surprised when my good friend Vicente Tan, the former president of a Chinese bank, called me up and invited my wife and I for a free trip to China with his wife Helen.
He said he would be glad and honored if my wife and I would join them on that trip. Sure enough, Santa Banana. that travel agency supposedly put by the Chinese government in Binondo to take care of tours and travel to China got me a visa.
I was surprised by that invitation from Vic and Helen Tan because it seemed to me that it was not coincidental , but done to mitigate that ban that was imposed on me. So my wife and I were granted visas to China with the help of that travel agency.
At the airport, as Vic and Helen and my wife and I were checking in, a Chinese gentleman introduced himself and said he was representing the Chinese travel agency that gave us the exemption and was to accompany us on our tour.
Sure enough, from Manila to Xiamen (formerly Amoy), he traveled with us.
After a few days, we flew to Beijing and stayed for a week seeing all the sites like the Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square etc. and then went on to Shanghai.
What surprised me was that anywhere we went that Chinese fellow followed us, always about a couple meters away. He was even booked in the hotel room next to ours. He also sometimes joined us for breakfast, lunch or dinner. If not, he was surely always in the same restaurant where we were.
I was getting suspicious of that Chinese man, whose name I never found out. When I asked Vic Tan who he was, Vic would always say not to mind him.
When I asked the Chinese man what his name was, he wouldn’t give a direct answer.
And I recall Vic Tan smiling whenever I inquired about the presence of that Chinese character.
So I surmised, Santa Banana, that he was commissioned to take note of whatever I did during that trip to China. Maybe the Chinese government thought I was a spy in favor of the American government with all my criticisms against the Chinese government.
To this day, I cannot forget that incident. It seemed to me there were many things that could not be explained during that tour to China.
Aliases for Public Funds
Vice President Sara Duterte claimed there is nothing wrong with having fictitious personalities as recipients of her confidential funds because the alleged recipients were allowed by law to use their aliases.
As I continue to think about Sara Duterte mentioning recipients of her confidential funds, like “Mary Grace Piattos” or “Yoyoy Villamin,” these were found out by the Philippine Statistics Authority to be fictitious and non-existent as they had no birth certificates, marriage certificates nor death certificates.
This is a big score against the Vice President because using government funds which were actually the money of the people cannot be played around with and which could result in graft and corruption which would justify a conviction for betrayal of public trust and the culpable violation of the Constitution.
What I am trying to say is that you cannot play around using fictitious recipients of public money, which to my mind, Santa Banana, is a big score in the impeachment case against the Vice President.
