ALPSIDE DOWNED: Good from Bad

BERN, Switzerland (MindaNews / 18 July) – Can some good turn out from bad incidents that can happen to us, whether we are in Switzerland or in the Philippines?

On a Sunday last month while many people were out for the annual Frauenlauf, or Women’s Run, I was a victim of a snatching in a central location near a public park in this city. While entering a building, I had not noticed a young man follow me. Near the lift he had asked me for money and when I refused, slapped me on the stomach to shock me and then grabbed the front of my t-shirt. I was able to push him back and when he ran away, I saw that he had an accomplice, another man in a hooded sweatshirt who had kept the door open for him for an easy getaway.  I decided not to run after the two suspects, and too late I realized that the man had snatched a necklace which my wife had gifted me several years ago.

I went to the police the next day and details of the snatching were asked, partly also to help in the insurance claim that I was expected to file. Mine was not the only snatching case reported recently, said the police, and they had a few suspects who they said were  nationals coming from north African countries.

I had only reached home when the police called me back, saying their colleagues had already sent photos of some of the suspects in the recent cases. Could I please help identify the suspect in my case? To make a long story short, I managed to pick out my suspect from their file of photos and the police declared my case closed and said they would file a case of simple snatching in court.

A local news report quoted police as saying that soon after, a suspect was arrested during a manhunt operation.  The news report said that up to 20 cases of snatchings had occurred in Bern since mid-May, obviously the work of a crime gang.

The speed with which the police investigated and handled the case was certainly impressive. My mind went back to 2012, when my wife and I as apartment renters were forced to file a complaint against the building owner to get back our rent deposit (locally called a Mietkaution) of 2,000 Francs.

At the time, we were moving out to a bigger apartment for two reasons: my two children needed a room each themselves, and we a had a worsening problem with house molds which we believed was causing the rather frequent asthma attacks of my younger child.

But the old guy who was acting as the building administrator refused to return our deposit, claiming that we had caused the molds by not properly airing the apartment during the cold months, and that our deposit was already used up in the repair work they had made on the apartment that cost them a total of 9,800 Francs!

In the end, my wife and I were forced to file a complaint before a civil arbitration court, despite our fear of facing a process we were completely ignorant of and in a language – German – that we were not fluent in. We felt disadvantaged, to say the least.

Long story short again, we ended up appearing personally in a hearing before a woman arbitration officer.

But the Swiss arbitration system worked for us wonderfully, because we had come prepared with our documents—our letters of complaint to the building administrator over the molds problem in our apartment; a doctor’s certification of my son’s asthma episodes; and photos over two years of the worsening molds growth in the rooms, among others. In contrast, the administrator had presented only a few documents for his side.

A few days later, the arbitration officer handed down judgment in our favor and ordered the return of our rent deposit without delay. I recall having a distinct feeling of elation and gratefulness in knowing that justice was achievable for ordinary citizens and even for migrants like us. 

Do we feel that same way in the Philippines? Maybe not, because of the experience that many of the rich and powerful involved in crimes manage to evade conviction or get lighter sentences. The ordinary guy certainly does not expect to get a fair play in the courts when he gets into trouble.

These are admirable features in a country when the justice system works – that ordinary citizens can find redress when they are wronged, that crimes are handled swiftly and without bias against the poor, and that the wrongdoers are ultimately punished for their crimes. Only then can some good come out of bad.

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Brady Eviota wrote and edited for the now defunct Media Mindanao News Service in Davao and also for SunStar Cagayan de Oro. He is from Surigao City and now lives in Bern, the Swiss capital located near the Bernese Alps)