Give Ate Glo credit for preparedness

In the midst of the chaos around us today, with the war, SARS, Mindanao and the pyramid scams, Ate Glo and her team deserves credit for contingency planning. You have to be totally blind or biased not to see and appreciate the effort. Cito Lorenzo worked on the food stockpile. Vince Perez worked on the fuel inventory. Vince has even quietly prepared a rationing system for fuel just in case it is needed.

We have seen from the report of Danny Buenafe, Middle East Bureau Chief of ABS-CBN that Ambassador Cimatu and our other diplomats in the area have worked to assure the safety of our migrant workers. Shelters have been established and evacuation plans finalized. It does not seem like our government will be caught flat-footed if push comes to shove.

Of course, all these contingency plans are yet to be put to a test. Having planned for the worst case scenario, we should still hope and pray that things won’t come to that. Nevertheless, the effort of Ate Glo and her team minimizes the negative impact of an unfolding world tragedy and provides us a comfortable level of reassurance. Some positive notice is called for.

It is now clear that our officials have learned their lessons well from the past. Labor attachés, OWWA officials, diplomats from the DFA are now all on their toes ready to assist Filipinos in distress or merely to hold hands and reassure.

Only the airport authorities are woefully inadequate. Personally admonished by Ate Glo herself for poor perimeter security arrangements at the airport, they responded with security checks that now cause five-hour traffic jams. Travelers are inconvenienced greatly. The only bright spot in this otherwise dismal situation is that we may establish a world record for the longest time needed to travel to an airport from any point in the city.

Yet, I am almost sure that even with this ridiculous traffic nightmare caused by some idiot’s idea of airport security, our airport perimeter is still just as unsafe. The fact that squatters are still just beyond the runways should worry all those involved in airport safety. It should be very possible for a shoulder-fired missile or grenade to be aimed at aircraft that are landing or taking off, and with disastrous effect.

As I pointed out in this column some weeks back, a Los Angeles Times story quoted American civil aviation experts saying that Manila is one of the more dangerous airports in the region. It may be just a matter of time before the FAA issues appropriate warnings and even bans flights from NAIA from landing in American airports.

As far as I am concerned, Ate Glo had all the right to be fuming mad at airport officials when she made a surprise inspection. She should, however, scream at them again because this five-hour traffic nightmare is nothing short of sabotage. They should have thrown in more security men to carry out the 100-percent inspections that Ate Glo wanted and also worked out traffic flows. I think they want to show the world how out of it Ate Glo is. The resulting chaos after they followed her orders, should be proof enough.

The Malacañang search committee should start looking for new officials, if Ate Glo knows what is good for her and the people.

Reactions

From reader Rebecca Torres comes this reaction to Mar Roxas.

Shouldn’t Mar be asking those congressmen and senators to give up their pork before they do any streamlining? All that pork are not spend according to the Development Plans of local governments. Pork in fact make these documents useless and irrelevant. The way they put up basketball courts, "solar dryers", water pumps in illegally settled lands thus encouraging squatters to thrive. Yet they proudly call these small and very visible projects "accomplishments".

From reader Madel Perez of Makati City comes this reaction on the pyramid scams.

Sen. Loren Legarda and the other senators and government officials who endorsed some of the pyramid scams (Multitel and Tibayan) should stop trying to wash their hands. If they say they acted in good faith then the innocent victims also did the same, emboldened by their virtual endorsement, in entrusting their hard-earned money with the pyramid scams.

Since they are saying that they were just performing a politician’s role, then they should do something now to recover the investors’ hard-earned money. These poor investors relied on their words when they endorsed these scam companies.

Stop the finger pointing and just resolve this huge problem affecting mostly low and middle income individuals. Damage is done and everything is water under the bridge now. If they are really concerned with the people, help them recover the money not thru words but thru action. Putting these scam artists in jail will not solve the problem, help them to recover the money.

Thank you very much Mr. Chanco for your time, I always read your column.

Jay Leno, etc

One reason why Americans are survivors is their sense of humor, even in the midst of something as serious as war. Reader Christine Adapon forwarded these quips by late night television hosts like Jay Leno as compiled by a Daniel Kurtzman.

"War continues in Iraq. They’re calling it Operation Iraqi Freedom. They were going to call it Operation Iraqi Liberation until they realized that spells ‘OIL.’" – Jay Leno

"CNN said that after the war, there is a plan to divide Iraq into three parts ... regular, premium and unleaded." – Jay Leno

"Iraq began destroying those missiles they don’t have over the weekend. See, President Bush may be the smartest military president in history. First, he gets Iraq to destroy all of their own weapons. Then he declares war." – Jay Leno

"New rumors that Saddam Hussein is planning to flee to a castle in Libya with $10 billion. Now President Bush doesn’t know whether to nuke him or give him a tax cut." – Craig Kilborn

"Saddam Hussein also challenged President Bush to a debate. The Butcher of Baghdad vs. the Butcher of the English language." – Jay Leno

"President Bush announced tonight that he believes in democracy and that democracy can exist in Iraq. They can have a strong economy, they can have a good health care plan, and they can have a free and fair voting. Iraq? We can’t even get this in Florida." – Jay Leno

"President Bush has said that he does not need approval from the UN to wage war, and I’m thinking, well, hell, he didn’t need the approval of the American voters to become president, either." – David Letterman

"In a speech earlier today President Bush said if Iraq gets rid of Saddam Hussein, he will help the Iraqi people with food, medicine, supplies, housing, education – anything that’s needed. Isn’t that amazing? He finally comes up with a domestic agenda – and it’s for Iraq. Maybe we could bring that here if it works out." – Jay Leno

"In California, 50 women protested the war with Iraq by lying on the ground naked and spelling out the word peace. Right idea, wrong president." – Jay Leno

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]