Who can we trust?

That was one horrible bit of news. It confirmed our worse suspicions. It is now more than apparent that when it comes to our personal security and the nation’s peace and order, there is no one we can turn to. There is no one we can trust. The line between the criminals and the law enforcers is not only thin, it has vanished.

Of course to those of us living in this country all our lives, this had been a fact of life. People who lost their cars to carnap syndicates do not bother to report to the police because doing so could be dangerous… as police officers have been known to be part of, if not organizers of these criminal syndicates.

It should not shock us that the NBI Director and a number of NBI’s senior officials are implicated in a grievous crime of kidnapping and extortion of a Japanese national. It is however, still shocking that our worse suspicions have been corroborated by the initial findings of the Justice Department.

According to news reports, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima confirmed that NBI Director Magtanggol Gatdula has been relieved from his post in relation to the kidnapping and extortion of a Japanese national. De Lima said investigation showed that Gatdula “had personal knowledge of the crime and cover-up.”

De Lima said that apart from Gatdula, also recommended charged were NBI security and management division (SMD) head Special Investigator Mario Garcia, his executive officer Special Investigator Jose Odellon Cabillan, their assets Chona Ellen Esplana and Virgelito Gutierrez alias Labsky, Gatdula’s special assistant Raul Dimaano, and 12 other security volunteers.

Garcia, Esplana and Gutierrez were also slapped with a robbery charge for allegedly co-conspiring in “forcibly taking the bulk of Noriyo Ohara’s personal properties which were with her during her detention at the NBI SMD.” Garcia was also ordered charged with grave coercion and falsification in connection with the alleged cover-up, along with Esplana and Cabillan.

Despite Sec de Lima’s strong announcement, she cautions that there is still no finding of guilt and that the recommendations of the fact-finding panel are not yet final because they still have to be subjected to a preliminary investigation wherein probable cause would be determined before any case can be filed in court. “We can never say, we cannot say that this is already conclusive but these are the facts as unearthed,” she said.

Apart from criminal charges, the panel also recommended filing of administrative charges of grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty, gross insubordination and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service against Gatdula and Garcia; grave misconduct, serious dishonesty, being notoriously undesirable and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service against Cabillan; and grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service against Dimaano.

Malacañang upheld the findings of the fact-finding team of the Department of Justice (DOJ) recommending the filing of charges against Gatdula and other NBI officials. This is the consoling part of the story. Not only was the investigation of the NBI officials done quickly, Malacañang was also quick to take action to regain the public’s trust in the NBI. P-Noy was particularly angry at Gatdula’s insubordination by failing to transfer the prisoner to the Immigration bureau after repeated orders. The NBI, after all, has nothing to do with immigration.

It is sad that the NBI, the last bastion of the ordinary citizens for criminal protection that cannot be obtained from the police, has turned out to be just as bad. This now gives the people no one to trust, no one to turn to. It will take a lot of effort on the part of the government, specially the DOJ to shine the tarnished reputation of the NBI.

Actually, the NBI has proven itself to be quite a problem for ordinary Pinoys. In a country of desperate jobseekers, the NBI is the largest hindrance that stands between a jobseeker and a good job here or abroad. Ordinary citizens are up in arms at the failure of the NBI to expeditiously provide the clearance potential employers and foreign embassies require. The NBI has given the government a black eye even just for this short coming.

The computer system of the NBI simply cannot cope with the demand for clearances. One wonders how the computer services contractor had been able to renew its contract for 30 years with such lousy service. It also didn’t help that when the time came to get a new contractor, the current NBI director decided on a negotiated contract with a mistah from his PMA class. What is wrong with these PMA graduates? 

The importance of the NBI in the administration of justice cannot be overemphasized. Our people must have the assurance there is an agency that will professionally perform the duty of protecting the citizens from lawlessness. Business investors, more so the foreign ones, need such reassurance too. Tourists that the government is trying to attract to come here will not miss the fact that the person the NBI officials reportedly kidnapped and scammed is a Japanese national.

We, the citizens, are lucky this happened under a DOJ with a no nonsense Secretary Leila de Lima at its helm. Malacañang also exacted immediate accountability. Seeing these people prosecuted to the full extent of the law for their serious breach of the public trust will help improve the image of law and order in this country. Also important, it will deliver the message to those left behind at the NBI that the old days are finally over.

What happens next will be crucial. Government law enforcement agencies must work double time to win back the people’s trust and confidence. Until then, nothing much else can be expected to happen… everything from economic progress to pride in being Pinoy rests on government’s ability to assure the personal security of everyone in the country… citizens or foreigners. Personal security is the bedrock of any society…  the social compact upon which we build everything else.

Traffic jam

This traffic jam is not MMDA’s fault. It is the fault of the incompetents on top of CAAP and NAIA. My flights to and from Macau last week were delayed by an hour, both attributed to traffic in NAIA. On our flight out, we were ready to go five minutes before schedule but actually got airborne an hour later. We could see from the window the long line of airplanes waiting to take off.

Looking at that long line of planes made me feel like I was in New York or Los Angeles. But NAIA’s air traffic is nowhere near the level in those airports. That long line of planes is proof of sheer incompetence on the part of our officials. It is clear that all flights, all airlines are now burdened by this air traffic problem. It is untenable, it is unacceptable.

It isn’t as if this was a recent problem, even if the malfunction yet again of still another air traffic equipment was reported the other week. Serious air traffic problems at NAIA had been there for quite a while and been the subject of reports and studies. I am sure any manager with half the IQ of our airport officials would by now know what to do but not these clueless guys under DOTC Sec Mar Roxas.

I am beginning to suspect that the CAAP and NAIA guys are now taking the cue from Mar, their laidback boss. That’s bad news for the country. Much as we hate NAIA, there is nothing we can do but suffer its horrible inefficiency every time we move in and out of Manila by plane. Because incoming aircraft must circle for quite a bit of time, jet fuel is being wasted and contributing to global warming for no good reason.

It is ironic that the best airport in the world, Changi in Singapore is being run by a Filipino, a Harvard MBA grad who worked with McKinsey Consultants. But that’s just the Singaporeans. They hire the best and pay them the best no matter their nationality. Our Presidents, on the other hand, feel an obligation to give jobs to undeserving and now proven unqualified and terribly incompetent retired air force officers to run the airport and CAAP. That Pinoy running Changi is at least telling the world that incompetent management is not an inherent fault of Filipinos no matter how badly the country is being run.

Forget about getting our FAA upgrade soon. At this rate, the FAA inspectors are probably fuming while circling NAIA unable to land. Sec Mar must deal with that traffic jam over NAIA first. There is a joke going around that Mar has adjusted the airport’s name to reflect reality, NAIA ONE is now NAIWAN.

Hey, rather sadly, that describes our beloved country too.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. He is also on Twitter @boochanco