20 years of EDSA: Still no accountability?

President Arroyo was in Cebu last Wednesday and upon her arrival at the Mactan Airbase, she immediately flew to Barangay Guinsaugon in St. Bernard, Southern Leyte with Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia. She came back in the afternoon to grace the 69th Charter Anniversary of Cebu City, where she was bestowed the honor of being an "adopted daughter of Cebu."

This puts her in good company with people like our Star publisher Max Soliven who was given this recognition by Mayor Tomas Osmeña for exhorting the Cebuano businessmen to stand on their own without kowtowing to Imperial Manila. He got this honor together with then Philippine National Police (PNP) Cebu Metrodiscom chief Panfilo "Ping" Lacson. Others who were given this special honor are his eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, Anos Fonacier, Tourism Regional Director Aurora "Dawnee" Roa and even the late Gen. Douglas MacArthur. The late President Ramon Magsaysay was the first person given this distinction on Nov. 20, 1952 during the administration of Mayor Pedro Cuizon.

President Arroyo was also given a preview of the celebration Cebu City would be hosting for the ASEAN Summit this year, which is why it was held at the Cebu City Sports Center. Sure, pundits may say that Tita Glo went to Cebu to escape the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the EDSA Revolt. But then as what Manong Max Soliven said in his column yesterday, "the Red Banners and the gang of leftist and communists virtually ‘hijacked’ EDSA’s 20th anniversary and made it an ‘Oust Gloria’ campaign."

It’s sad that the people who were in EDSA 20 years ago didn’t care to show up and celebrate anymore because their struggles have meant nothing. If there’s really anyone to blame, it should be the very same Filipinos who woke up one day and realized it was time to remove 14 years of the Marcos dictatorship — and did exactly that — then went back to sleep! To our dismay, it turned out that when the opposition was in power, they where just as bad as the ones they forcibly removed from Malacañang.

Another factor which we can blame for the sad state of affairs is the present system of government, where accountability and good governance seem nonexistent. This is why despite it’s unpopularity (thanks to the leftist and communists who want to install their own type of government), Charter change (Cha-cha), whether you like it or not, is the right approach. In the future, we can install a government that can meet the demands of the Filipino people.

By this I mean we should set up a parliamentary form of government and balance it with a federal system of government so that the fusion of the executive and legislative branches would remove the gridlock we are experiencing today, while at the same time give genuine autonomy via federal states to the local government units that have long wanted this freedom from Imperial Manila. Let me point out very clearly that this is a package deal — parliamentary with federalism — not parliamentary first and federalism later, the way the concom commissioners wanted it. It’s now or never!

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Talking about accountability, forgive me for saying this but isn’t it kinda bizarre that the so-called Marcos loot amounting to $623 million, which later ballooned to a whooping $718 million, was recovered by the late Haydee Yorac of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) and yet the crooks who supposedly stole that money never even tasted a single night in jail? If you ask me, the EDSA Revolt wasn’t about accountability but simply a move to put the then opposition back in power.

In another story of accountability, I read a few days ago that the National Power Corp. (Napocor) would shoulder the cost of the oil spill in Semirara Island. Now, that’s mighty big of those fat cats in Napocor because it’s so easy for them to say it because the money isn’t coming from their pockets anyway. The truth is, the Filipino taxpayer’s money would be used to pay for the cost of the spill, while the grossly inefficient and stupid bureaucrat gets away. This is happening all over the country today. There is no accountability from anyone, which is why there’s so much inefficiency and waste in our government.

Finally, we have a story on accountability right in our own backyard in the mountains of Cebu City where once we had the Gary Player-designed Kang-Irag Golf Course. Thanks to the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) which sequestered this golf developement project which was then 85 percent complete. It was given to Mr. Jose Go of Ever Gotesco who bulldozed the entire 18-hole golf course to replace it with a Nick Price-designed golf course. Today, even Nick Price would be ashamed that his name was used in this caper. Not a single case of graft, corruption, inefficiency or even stupidity has been filed by the Office of the Ombudsman. Accountability? Perhaps we should have another EDSA to chop off the heads of our corrupt officials!

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Mind you, our story on accountability isn’t exclusive to the government. Even the private sector has its embarrassing stupid moments. Last Wednesday, The sTAR Business section published a story entitled "Nenaco Sails to Profitability in 2005". Forgive my skepticism, but the year 2005 wasn’t a good year for the shipping industry simply because operations were marred by the highest fuel cost, thanks to the record world prices of crude. I should know, Cebu is the headquarters of the domestic shipping industry and all of their chief operating officers are friends of mine and they all tell me the sad tale of the year 2005. Perhaps they were telling me a tall tale?

What makes this story even more incredible is that Nenaco is chaired by Mr. Sulficio Tagud Jr. who has never run a shipping firm and he was reporting a similar income the previous year? Again, let me point out that a company should only post a profit after it pays all its expenses. In the same article, it says that Nenaco still owes some P1.7 billion in debts. If you ask me, this is a plain and simple act of cooking the books! I know that Nenaco still owes the Tsunieshi Shipyard in Balamban for drydocking fees, yet they are not even mentioned in the article as one of the creditors of Nenaco.

Pardon me if I smell something fishy, but corporate good governance dictates that we should tell the public the whole truth about the condition of the corporation, not half-truths or even plain lies! It’s about time the government regulators stop corporations from bragging to the public that they’re making money, yet they still have to account for tons of debts. It would seem in this case that Nenaco used the Court of Law to keep its creditors from foreclosing on them. Accountability? Forget it!

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow entitled "Straight from the Sky" shown every Monday only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 SkyCable at 8 p.m.