EDITORIAL — The travails of government mail

That the Philippine Postal Corporation is suffering from declining patronage is an observation that is hard to argue with. But the reason cited by its officials as responsible for the decline is debatable.

According to its officials, the main reason for the decline in patronage is the emergence of new technologies like computers and cellphones, which now make it quicker and cheaper to send messages.

That may be true, but only up to a point. For how can the Philpost officials explain the increasing public patronage of private courier services which, while definitely faster, are also definitely more expensive?

The answer could lie in what has been left unsaid by the officials, that the government mail service is on the losing end of the credibility war. For trustworthiness in the delivery of mail, people are more inclined to patronize private courier services.

For so long, the government mail service was hounded by complaints of mail pilferage, the very thing that patrons do not want in a mail service. In the public eye, trustworthiness is even more important than speed.

But worse than the pilferage had been the failure of Philpost to convince the public that it has addressed the problem. To this day, many foreign mail arrive partially opened or torn, forcing no other conclusion in the public mind that tampering goes on.

In fairness, some mail do get damaged in transit. But the waiver that Philpost used to wash its hands of any culpability unwittingly became the very alibi the crooks used to cover their tracks. All they had to do was stamp a notice describing the condition mail was received.

So while accidental damage is of course possible, certainly it does not happen to almost all foreign mail. When they do, you begin to smell something fishy. Sure, it is illegal to send money in the mail. But this does not give pilferers the right to open mail in search of them.