Reaping what we sow

The year closes with two maritime disasters, with nine bodies recovered and more than 70 people still missing.

It’s a fitting end to a year that saw the nation paying for a long period of neglect and complacency in different sectors.

Disaster after maritime disaster, there’s a loud public outcry for reforms, followed by a long investigation. Disaster after maritime disaster, at the end of the probe, either someone gets a slap on the wrist or no one gets penalized at all. And then it’s back to business as usual.

When lawmakers resume session after their long holiday break, the ferry disasters would have receded from the headlines — unless there’s another one soon. Lawmakers would then be even more preoccupied with the election campaign. Reforms in the maritime transportation industry will have to wait for the 15th Congress.

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Before the ferry disasters, there was the massacre in Maguindanao, in a town created for and named after the clan whose members have been indicted for the slaughter.

The impunity that made the perpetrators think they could get away with the massacre could have only emanated from a sense of invincibility fostered by the support of those in power. For many years the Ampatuans were locked in an incestuous embrace with the administration. The government helped Andal Ampatuan Sr. win in 2001 as governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The government armed the clan against Islamic separatists and other security threats in the ARMM.

The clan has been a reliable political ally; it delivered crucial votes to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2004, and then to her bunch of Senate losers (except two) in 2007.

Presidential payback isn’t over. Keep an eye on that rebellion case filed against the Ampatuans, including patriarch Andal Senior. The President reportedly wants the case resolved before her term ends in June — unusually swift in this country. There was no rebellion, and the Ampatuans will walk, except Andal Junior, who will have to be sacrificed.

Complicating that case are the petitions still pending with the Supreme Court, challenging the validity of the President’s martial law proclamation in Maguindanao. According to the grapevine, Malacañang is leaning strongly on SC justices to throw out the petitions, since martial law had been lifted anyway.

Are the petitions moot and academic? Maguindanao remains under a state of emergency. And without censure by the SC, nothing will stop this President, who idolizes Ferdinand Marcos, from imposing martial law anywhere in the country again on the pretext of a “looming” rebellion.

SC justices, already under fire for their unprecedented reversal of what was supposed to be a final judgment on cityhood, will go down in history for their vote on the martial law case, GMA version.

Judicial independence is compromised when judges and justices believe they owe their appointment to the good graces of the appointing power rather than their own merit.

This is another national failure for which we are reaping the bitter fruit. A presidential appointment in sectors including the judiciary, the prosecution service, the military and police must be mainly ministerial, based on detailed criteria for career advancement rather than connections.

It is possible to develop a merit-based society based on set standards that reward excellence. But too many of us still prefer the traditional palakasan and padrino system of advancement in life. It’s a system that has long rewarded mediocrity in our society, and it shows in the quality of public service. Those who owe their rise to this system have no respect for their profession or their own capability and are prone to corruption.

Many who try to rise on their own merit end up disappointed.

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Before the Maguindanao massacre, there were the grievous natural catastrophes that were aggravated by man-made causes.

Haphazard human settlement amid a booming population, indiscriminate garbage disposal, lack of weather equipment and inadequate warning systems, compounded by climate change, were among the factors that caused the worst flooding in Metro Manila, Laguna and Rizal last month.

In other parts of Luzon, other culprits such as deforestation were to blame, apart from the inefficient system for the release of water from dams.

We should stop depending on government to improve our country. We deserve the government we get; in 2001, we married ourselves to the mob and GMA, for better and, as it has turned out, mainly for worse. Her cabalens in Lubao, now flooded with Christmas gifts, will grant her wish of continuing her brand of public service after June 30, 2010.

But this is absolving the national leadership of blame for the mess the nation is in. There are good presidents and bad, and GMA isn’t going to achieve her 2001 objective of becoming a “good” president.

GMA also keeps reaping what she has sown, with public dissatisfaction over her performance steady at around 60 percent of the population. But for the president who will leave behind a legacy of impunity and institutional damage (made possible with our help), survival seems to be enough.

The public outrage is there, but what has been done about it? It’s the action, the follow-through, which is missing.

We all share the blame for the ills that afflicted the nation this year. A new year is upon us; it’s a time for resolutions to change for the better.

In 2010, we need to sow the seeds of a better harvest.