Throw out the old and bring in the new!

After going through a lot of emotional strain this past year, Filipinos have found themselves in jubilation during their Christmas and New Year celebrations. Despite all odds, we have bounced back in good spirits only to be spoiled by government officials who did not do their jobs right.

December seems to be the Philippines’ deadliest in maritime disaster. In December 2008, thirty people died after the Ferry Maejan capsized off the northern Philippines. In December 1994, a Singaporean freighter hit a ferry named Cebu City in Manila Bay killing 140 people. But the worst maritime disaster ever recorded in Philippine waters was on December 20, 1987 when passenger ferry M/V Doña Paz collided with the MT Vector, an oil tanker. This accident registered a death toll of at least 4,375 people. A few weeks ago, before the Feast of the Holy Innocents the ferry M/V Baleno-9 sank in waters off Verde Island in Batangas with 63 passengers rescued and 25 still unaccounted for. A day before Christmas Eve the M/V Catalyn B smashed into the side of a 369-ton fishing boat named Anatalia near the mouth of Manila Bay killing 5 passengers while 22 passengers are still missing. Then, there were two more RORO ships that stalled at sea in Southern Tagalog within the same period. Susmariosep!

This unending string of deadly ferry accidents show that there has never been little improvement if any in the enforcement of maritime safety rules. Why do we have to wait for the Senate Bill on strengthening the authority of the coastguards to be approved? I know this bill will help but in the meantime, why don’t our local officials, the national government and the seaport authorities embrace their responsibility and do their jobs? Aren’t they liable too for this mishap?

I am sure that if they do another inquiry all hell will break loose! As you know nothing seems to be resolved after these investigations. It just raises the egos of the questioning officials and allows them to grandstand. It is a never-ending quest, a waste of time and taxpayers’ money.

Anyway, going back to the troubles of the maritime industry in the Philippines, I do not know why we cannot ever improve the safety and modernization of this sector. The Philippines is made up of more than 7,000 islands. It is an archipelago. We have beautiful islands and beaches that are very good sources for tourism. Our own people come from different islands. We need better means of sea transportation systems. We use the seas and waterways to travel between islands. Our government should be able to provide good, safe and affordable means of transportation to the Filipinos.

Our officials should stop blaming the weather, poor maintenance and the lack of enforcement of the passenger overloading law. They should do their jobs. If our international airports are trying hard to meet the international standards of aviation guidelines why can’t our maritime industry do the same? In fact, this goes out to all public and commercial transport systems in the country. Let’s stop the abuse and exploitation and start saving lives.

By the way, if the government was really serious in keeping the citizens safe and protecting the environment, they would have been able to “control” the importation, production and selling of fireworks. By doing so, they would have also prevented the deaths, injuries and accidents during the New Year revelry.

Let’s stop fooling ourselves. The government has all the means to go directly to the source and stiffly regulate the firework industry in our country. When a government does not lift a finger in such control, you know there is something fishy going on.

Year 2010 should be a year of change. I hope that our barangay officials, mayors, governors and congressmen stop thinking of themselves and start thinking of the country’s development. A good question to reflect on would be: What good have you done in your provinces with so much pork barrel in hand? Why are your ‘homes’ (or as many locals would point out “ang bahay na puti”) the only ones shining brightly in your towns like a diamond in the middle of barren land?

I guess our public officials should take heed of Michael Jackson’s song, “Man in the Mirror” which goes: I’m gonna make a change, for once in my life. It’s gonna feel real good, gonna make a difference, gonna make it right… I’m starting with the man in the mirror. I’m asking him to change his ways… If you wanna make the world a better place take a look at yourself, and then make a change. You got to stand up and lift yourself, now!

When the New Year comes around there’s always this urged to pursue new-fangled things from the latest cell phones to New Age Hypocrisy.

In our rush to change everything, we have abandoned what was good in our past and embraced what is new in greed, ambition and hype. We have turned our backs to traditions and values that have made us unique and stronger as a people. We need to reaffirm our faith in what can be called the old value, particularly those seemingly out of date and unfashionable, such as honor, truth and loyalty. These appear to have been shoved aside by modern technology of which we have drowned ourselves into at an “accelerating and dizzying pace.”

Never mind if we lose our dignity and pride as long as we are at par with the rest of the world or with the rich and famous for that matter. Never mind if we don’t speak the truth to save face. Never mind if we keep wanting for more and in the process lose the very essence of giving back and sharing. Never mind if we have become ungrateful for all the blessings from above thinking that we truly deserve them. This is what we have become.

Our first New Year’s resolution must be to return to sanity. Decency must prevail, not profit based on the bestial instincts of some. Every day, there are painful scenes, of crimes and cruelty, telling us that man is made of mortal clay. We must constantly remind ourselves that he is also made in the image and likeness of God. When we say Happy New Year this time, let’s seek true happiness. Not in what’s necessarily “new”, but in what is eternal.