Save our shipping industry

The Supreme Court reversed on Monday its ruling in December last year that nullified a provision in election laws that requires appointive government officials to resign from their post upon filing their certificates of candidacy (COC). The SC majority ruling upheld the argument that appointed officials would have unfair advantage over their rivals because of the possibility that they would use the resources of their offices for their campaign.

The latest High Court ruling particularly applied to several Arroyo Cabinet officials running in the coming May national elections but have stayed in their respective posts pending the final ruling on their case. This included Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera, Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr., Presidential Management Staff (PMS) Secretary Hermogenes Esperon Jr., Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Raul Gonzalez, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) director-general Augusto “Buboy” Syjuco, and Subic-Clark Alliance for Development Council and Presidential Adviser for External Affairs Edgardo Pamintuan.

Andaya tendered his resignation immediately after the SC ruling on the issue. He is going back to Congress to represent the first district of Camarines Sur. Devanadera has submitted her resignation to the President on Wednesday in order to run for the congressional district in her home province Quezon.

Esperon is also running for Congress to represent his hometown of Asingan, Pangasinan. Yap is reportedly running unopposed in his congressional district in Bohol. He has strongly endorsed one of his deputies, Agriculture Undersecretary Bernie Fondevilla as replacement.

Gonzalez is running for mayor in Iloilo City while Syjuco is running in his former second congressional district. Pamintuan is running as administration mayoralty candidate in Angeles City, Pampanga.

Of the remaining Cabinet members still holding on to their posts after having filed their respective COCs, Ermita was the first to submit his resignation. Ermita is making a comeback in his former congressional district in Batangas because his daughter Eileen Ermita-Buhain is on her last term. Ermita’s fellow Batangueño in the Cabinet, Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Leandro Mendoza is reportedly going to take over as the next “little President”.

But before Mendoza goes to the Palace for his new assignment, it would certainly do him well to make sure government agencies under his department would not follow him with their own unsettled troubles.

A case in point is the allegation of corruption and mismanagement against Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) Administrator Ma. Elena “Len” Bautista. Mendoza must first try to avert a scheduled strike by shippers in the Visayas who are opposing Bautista’s directives supposedly to boost maritime safety but in effect would drive the industry down the deep seas of the Philippines into oblivion.

The SC last week ruled as unconstitutional Bautista’s holding of multiple posts as Marina chief and concurrent DOTC Undersecretary. In that ruling, SC ordered Bautista to relinquish her Marina post. President Arroyo appointed Bautista on Oct. 4, 2006 as DOTC undersecretary for maritime transport. Later, Bautista was designated as OIC of Marina in a concurrent capacity on Sept. 1, 2008.

However, the Palace clarified that Bautista no longer holds the DOTC undersecretary post in concurrent capacity but is now a full-time administrator of Marina.

The SC ruling was a short-lived victory for the shipping industry with Bautista running their sea travel business into the ground. Mendoza reportedly promised to sit down in a series of dialogues with the complaining shippers to thresh out their complaints and grievances.

The mismanagement of this agency was brought to fore in a fiery privilege speech in Congress delivered last month by Agusan Del Sur Rep. Rodolfo “Ompong” Plaza who exposed Bautista as an “absentee” Marina chief. On record, Plaza noted that Bautista is the most traveled government official who went abroad more than President Arroyo did last year.

Last year alone, however, we have seen more than 10 sea tragedies that occurred one after the other while the Marina chief was out of the country most of the time. These fatal sea mishaps involved vessels engaged in the so-called roll-on, roll-off (RORO) sea transport business that the President launched and nurtured under her administration’s Nautical Highway of the Philippines.

For an archipelagic country like ours, these maritime disasters reflect badly on Bautista’s leadership at the Marina. The agency has become the symbol of ill-fated ships sinking one after the other on her watch.

Plaza — who is now running for senator under ex-President Joseph Estrada’s Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) — hinted with grave concern that some of these most deadly sea accidents involved ROROs experiencing mechanical trouble in the middle of calm seas, because Bautista had issued sea-worthy certificates even to dilapidated vessels. Thus, Plaza has staunchly called upon the Chief Executive to immediately replace Bautista as Marina chief.

Plaza’s call to replace Bautista drew support from a large group of ship owners from the Philippine Roro Operators Association (PROA); Visayan Association of Ferryboat and Coastwise Service Operators, United Trampers Association of the Philippines, Lighterage Association of the Philippines, Metro Manila Tugs, Boats and Barges Owners Association, and the Alliance of Philippine Fishing Federation.

While the President is in the process of changing her Cabinet officials, it would be also an opportunity for her to implement changes with the rest of government officials. She needs officials who could help her put the finishing touches to her administration’s legacy programs, instead of derailing the implementation of her pet projects like the RORO.

Or better yet, Bautista should give President Arroyo a free hand to let a more competent and experienced captain steer the agency away from another man-made maritime disaster with only a few months remaining in her administration.