Long nightmare almost over (?)

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo claims to have brought our nation to the verge of First World status. Nobody believes her. In truth she dragged us to the brink of failed statehood. Her nine-and-a-half-year reign saw the ruin of democratic institutions. State and stolen money were used to bully or buy off the Legislature and Judiciary, local and career government executives, the military and police, the Church and the Opposition, business and labor. Following the top leader, elective and appointive officials turned profligate. Local warlords were left to trick and terrorize constituents. Cronies outdid each other crafting multibillion-peso scams. Hundreds of killings and kidnappings of militants, journalists, jurists and whistleblowers remained unsolved. Arroyo even attempted to prolong herself and cohorts in power, via fast-break Constitution change, military strike and election fraud. Part of the scheme was to make people believe she brought progress, and forget that she had fudged the economic figures. Many began to despair that the long nightmare would never end. The pretender to the throne, whom 68 percent of citizens abhorred, would stay forever.

But God was merciful and Filipinos persevering. Automated election pushed through to produce a new leader with the biggest margin ever, 42 percent, under the 1987 Charter’s multiparty voting, for inaugural today. President Noynoy Aquino lacks the executive experience of predecessors, and humbly admits to being no superman. But people see in him sincerity to set things aright: jail the abusers, restore transparency in the system, and restart the economy. Consumer and investor confidence are at all time highs; so is hope that this year at least would be better. Arroyo is making midnight appointments and cutting last-minute deals. Citizens know what she’s variously up to: insert her loyalists in crucial posts, shield herself from certain charges of plunder and death squads, continue the thievery, impose her will on a new admin, and just annoy it. They will stop Arroyo.

P-Noy is being bombarded with unsolicited advice and applications for government posting. Most are well meaning. P-Noy needs all the help he can get and Filipinos generously are giving it, hoping he will be true to his words. They don’t want their country to fail.

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Navigational aids at the Manila International Airport conked out the other weekend from overheat and thunderstorm. But authorities in charge of aviation safety and upgrade belittled it. Of no import to them were the cancellation of dozens of domestic flights and the diversion to Cebu and Clark airfields of international landings. It seemed they were trying to hide the fact that they’re midnight appointees. They wanted to make it look like everything’s fine with their new realm and the Manila airport they had mismanaged in the past nine years.

But Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines chief Alfonso Cusi cannot fool all the people all the time. Just before the election ban this crony of outgoing First Gentleman Mike Arroyo had sneaked into his post in lieu of a congressional bid that wouldn’t take off anyway. Imagining himself to be better than his beleaguered precursor, he brought in close advisers while leaving behind a protégé at the airport. Gloria Arroyo granted him a fixed term as CAAP head under the new law that created it.

Instantly Cusi bungled the job. With two consultants he antagonized the European Union into keeping RP blacklisted as an aviation destination. They plunged RP deeper in trouble. In 2007 the US Federal Aviation Administration had downgraded RP to Category-2 for lacking navigation aids and personnel training for safe air travel. Congress rushed the CAAP’s formation to comply with global aviation needs. But it was insufficient. The UN International Civil Aviation Organization in 2009 issued a scathing report on RP’s “security and safety issues.” Guided accordingly, East Asian, Middle Eastern and European carriers and governments began individually to shun RP. The other weekend’s radar outage was the last straw.

Cusi rearranged CAAP to suit personal ends. Discredited supervisors were promoted to manager, and execs to board director, for turf protection. Old professionals were replaced with loyalists, and dismissed bureaucrats reinstated, to secure new fealties. Worse, Cusi posted hated former bigwigs as top guns, to show everybody who’s boss. A building erected as new air tower control has been relegated to managers’ lounge.

Other Arroyo cronies joined in. One of them arrogated unto himself the CAAP building’s first floor for supposed ground service staff. Totally forgotten was that the structure is not for bureaucratic whim but to comply with opened aviation’s new rules. A notorious head of the CAAP’s precursor Air Transport Office appropriated another floor for himself and bodyguards. CAAP personnel with least credentials but heartiest suck-ups now reign. Maintained was the corrupt system of untrained testers certifying the skills of pilots, cabin crewmen, and air traffic controllers.

To all this the US-FAA and UN-ICAO have but one word: get your house in order. But how can P-Noy do so, when predecessor Arroyo’s men control CAAP?

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Meanwhile, at the National Bureau of Investigation, the top officials furiously are lobbying to be retained in their posts. That’s so they can retain their vice-protection and extortion rackets. They may be in-fighting most of the time, but they have a common cause for now to get together.

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