EDITORIAL - Enough of knee-jerk posturing

First, it was the Department of the Interior and Local Government that, without really knowing where it was going, issued a ban on open government vehicles such as dumptrucks from transporting people. 

This, following the tragedy last week in the town of Barili in which 10 people, on their way to a funeral, lost their lives when the dumptruck they were riding apparently lost its brakes and fell on its side.

Then, the Department of Transportation and Communications followed suit by grounding all vessels of Island Shipping after a fire on board one of the fastcrafts it was operating killed three people while the vessel was on the way to Cebu from Bohol.

Clearly, from these incidents, it can be surmised that maintenance issues may be involved. But to promptly suspend operations of entire fleets or ban the use of certain types of vehicles on account of accidents is a knee-jerk reaction that does not serve any useful purpose.

Even the airline industry, where accidents are often given more sensational treatment in the media, does not resort to immediate grounding of entire fleets. Such a drastic action is resorted to only after a thorough investigation and cause of accident has been determined.

For instance, if it has been determined after investigation that the crash was caused by a faulty flap in a particular airplane, only then will all airplanes of the same type that use the same flap will be grounded.

But here in the Philippines, where disruptions of any kind is almost always as tragic as the accidents that prompted them, agencies and officials often feel it is the better part of prudence for them to immediately cause wholesale suspensions and cancellations.

This kind of reaction is a pathetic indication of how ignorant some government officials are. Even before they know what happened, they promptly undertake actions for no other reason than to convince the public that they are doing something.

Well, if trying to save their own faces is all they are capable of doing, they better think twice before doing anything. Because as things turn out, it is the public that ends getting punished.