Harsh and unfair

The President of our country is indeed very powerful. In fact, under our presidential form of government power is too centralized in the Chief Executive. Thus it is claimed that a Philippine president has more powers than any president of other countries including even the president of the USA. Hence there is a greater danger that a Philippine president may be intoxicated with such power as to be easily corrupted. This is a clear and present danger indeed in the light of the truism enunciated by English historian, Lord John Edward Acton who said that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.

As commonly known and generally accepted, being “corrupted” here connotes being “dishonest or crooked”. So if we are to believe PNoy’s drumbeaters, it will not apply to PNoy because he is supposedly one of the honest Presidents we ever had. But actually another meaning of being corrupted is being “spoiled” or believing that he is always right and can do no wrong to the extent of invariably putting the blame for any mistake, fault, failure, or omission in governance to the officials and employees in the bureaucratic maze under his supervision and control.

This other lesser known kind of corruption comes to mind after reading a recent news report about the public dressing down meted out by PNoy on the officials and employees of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) particularly on its Administrator Antonio Nangel during its 50th anniversary celebration. Of course, as the overall manager of the Executive branch, it is really the right or privilege of any President to take to task any government official or employee who is performing his job below par. But precisely because he is a powerful president, he must exercise this privilege at the right time, in the right place and in the right manner even if there are enough reasons for doing so.

As the Good Book says, “there is an appointed time for everything…a time to be silent and a time to speak”. And looking at what happened during that occasion from any angle, an   anniversary celebration especially the 50th, is simply not the proper time to speak out and publicly chastise the NIA officials and employees. Even with so many setbacks and failures, reaching such milestone somehow still calls for some cheerful and happy gathering where the positive rather than the negative should be stressed. Certainly, not all official and employees of that agency are rotten and ineffective as to have accomplished nothing. Like any government bureaucratic office, delays are bound to happen in executing plans and programs. The scolding may have been proper at another time in a meeting called for discussing the problems of the office.

Indeed PNoy must have already been apprised beforehand of the sub-par performance of the agency in fulfilling its mandate to help the farmers and to develop and rehabilitate the irrigation   systems throughout the country so that the administration’s program of self-sufficiency in the production of rice and other agricultural crops could have been attained. In fact he even cited NIA data showing that since 2001, it has not met its target. And the best example he gave is the Balog-Balog irrigation in his home province of Tarlac which has remained unfinished for the past twenty one years. So even before the anniversary celebration he could have called the Administrator and other officials to Malacanang and there confronted them personally or even through his Executive Secretary about the dismal record of the agency. Malacanang is indeed the most appropriate and conducive place where the President should perform the duties and functions of his office.

Concededly he has the right and duty to give a tongue-lashing to officials and employees who are sleeping on their jobs. While in this case, he really gave them time to improve, it is still quite harsh and unfair for him to do it in a public gathering to celebrate a heartwarming and cheerful event where media was present. Showing his dismay and scolding them publicly undoubtedly caused disappointment and embarrassment to those employees present some of whom even came from far flung provinces. And most adversely affected here is the head of the agency who was obviously the main target of the dressing down.

PNoy perhaps should put himself into the shoes of these people especially of the NIA administrator, and feel what they feel. And he can easily find this out by simply recalling the same kind of performance he had in the Senate and see how he will feel if he receives the same treatment, he is now giving to this people. By so doing, maybe he will be more compassionate next time especially now that he is holding the most powerful position as President.

Somehow, this incident created another public perception that PNoy is just grandstanding and using media again to earn more pogi points by projecting an image that he wants change and positive results; that he wants action and would not tolerate non-performing officials. This is the perception created because if he is really sincere in this regard, he should have done it without so much publicity and in the proper way.

Up to now, PNoy seems to be still playing partisan politics and trying to be more popular. Indeed   just a week ago, he also attended another 50th anniversary celebration but this time on a happier note. It was also the 50th anniversary celebration of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) when he also delivered a speech this time full of praises to its Secretary and employees despite the unsolved flooding and squatter problems. He even gave the employees a P10,000 monthly bonus. Apparently if the DPWH employees were given a P10,000 bonus, the NIA employees should have also been given such bonus considering that there is no big difference in their performance.

And speaking of bonuses, our AFP soldiers seem to be the most deserving of them because they put their own lives at stake to protect our people and country. Yet during the AFP anniversary, they were reportedly not given any such bonus.

With this kind of government and politics, our country’s future still looks dim.

E-mail:attyjosesison@gmail.com