Less people were happy this season, according to a survey. That should not be surprising: the poverty rate worsened despite economic expansion, and jobs are harder to find.
Less people are happy in the face of calamitous events that seem to haunt us like a curse. Less people are happy because fuel and energy costs spiraled. Less people are happy because government seems insensitive to their needs. “Bahala na kayo sa buhay n’yo†is the quote of the year.
There are many reasons to be less happy. If we dwell on them, we would magnify the misery of it all.
On a global index, however, Filipinos rate among the happiest in the world. There must be something perverse in all of us. We seem to find joy where others see none.
Over at the disaster zone, Christmas lanterns were fashioned out of typhoon-wrought debris. They are not pretty, but they are most beautiful: speaking of the unyielding spirit of people used to fending for themselves.
The Christmas masses held in roofless churches were most beautiful. An abiding faith shelters us from the severities of this time.
The children, bless them, are always happy. They sing in the ruins. They play amidst the debris. They are immune to disappointment.
So many communities were devastated by severe weather and seismic events this year. In all of them, people refuse to succumb to despair. They claw back whatever is left of their former lives, rebuild their roofs and somehow manage to pull together enough to be part of a season of joy.
Resilience is the word often used to describe us. Our people impressed the world by tenaciously standing up against the cruelties of weather, the vagaries of fate and the incompetence of those who lead us. We rebuild where we can, recover when we must.
The resilience of individuals and communities, however, should not excuse official neglect and bureaucratic incompetence. In the Yolanda-devastated zone, more and more voices are heard saying that there is really nothing happening on the ground. There is no visible strategy for rehabilitation, no real effort in progress. There is much talk and no action.
The Palace did appoint some sort of rehabilitation czar for Eastern Visayas, someone with no visible record for planning human settlements. His first official statement after surveying the devastation was to accuse local governments of racketeering.
If we are a resilient people, it is because very often we have only resilience to bank on.
Our regulatory authorities failed us big time the past few weeks. Killer buses took an almost daily toll, yet the LTFRB, the agency supposed to look after the safety of public conveyances, goes on with business as usual. The LTFRB head is not being asked to resign in the face of blatant neglect in enforcing standards.
An assassination happened right at the airport terminal and no CCTV cameras recorded the event. The airport authority ought to have ensured a working CCTV system as part of basic security and public safety procedures. The airport manager is not being asked to resign in the face of obvious failure.
A third of the MRT trains are in the junkyard. This explains why the lines are long at every station and the trains crammed even more than usual. The general manager of the MRT, accused of extortion, is happily back at his post. The mismanagement continues.
In the face of all the incompetence, we really need to be resilient. That is the only way to survive in the face of neglect.
All the praise we are getting from abroad for our remarkable resilience as a people really needs an extended explanation.
Resigned
At least one official finally offered to resign for missing his target. Energy secretary Jericho Petilla submitted his letter of resignation to the President while the latter is on vacation.
The resignation was prompted by failure to restore power to all the municipalities in the Yolanda-stricken zone by Christmas Eve. Petilla put his post on the line restoring power to all affected municipalities by his self-imposed deadline. Three municipalities still did not have power by the deadline.
He might be offering the wrong reason for his resignation. The problem in the energy sector is much larger than just three municipalities celebrating Christmas without electricity. The real problem in our energy sector is insufficient supply and high cost. Unreliable supply and excessive costs are bleeding wounds for our whole economy.
Rene Almendras, when he was energy secretary, accomplished nothing to improve both supply and pricing. As a consequence, he was kicked upstairs to be secretary for the entire Cabinet. The message there, as in the case of Mar Roxas who was moved to the DILG after failing to accomplish anything at the DOTC, is that competence cannot be more important than loyalty.
Petilla is not seriously incompetent --- although his performance has yet to be adequately reviewed. He comes across as a sincere and dedicated public official, with more EQ than most of his other colleagues. His few TV appearances after Yolanda struck a chord among viewers and not a few have suggested the man has what it takes to be President.
Precisely because he emerged more credible than most others in this lackluster administration, Petilla has lately been considered a rising political star. For that very reason, he is said to have been put on the target list of those lusting for the presidency.
The rejection of his resignation cannot but have political bearing.