Incongruities

It looks like no significant reforms are in sight for the rest of the term of this administration. People seem to be resigned in accepting the reality that no major change will happen for the next 800 or more days remaining in PNoy’s term. At this stage, the rosy expectations at the start of his tenure have all been shattered by subsequent events and developments since he assumed office which are obviously contrary to what he has been repeated telling the people. What we have now is a government being ran more by words and by propaganda than by real and concrete actions seen and felt by the people.

One clear indication that the promised reforms will not materialize is PNoy’s attitude of refusing to see or accept mistakes committed by him and his people. This trait can readily be seen in the Luneta hostage-taking incident that happened barely three months after he assumed office. Investigation of the incident by a Committee created by PNoy himself showed that government officials in the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the City of Manila, mishandled the crisis which led to the killing of eight Hong Kong tourists.

PNoy should have immediately disciplined the officials involved upon recommendation of the Investigating Committee. But he did not act on it apparently because these erring officials were his kaibigan, kabarkada or kabarilan. Furthermore, he could have immediately sent an envoy to the Hong Kong government to apologize for what happened to soothe ruffled feelings that could have resolved the matter on an amicable note.

The worst part here is that when Hong Kong demanded an apology from the Philippine Government, compensation for the victims and punishment of the officials involved, late last year, PNoy and his government still consistently refused to formally apologize even as it has allegedly settled all the other issues already, particularly the turn-over of “additional tokens of solidarity from the Filipino people”.

The refusal to do this simple and humble act of saying sorry for the unfortunate incident thus worsened the relations between the two countries and led to the imposition of visa requirements on holders of diplomatic and official passports intending to travel in the Chinese territory. Definitely, this is not a welcome development especially to the over 160,000 OFWs in Hong Kong. And all because Malacanang believes that making an apology “for the mistakes of individuals” is allegedly “against the Philippine culture”.

Obviously Malacanang’s reason here is quite flawed. On the contrary it an essential part of our culture to apologize not only for our own mistakes but for the mistakes of other individuals especially those close to us or part of our working group like the k,k,k, in  PNoy’s case. Such reasoning may be considered as more personal to the people running our government now, than to Filipinos in general. This is the frame of mind of some people who believe they are always right and cannot commit any mistake. And it seems to be the perceptible public image being projected by PNoy with his government’s stubborn refusal to simply say sorry for the unfortunate incident that happened in 2010.

This kind of trait being projected by PNoy is further confirmed by his recent statement at the start of the year as part of his new year’s resolution, to ignore people in media who have made a “cottage industry” of criticizing him and his administration. Such resolution to ignore all forms of criticisms directed at him further caused people to lose hope that his government can  still achieved much of his promised reforms.

Of course many people still believe that he is honest, that he is not corrupt. In fact this is the image that he is trying to repeatedly project aside from his being self righteous. Paradoxically however, what is happening in his government now is contrary to this reputation. This is predominantly shown by his use of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) concocted Disbursements Acceleration Program (DAP), and the rampant smuggling of rice and oil.

Exposures and revelations the past three years of his administration confirm that the PDAF has been the biggest source of corruption in government. At the start of his term, it was already suggested that he should abolish this fund also notoriously known as “pork barrel”. But instead of doing so, he even increased it almost threefold. Thus, when the various anomalies in its use were unearthed at the start of last year, more than a million people marched to Luneta and several petitions were filed in the Supreme Court demanding its abolition. Fortunately for the people and to the consternation of PNoy, the SC really found it unconstitutional.

Much worse is the so called DAP that was a creation of the DBM. Like the PDAF, its use for various shady deals has also been exposed and its constitutionality has been questioned in the SC. In fact there is already an implied admission by the PNoy government that something is anomalous and illegal with this fund when it admitted before the SC that it has already stopped using it. Why should they stop utilizing the DAP if it is not illegal?

Then of course the biggest scandal now erupting is the unabated smuggling of rice and other agricultural products. The government’s failure to curb this smuggling has resulted in revenue losses amounting to P64 billion in the last two years more than in any other administration.

These clear inconsistencies between PNoy’s alleged reputation and what is actually happening in his government have indeed caused people to give up any hope for a cleaner government under PNoy. What they are just presently looking forward to is the end of his term.

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