Absent

When the brave people of the Yolanda-devastated areas gathered last Sunday, it was to draw strength from each other. These are people with true grit, daring the odds and doing their best to rebuild their communities.

As the day of remembering run its course, angry voices were heard. The anger was over this administration’s handling of the calamity. By every measure, government response was slow, chaotic and unduly politicized.

There was no one to listen to the angry voices, however. President Aquino and his most senior officials chose to snub the commemoration. It was as if the calamity was a nuisance and the rehab a chore.

By their glaring absence, representatives of the national government merely reinforced the perception Samar and Leyte were far from the top of their minds. The area of devastation was far from the core of national concern.

There is a warped attitude at the top. It is a petty attitude that allows minor irritants to overcome strategic response. It is a defensive attitude that meets criticism with sandbagging, failure with denial.

When President Aquino issued that obligatory statement on the second anniversary of the deluge, he thanked the foreign donors who responded generously to the calamity. The actual victims, those whose grit allowed them to survive and whose courage makes rehabilitation a possibility, seem on the margins of his mind.

Even in that unread statement, Aquino could not bring himself to address the victims directly. That is exactly how he has behaved on the matter of the SAF 44. It is consistent with how he has avoided direct contact with the grieving relatives of victims of the Luneta hostage fiasco.

It is as if Aquino fears that by facing the victims squarely, he will have to take direct responsibility for all the failure that has happened. His character could not take that.

Aquino’s alter ego on the ground when Yolanda struck was Mar Roxas. He, too, would not dare make an appearance in Tacloban on the day of remembering and face the angry survivors. It a sense, it was he who set the tone of government response to the calamity: bureaucratic, indecisive and undirected.

That absence only reinforces perception that like Aquino, he is distant, insensitive and disconnected.

While Aquino and his minions were absent from the scene, Vice-President Jejomar Binay toured the devastated zone on the second anniversary of Yolanda. He touched base with the survivors, spoke of the failure of the DBM to release NHA funds for emergency housing programs and listen to what the people had to say. By his presence on a day that mattered, Binay conveys his campaign pitch that his would be a feeling, healing presidency.

Also on the ground was the indefatigable Dick Gordon. As chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross, Gordon strengthened the capacities of that relief organization. Where before, the Red Cross was content collecting blood donations, Gordon moved to strengthen its rescue and relief capabilities.

The Red Cross recently acquired a ro-ro vessel capable of delivering relief even to areas with devastated ports. That is the only item so far added to the national arsenal for disaster response.

Quite characteristically, national government has yet to cull the lessons from Yolanda and evolve new capacities for  disaster response such a forward deployment of supplies and equipment to shorten the time between calamity striking and rescue coming to the scene.

Judicial dynasty

We all know what political dynasties are. When families enjoy a political stranglehold over certain localities, they virtually appoint relatives to elective positions and hold power across generations.

In Pampanga, people now talk about a “judicial dynasty.” Pampanga congressmen are now asking the House committee on justice to probe the phenomenon.

There is no law against it. Perhaps there ought to be.

The courts in the province of Pampanga are under the direction of Executive Judge Divina Luz Simbulan. As executive judge, she wields some clout over the appointment of court personnel and the work of other judges. She is, among the judges in the province, first among equals.

It turns out, Judge Simbulan is married to Atty. Jesus Simbulan. The husband, for his part, holds the rank of regional state prosecutor for Region III. As such, he directs the work of all prosecutors under his jurisdiction.

Judge Simbulan belongs to the judiciary and is accountable to the Supreme Court by way of the court administrator. Regional Prosecutor Jesus Simbulan, for his part, reports to the Department of Justice.

Nevertheless, there is a lot of discomfort about this situation. The husband and wife are, no doubt, highly accomplished professionals, each rising in their separate careers.

But still, there is a sense that some conflict of interest might pertain if the executive judge of a province is married to the regional prosecutor whose domain encompasses that province. The position of one could serve to magnify the power of the other.

For better or for worse, we live in a culture where informal influence is often more telling than the letter of the law. Although the couple may do their work completely independent of the other, the situation causes much unease and opens much room for malicious speculation. The judge, after all married to the prosecutor.

Again, the situation is not illegal. It is just uncomfortable – and probably unhealthy.

It will help relieve a lot of the discomfort if either husband or wife ask to be transferred to another jurisdiction. Either the regional prosecutor ask to be transferred to another region or the judge ask to be moved somewhere else.