WE still have to hear the last word about the Culture of Impunity that is said to pervade our government and the bureaucracy, and there I was, the other day, being told about our government’s Culture of Incompetence.
I don’t usually allow a non-Filipino to say unflattering things about the Philippines or the Philippine government (even if I am a pretty harsh critic myself), but the California state senator bending my ear happens to be one of the Fil-Am community’s most loyal supporters and one of the most effective, too. I decided that he had invested enough in the welfare of our community to earn the right to criticize.
“Why don’t your public officials ever learn?” was the senator’s sardonic remark. “It’s not as if typhoon Yolanda was the first major natural calamity to hit the Philippines. The calamities have punished your country so frequently, they have almost become predictable.”
I agreed.
“And yet your highest officials always seem to be caught unprepared,” he went on.
“Shouldn’t they have already anticipated the damage that typhoons and earthquakes would wreak on the country and shouldn’t they have already prepared for them? But they never seem to learn.”
I agreed again.
He made no effort to hide his sarcasm when he recalled how Noynoy Aquino announced on TV that he expected “zero casualties” in the wake of the strongest typhoon ever to hit Philippine shores.
“Did he write that speech himself?,” was the senator’s caustic quip.
But he reserved his most punishing commentary for Mar Roxas, “Talk about incompetence, that guy wins the trophy. If he were a California public official, he would be fired.”
Again, I agreed.
I actually began to feel quite embarrassed as the conversation went on. But, heck, the senator was telling the truth. I couldn’t argue against the things he was saying. Our public officials – and this starts from the very top – all seem to subscribe to the Theory of Post-Event Infallibility.
This is the same theory that says, the most unerring way to know a winning lotto ticket is to read the results in the papers the next day. Applied to disaster preparedness and prevention, our public officials always seem to know what should have been done when the damage can no longer be undone.
I’ve always wondered why this has been the case, over and over and over again. But it has occurred to me that, perhaps, these officials are, in fact, blissfully unaware that they have not been doing a good job. In fact, they may be convinced that they have been performing excellently and beyond the call of duty. In other words, their concept of right and wrong is faulty and they can’t tell the difference.
This brought to mind a saying of Confucius: “He who knows and knows that he knows is a wise man. Follow him. He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool. Shun him.”
Having closely monitored the media reports and commentaries on Roxas’ woeful performance in Zamboanga and in Tacloban, and having listened to his and his apologists’ attempts at spinning the news, I am now convinced that he is sincere in his belief that he has done a good job and that his critics are unfair and unjust in questioning his competence.
In other words, Roxas knows not that he knows not.
How else could he have so self-righteously justified his premise in dealing with the mayor of Tacloban concerning the latter’s appeal for aid? Any right thinking individual – and one doesn’t need a Wharton diploma for this – should have realized how inappropriate – nay, how cruel – it was to set conditions for coming to the aid of a city pummeled and devastated by the worst typhoon in history, exacting a horrible toll in death and property damage.
But, to this day, Roxas – as well as Noynoy Aquino – seem sincerely convinced it was the proper thing to require formal paper work before the national government, led by an Aquino, could help the devastated city, led by a Romuladez, a political nemesis.
You can’t even argue, much less reason with them. THEY ACTUALLY BELIEVE THEY ARE RIGHT. Good grief!
But Roxas isn’t alone. Remember how Erap Estrada kept insisting that he did nothing wrong – and certainly nothing corrupt – that deserved being ejected from the presidency? According to him, he never dipped into the national treasury. According to him, he made his money from jueteng – and that was not from the national treasury.
Did he even think the millions he received were kickbacks? Come to think of it, maybe he didn’t and still doesn’t. Maybe he thinks the money was his rightful balato or even his tong – concepts for which there may not be an equivalent in Western culture. In other words, Erap may actually have believed – and still does – that he deserved a share of the millions being raked in by the jueteng lords because, without his acquiescence, that would not have been possible. Ergo, his share was justified.
And, guess what: A nationwide public opinion poll I had a chance to look at indicated that the masses also think so. They didn’t think –and they still don’t think – that Erap was corrupt and that his conviction for plunder was justified. No wonder, he came second to Aquino in the last presidential elections and is now mayor of Manila.
But to go back to the matter of competence. It has occurred to me that competence isn’t among the qualities that the masses require of our public officials. Competence is certainly not as important to them as being pogi or sexy or “having good PR” or “marunong makisama” or having heroic parents, whether the heroism is in real life or only on the silver screen. .
But what is worse is that the appointing powers – the president being chief among them – do not seem to think that competence is that essential, either. This explains why some nincompoops are holding cabinet positions.
So what happens when a competent private sector manager or executive is drafted by the government and made into a bureaucrat? The logical result should be that the new appointee will imbue his new office with a culture of competence, right? Wrong. What actually happens is that the bureaucrat becomes infected with the virus of incompetence that afflicts the government.
Having flown in and out of Manila frequently these past few months, I have seen how one public official’s incompetence can erode the competence of another public official, thus resulting in a general erosion of efficiency, a breakdown of services, chaos and even anarchy.
For instance, in spite of the yeoman efforts of Tourism Secretary Mon Jimenez to convince the world that “it’s more fun in the Philippines,” the first thing that greets most incoming tourists isn’t fun at all.
You see, the airport that has earned the reputation of being one of the worst in the world, NAIA One, is where foreign airlines land, while PAL has a monopoly of better-looking NAIA Two and local airlines are using the more modern NAIA Three. It’s bad enough being inside NAIA One itself, but getting out is pure hell.
To add insult to injury, to be able to head south (or left towards Sucat Road) from NAIA One, you have to make a right and take a long trip towards the former location of Nayong Pilipino, there to make a U-turn to be able to finally head south.
You would think an overpass from the airport, across the main road would solve the problem. But the idiots running the airports may still be too busy trying to find their way out of the men’s room to do anything about it. And, naturally, the Secretary of Transportation & Communications doesn’t know what he’s doing either. I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t see anything wrong.
And, by the way, at NAIA Four (the old domestic airport), they have a whole platoon of security guards swarming all over the terminal grounds and no one –NO ONE – directing traffic on the maid road to allow easy entry to and exit from the terminal. Gross incompetence!If it’s any consolation for Mar Roxas – Hindi ka nagiisa.
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