I SINCERELY believe the entire country (particularly my home province of Leyte) should thank Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas and Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman, as well as Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, members of the Philippine Military, the Philippine National Police and other cabinet heads and government workers for all of their hard work, in the wake of the disaster wreaked by typhoon Yolanda.
I also sincerely believe we should thank President Benigno S. Aquino III for deploying the resources of government to help the victims of the catastrophe.
Having said that, I sincerely hope that those of them, who do not feel competent to manage the crisis and the process of rehabilitation should, in all humility and nobility, volunteer to step aside and ask Aquino to constitute a task force consisting of experts in operations management – most particularly, crisis management – to take over the job.
Needless to say, that task force should have someone who calls the shots. A person of ultimate accountability. Someone willing to put his or her head on the block.
Without that take-charge individual, the default PUA has become the president of the Philippines. Not surprisingly, Aquino has gotten most of the flak for the clumsiness and slowness in the government’s response to the Yolanda catastrophe.
A Rappler report on a press conference on the crisis, apparently chaired by Roxas (with Soliman beside him) almost made me fall off my chair:
RAPPLER: Sino po ba ang ground commander natin sa relief operations na ito? (Who is the ground commander in this relief operation?)
ROXAS: There is no such title dahil ayon sa NDRRMC, it’s Sec Voltz Gazmin ang aming chairman, at ina-assign-assign niya kami sa kung ano ang aming dapat gawin. (There is no such title because according to the NDRRMC, it’s Sec Voltz Gazmin who is our chairman, and he assigns us to do whatever we have to do. )
RAPPLER: Pero sir, who is calling the shots here in this center? (But sir, who is calling the shots here in this center?)
ROXAS: Wala. You can see the process that is being undertaken, and it is a consultative process. (No one. You can see the process that is being undertaken, and it is a consultative process.)
At this point, Soliman cut in to elaborate on Roxas’ “consultative process.” First came the Motherhood statement:
SOLIMAN: Lahat kami, buong pamahalaan, pambansa at lokal, kumikilos as one. But more than that, ‘yun ang gusto kong ipaalam sa lahat – it’s also whole of society. Lahat ng private sector, lahat ng volunteers, lahat ng volunteers dito sa Tacloban, nagre-repack sila. This is whole of society, responding to a crisis. Nagkaisa ang bansa; ‘yun ang ating mensahe. (Everyone of us, the whole of government, national and local, move as one. But more than this, what I want everyone to know – it’s also whole of society. The entire private sector, all volunteers, all volunteers here in Tacloban are repacking. This is whole of society, responding to a crisis. The nation is working as one; that’s our message.)
I suppose she expected a round of applause after that spiel. But she wasn’t finished. She then proclaimed an “operations management concept,” the better to enlighten the media and those in the audience. She said, the government was applying “the Convergent Approach” in the relief operations.
I did a double-take and struggled to find an analogy for “Convergent Approach.” In football, that means operating without a quarterback. In a symphony orchestra, without a conductor. In the corporate environment, without a CEO. In the military, without a commanding officer.
Apparently, in the Roxas-Soliman Institute of Advanced Operations Management (as applied to the Yolanda crisis), the Convergent Approach is one where every player is left to his or her own best intentions, based on respective levels of competence or incompetence.
This is not to say that nothing good comes out of such a “headless” operation. And when success is achieved, Roxas, Soliman and everyone can share in the praise. But when the organic fertilizer hits the airconditioner, Roxas and Soliman can wash their hands, sidestep and let the blame fall squarely on Aquino.
Was CNN’s Anderson Cooper overstating his observation of the slowness of the government’s response to the crisis? That should be no surprise. A Rappler report described the relief operation as having, “many bosses, no decision-maker.”
Of course, Roxas has not taken kindly to the criticism, calling it “political intrigue.” He enumerated all of the things already happening, from clearing the roads to providing food to the victims, to shipping them out of harm’s way. Apparently, by Roxas’ standards, the Convergent Approach has been working.
Not so, said a volunteer to Rappler: “Nang mag-take over ang national government, ang nangyari, parang maraming amo pero walang nagdedesisyon.” (When the national took over, what happened is that we have so many bosses but nobody makes decisions.)
The sad part is that Roxas, apparently, is unaware – or refuses to acknowledge – his incompetence. Neither does Soliman. I’m afraid, neither does Aquino.
Under the circumstances, the typhoon victims and the entire country face many more months of the Convergent Approach, this time in the rehabilitation and rebuilding process.
This would be truly unfortunate, not just for the victims of the catastrophe and for the country but for Roxas and Aquino themselves.
Aquino can say goodbye to a positive legacy as president. Perhaps he can recover by sending the pork barrel and Malampaya fund plunderers to jail – and even better if he sends even his own partymates and his closest advisers to Muntinlupa along with Pogi, Sexy and Tanda.
On the other hand, Roxas can forget about his presidential ambitions. Why would anyone want to elect to the presidency someone who doesn’t understand that a football team needs a quarterback, a symphony orchestra needs a conductor, a military operation needs a commanding officer and a relief and a rehabilitation effort needs an expert decision maker who is willing to put his head on the block?
However, it’s not too late. If only Aquino could imbibe a small dose of humility and concede that he has reached his level of inadequacy (even Pope Benedict XVI did so), and if only he could tell his advisers to step aside, he could constitute a non-partisan private-public task force that will plan, manage and implement the rehabilitation of the afflicted areas over time.
And he could call on the services of such veteran crisis and operations managers as former President Fidel Ramos, former Senator Dick Gorden, corporate CEO Manny Pangilinan, Vice-President Jejomar Binay and Gawad Kalinga’s Tony Meloto. (As of press time, Malacañang has confirmed the appointment of former Senator Ping Lacson as “reconstruction czar.” Now, if only Aquino could don his hat as leader of the country, rather than as a politician, and also harness the other veterans in spite of their political stripes, there would be hope beyond the convergent approach.)
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