Gary Olivar Wrote: ‘Kanto boy’-in-chief By Gary Olivar “Tapos na ang maliligayang araw ninyo!” As a piece of statesman-like rhetoric, it doesn’t exactly rank up there with “Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan…” (Jose Rizal), or “I prefer a government run like hell by Filipinos…” (Manuel Quezon), or even “The Filipino is worth dying for!” (Ninoy Aquino). But it sounds oh-so-right coming from the mouth of PNoy, who issued this threat to the resurrected Moro National Liberation Front rebels during the Zamboanga face-off last week. It’s of a piece with his taunt to the Chinese some time back: “Ang Recto Bank, gagawin nating Recto Avenue!” or something like that. You have to wonder whether the man, in his own mind, is ever anywhere else other than in front of his PlayStation or shooting off his pistols at the firing range—both of them being convenient venues for exorcising whatever violent demons apparently continue to inhabit his subconscious from what must have been a really troubled past. The dignity of statesmanship is the last thing we have come to expect from this President. Neither is prudence nor astuteness, which would otherwise have prompted him way back to make the MILF peace process much more inclusive, thereby avoid alienating demonstrably violent people like Nur Misuari. Now we are left to pick up the pieces of a peace agreement nearly two decades old, even though its purported replacement still hasn’t been finalized and must still hurdle formidable Constitutional obstacles. In the end, the case for this President comes down only to his reputation for personal incorruptibility—one that we want more and more desperately to believe in. And yet in the wake of the Napoles revelations, people are now rightly asking about the nature of his acquaintance with the lady, the disposition of his own PDAF when he was still in Congress (which his DBM adamantly refuses to share with the public), and the ways he may have misused the gargantuan funds that are made available, without accountability, to the Presidential office. The people running the country today aren’t really a student council—most of them, though not all, are pretty smart guys and gals. They appear to be amateurish only because they’re led by a kanto boy—someone who’s glib, shiftless, poorly motivated, potentially violent, disrespectful of institutions, with nary a thought for the long view or the big picture. It will be enormously interesting to see where he takes the rest of us in the coming years. * * * Following on my earlier pieces since July about how MWSS is mishandling the water situation in Metro Manila, the folks at Manila Water sent me a position paper about the agency’s recent decision to drastically cut the rates that people have to pay for their water service. I don’t know where the new rates are now, but they’re evidently unreasonable enough to provoke the private concessionaires into issuing papers and threatening legal action. Here’s some of what Manila Water had to say: “[The new rates] cut away significant programs for building and maintaining water and waste water systems in the East Zone. Our ability to fulfill our service obligations to our customers will be severely compromised and impaired. “[The new rates] completely ignore and threaten to set back the service improvement advances made since the water crisis of 1995. [They also] put at risk the government’s efforts to promote public-private partnerships [which depend on] the sanctity of business covenants entered into by the Philippine government.” If you wonder why we’re not seeing more infrastructure—let alone PPPs—then look no farther. Once again the hard job of leading the country—which includes educating our people about the bitter truths of investing today for tomorrow, deferring gratification, and keeping our word in our covenants—is being sacrificed for pogi points by a leadership that prefers to run the country according to popularity polls. If you’re nostalgic for the kind of water service that MWSS (and NAWASA before them) used to give us up till the mid-nineties, then ignore the private concessionaires. But if you think that they’ve been doing a decent job, then make your opinion known to them and to government. As with the pork barrel issue, it’s up to you to speak up for what government should be doing right, because government—and especially its present head of state—certainly won’t be doing that for you.
Posted on: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 23:39:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015