By BENJIE OLIVEROS
Analysis
Bulatlat.com
Investigations on the reasons behind the bungling of the police operation in the August 23 hostage-taking incident is ongoing with Justice Sec. Leila de Lima at the helm. The Senate is also undertaking its own inquiry. As of late, President Benigno Aquino III has taken “full responsibility’ over what happened during that fateful day. Local Government Undersecretary Rico Puno admitted that he had no experience in handling crisis situations. Puno was supposed to be on top of things and was the link to President Aquino. Police Director General Jesus Verzosa, on the other hand, admitted that he underestimated the impact of the hostage taking incident by deciding that it was merely a local crisis situation and proceeded with his normal business for the day.
After a week of evading their accountabilities, those government officials who are supposedly responsible for the handling of such situations are now admitting their faults and responsibilities. But the question still is, what happens next? How would the Aquino government address the problems that surfaced during the hostage-taking incident?
Admission of responsibility and accountability is the necessary first step at assessing the handling of any situation, for coming up with resolutions to prevent the same things from happening again, and to address the problems that surfaced in the process. Thus, it is a positive sign that government officials are beginning to admit their accountabilities in the bungled operations.
However, with the way the Aquino government is reacting, it seems that it is still missing the mark. First, President Aquino accepted full responsibility over the bungling of the operations just to save the head of Local Government Sec. Jesse Robredo, especially since Congress has warned that it would make it difficult for Robredo to get its confirmation. Good for Robredo, but did President Aquino really realize his own accountability over the bungled operation? Clearly, nobody was in command of the situation from the national government. President Aquino should have been on top of the situation and could have rallied his men behind him.
Second, it appears that President Aquino has not realized the fallacy of his decision to set clear boundaries over who is on top of what in the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) instead of placing the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the DILG secretary. And for what? for political accommodation?
Third, the Aquino government is still viewing the matter merely from the perspective of a police operation. Of course, that is the easiest part to solve and remedy. A few showcases of policemen training how to handle a similar situation would perhaps assure the public. But what about the corruption in government, specifically within the Philippine National Police (PNP)? It is quite disturbing that the smoke has barely cleared when the PNP announced the promotion of a police general facing graft charges after he and ten other high-ranking police officials were caught by Russian police carrying a very large amount €105,000($ 184,830 or P6 million) after attending an Interpol assembly in 2008. Ironically, the promotion was approved by President Aquino and recommended by Robredo and Verzosa.
What about the problem of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and their vulnerabilities? Again another case of abuse of a domestic helper, this time in Saudi Arabia, was reported in the news. How does the Aquino government plan to generate enough gainful employment in the country so that Filipinos would no longer feel the need to leave their families and risk working abroad?
But it appears that this is not the approach the Aquino government is taking. In the news, Social Welfare Sec. Dinky Soliman announced the approval of an Asian Development Bank loan for cash aid to one million poor people. Soliman announced that the government plans to increase the number of beneficiaries of the cash aid to 2.3 million people by the end of 2011. She also declared that the government would not be able to meet its Millennium Development Goal target of reducing the poverty incidence to 12.5 percent by 2015. Is this how the government intends to address the worsening poverty in the country? Surely, the cash aid would help the beneficiaries in the short term. But if the government intends to address poverty primarily by distributing cash aid to the poor instead of generating employment and protecting the rights of workers, including the right to a decent job and wages, and implementing a genuine agrarian reform program, then poverty and labor migration are here to stay. As the oft repeated saying goes, “Give a Man a Fish, Feed Him For a Day. Teach a Man to Fish, Feed Him For a Lifetime.”
Some would say we should let the Aquino government complete its investigation and come up with resolutions before judging its actions. But with the way the Aquino government is approaching the problem, it is clear that the investigation would result merely in an official apology to Hongkong officials, removal of middle and low level police officers, and the creation of an elite AFP-PNP unit. Then it would business as usual. (Bulatlat.com)
