When mediocrity becomes fatal

Cops are supposed to put order. But when they arrived at the Pasay hostaging Friday, they only added to the pandemonium. The obvious first task was to cordon off the crowd that was heckling a crazed man who was pointing a knife at the wailing boy in his arm. The cops merely positioned themselves behind the onlookers. The next step was to talk the man out of it. No cop dared to do so until the chief arrived 90 minutes later. All that time a television reporter was doing the negotiating while preening for viewership ratings. Five feet from the long-drawn real-life drama, pesky usiseros kept waving into the camera (hi, mom, I’m here); a security guard even made funny faces. The chief gave sharpshooters the signal to fire, as had two lower officers before he arrived. The SWAT team hesitated; they only follow orders from their immediate superior, who wasn’t there. The man started stabbing the boy, one, two ... thirteen times. Only then did the cops shoot. When the man fell, they charged, firing volley after volley. They were marksmen alright; they put five bullets into the boy. The mob charged too, and stomped on the dead (dying?) man while the police watched.

All in a day’s work for policemen whose salaries Congress has just raised by 24 percent, and for the SWAT which supposedly came from rigorous retraining only three weeks ago.

In the wake of the public outcry against the ineptitude witnessed on live TV, the PNP brass are promising the usual investigation, review of operating procedures, administrative sanctions and gun proficiency. But wait till the furor dies down, and the police will return to its old ways. Only a week before in Quezon City was a similar hostaging of a baby girl by a knife-wielding junkie. Also on television, a cop fired a bull’s-eye. When the target slumped over, another cop with a rifle rushed forth, wildly pumping more rounds and further endangering the life of the infant. There were no investigations or SOP reviews for that one, although the camera caught an officer trying to stop the rifle cop from firing away. After all, the victim survived with only minor cuts. All’s well that ends well?

If indiscipline, rank cowardice, poor shots, late response and officer indecision marked both incidents, it shows the sorry state of the PNP of which the public is well aware. Sorrier still is the continuing failure of a succession of PNP directorates to cure the ailment. Generals never learned from the incident in 1994 in which rescuing cops fired into the getaway car of the kidnappers of a teenage girl. The cops got the bad guys alright. But they also shot the girl in the neck. And instead of rushing her to the hospital, they lined her body on the pavement alongside the kidnappers. Nor did the generals stop to take in the sad lesson from the stakeout of a drug lord’s house two years later, during which trigger-happy cops fired deadly shots at a passing car in which two toddlers were sleeping. What goes on with the PNP are haphazard recruitment and training, followed by shabby work and appearance that nonetheless guarantee promotion.

In fact, tolerance of poor performance ails not only the police force but the entire government bureaucracy as well. Except for a few highly-charged agencies or spurts of inspiring bureau heads, the name of the public service game is surrender to mediocrity. "Puwede na ‘yan (that’ll do)" seems to be the unwritten work slogan. Aspiring for excellence is frowned upon as sucking up to the boss or not being a team player. Exacting better output is regarded as arrogance of authority or slave-driving. Superiors, avoiding aggravation since they inevitably will retire anyway, let pass laggardly, low-quality work. Subordinates, awaiting the same retirement, hide their sloth and inadequacies behind office unions. Life is not to be taken seriously, because nobody ever comes out of it alive anyway; that seems to be the underlying belief from the greatest philosopher of all time, Bugs Bunny.

And so we waste billions of pesos in public funds to inefficiency. Traffic aides do nothing but lazily wave motorists on instead of untangling jams caused by jeepneys waiting for passengers and vendors blocking the road. Ask them if they know how to drive or understand the basic law of motion, and they’d give a blank stare. Clerks yell at citizens who transact business at government offices to cover for their incomplete paperwork. Yet their salaries come from those very citizens. Government lawyers ignore their cases, barangay heads allow garbage to pile up in streets, Customs officers keep a sharp eye out only for cargo consignees who have grease money to pay.

Through all this, we jump with glee if a license we long applied for comes out in two weeks instead of the stated twenty minutes. We are happy with discounted bribes. And then we envy how the bureaucracies in other countries work, compared to ours.

Some of us are wont to blame everything on society. Ours is a feudal structure that thrives on patronage and not on merit, we sigh. Excellence is futile, only good connection is needed in the system. But that’s belaboring the issue.

The problem is attitude, really. To blame the system is to ignore the capability of individuals for self-improvement. For, why is it that private firms operate on merit and quality circles, but public servants don’t?

Mediocrity is bad work attitude; tolerating it is bad leadership for it leads to short-changing the taxpaying public. Unfortunately, mediocrity can be fatal, as were seen in recent shipwrecks arising from Coast Guards ignoring the overloading of seacraft. Mediocrity can cost lives, as proved by the police mishandling of the Pasay hostaging.

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Catch Linawin Natin, every Monday, 11:30 p.m., on IBC-13.

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