A wise decision

Let us, first of all, give credit where credit is due. At a time when our country has the misfortune of having vacillating, "populist" public officials who sacrifice the larger public interest at the altar of high survey or poll numbers, it is refreshing to read of one official who meant what he said, and did what he said.

Vice President Noli "Kabayan" de Castro reportedly ordered at least 10 houses in a resettlement area padlocked after they had been sold by their beneficiaries to non-qualified persons. The illegal occupants will be evicted forthwith.

The houses in resettlement areas are not meant for the open real estate market. Nor are they intended for "non-qualified persons," usually code for the squatter syndicates that are behind our seemingly insoluble illegal urban housing crisis.

The syndicates make money renting or re-selling the homes built by the government. The original beneficiaries, who were themselves evicted from homes along the riles, make money from the sale, then look for somewhere else to squat. As a result, the government spends scarce public resources which, ironically, become responsible for the aggravation of the very problem those resources are meant to address.

Kabayan, who is concurrently chair of the Housing and Urban Development Council, had been put in charge of the resettlement program incident to the NorthRail project. Now, you might think, like Senate President Frank Drilon, that the NorthRail project is anomalous. But the fact is the resettlement program is ongoing.

The Vice President had apparently warned the beneficiaries of the new houses not to sell the homes. But since they refused to listen, he said, they had to suffer the consequences of their hard-headedness.

I’m sure the do-gooders will find some reason to blame the government for this fiasco. They will cite supposed inadequacies in the new houses, their alleged disadvantages and the "lack of options" of the beneficiaries brought about by poverty. This is all cow dung, of course. The point is that the beneficiaries accepted the terms, and the benefits, of the resettlement, for whatever reason, but did so under false pretenses. There is no excuse for this deception, least of all poverty.

I hope the Veep’s resolute action is replicated by limp-wristed functionaries who thus far seem determined to keep the state mired in a perennial condition of institutional weakness. The urban squatter crisis is one of those problems in regard to which we have had entirely too much populist rhetoric and too little concrete action.

Kabayan’s action may be regarded by some to be modest indeed. But I acknowledge it here, despite what the peanut gallery might think, to underscore that many of the seemingly incorrigible problems we face can be handled, if we got it into our thick skulls that change is painful, and progress often costs.

I know all about that argument about the allegedly unequal distribution of pain and suffering. But there are also times when these complaints are mere lame excuses on the part of those who, on closer analysis, brought the pain upon themselves. There are some things, you see, you can’t blame on a "callous society," or the "capitalist system."

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Anyway, while we’re in a generous mood, where deserved credit is concerned, I think it would be appropriate to note the wisdom of the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in the case over Batas Pambansa 880 and the government’s "Calibrated Preemptive Response" policy. As everyone knows, the Court upheld the constitutionality of BP 880 but ruled that CPR was null and void insofar as it sought to be "in lieu of" the maximum tolerance standard mandated by BP 880.

Both the government and the political opposition are claiming victory in the Supreme Court rulings, the government because the "no-permit, no rally" requirement of BP 880 was sustained, the opposition because CPR was thankfully consigned to the dung heap of history, from which, it is fervently hoped, it shall not rise again Phoenix-like.

Actually, it’s not worth beans who "won" in the case. Indeed, radical groups are still unhappy about the Court’s upholding of the no-permit, no-rally mandate because this allegedly represents a curtailment of the constitutionally-guaranteed freedoms of speech and assembly. On the other hand, the permit parameters and the designation of "freedom parks," where no such permits are required, do seem to address the sanctity of those freedoms, as well as the legitimate exercise of the state’s police power.

The government’s attempt to assuage its embarrassment over CPR by calling it a mere "catch phrase" was pathetic. In his unapologetically strident "Statement" of September 21, 2005, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita had all but fumed: "The rule of calibrated preemptive response is now in force in lieu of maximum tolerance." (itals. ours) Under BP 880, maximum tolerance is defined to mean "the highest degree of restraint that the military, police and other peace keeping authorities shall observe during a public assembly or in the dispersal of the same." (itals. ours)

Ermita later backtracked and claimed that the words "in lieu of" did not mean that the maximum tolerance policy was being replaced. It was a mere "catchword" intended to clarify a "misunderstanding" of what maximum tolerance meant, according to the Solicitor General.

Nice try, but no cigar! Black’s Law Dictionary, as well as my nephews in high school, insist that "in lieu of" means "instead of" or "in place of." The Supreme Court huffed that CPR "has no place in our legal firmament and must be struck down as a darkness that shrouds freedom." So much for government-speak!

The wise balancing act evident in the Supreme Court’s decision was, in the minds of many, partly responsible for the generally "peaceful" demonstrations and rallies last Labor Day. So were the restraint and good humor of the Philippine National Police’s somewhat bored crowd control units (except for some spirited shoving to and fro on the road to Mendiola) and of National Capital Regional Chief, Director Vidal Querol.

After all, it takes an inordinate sense of humor to laugh off those dark threats of a Linggoy Alcuaz on the march to freeze Gen. Querol’s rank at two stars because of his refusal to allow the demonstrators to proceed to Mendiola.