‘Fire, fire, burning bright’

Returning from Tacloban City as a volunteer, my friend Sam Liuson was certainly looking forward to enjoying the Christmas season with friends and family. Unfortunately all that got thrown out when a massive fire struck the offices of Concept One – Wheel Gallery as well as that of Arvin Lim’s H&R Bilstein where I also buy my suspension parts.

The fire sent up a billow of smoke so thick you could see it so many kilometers away it reminded me of the first fire that hit the twin towers in 9/11. But what got my attention were all the fire trucks that came from all over Metro Manila. At the very least there must have been at 60 of them, 3 abreast, all systematically taking turns to unload tons of water on the fire that went on from 2 p.m. until 10 p.m.

During all that time, both “official” and “volunteer” fire brigades and fire fighters worked with no fuss, no theatrics or pulling of rank. No one would even admit to being the ground commander or being in-charge. Even the Vice Mayor, 2 councilors and the chief of police of San Juan were on site but not a single person was pulling rank. They all simply helped. I personally saw how they risked life, limb and were exposed to smoke inhalation much more than the rest of us. No amount of money makes up for this kind of dedication. Even before the fire was out, I learned that Senator JV Ejercito and San Juan Mayor Guia Gomez had both called Sam to convey their concern and support to help them get back on their feet.

Much later in the evening one of the San Juan firemen volunteers came by in a scooter carrying two bilaos of pancit and bottled water for us. He said: We know how it feels and we just want to help. “Ganito kami sa San Juan.”

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If you’re familiar with the saying “Always the bridesmaid, never the bride” then you will easily appreciate me saying that as far as regulatory agencies are concerned they are always the investigator but never the investigated.

Consider the fact that every time there is a vehicular accident resulting in multiple deaths or front-page coverage, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board or LTFRB immediately sends out suspension orders to the bus company involved even before an actual investigation and a hearing take place, sends out inspectors to the terminal to inspect other buses, and almost always talk about driver error.

In the case of the Don Mariano bus that took a flying leap off the Skyway, the driver has been judged guilty and will most likely take the blame for the death of 18 passengers, injury to even more passengers fortunate to have survived, the damage to property, and loss of income for the company, its drivers and conductors. No pun intended but the driver will undoubtedly be the fall guy.

As guilty as the driver may be, he will be the fall guy on behalf of government inspectors and regulators who should equally be investigated and prosecuted for failure to do their job, resulting in multiple homicides. Ever since the fatal accident, these same people have been talking, speculating and saying that the driver may have been sleepy after driving too long, he may have been speeding in order to meet a boundary because drivers don’t get a fixed salary like they were suppose to after the last great road accident involving buses, another said he may have been on drugs. All of these could have and should have been seen and prevented by government regulators but they did not!

Beyond question is the fact that 36 out of 40 buses were judged unfit for use after an inspection that took place after 18 people were killed! On site investigators said that the bus involved in the accident had bald tires. The question is if all the above is true, then who is responsible for allowing the killer bus and its driver on the road. Who signed off on the bus and the driver and why are they not being investigated?

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Without access to PDAF, and the Development Acceleration Program Fund under scrutiny of the Supreme Court, the P-Noy administration must be desperate to protect their DAP funds. Unfortunately in order to do that, the administration and its allies must have enough persuasive powers to impress upon the Supreme Court Justices that the administration has the numbers and the war chest to wage war against the Supreme Court if they ever consider declaring the DAP as illegal or impose restrictions to its use or disbursement.

Unfortunately the administration no longer has access to PDAF and DAP for the meantime so they are hard pressed finding another lynch mob in the Senate willing to do it for free. As a result Malacañang now “let the dogs out” to start nipping at the heels of the Supreme Court Justices. First they released an allegedly “compromising photo” of fully clothed individuals at a party. I guess whoever let the dogs out believes that people can still be misled by the holier than thou crowd.

When the silly party photos failed to get two bars on people’s cellphones and brains, their attack dogs are now talking about investigating how the Supreme Court spent its budget. This shallow and obvious attempts at discrediting the Supreme Court are clearly nothing more than Bully Boy tactics meant to intimidate and prevent the Supreme Court Justices from taking away the DAP funds from an administration accused of using good money for evil intent. All legalities aside, no Justice in his or her right mind would give the administration the DAP funds knowing that the “gun” used on Renato Corona can also be used in the “assassination” of other Justices.

One of the most interesting comments I’ve heard is how the removal of the PDAF has freed members of Congress from being in the pockets and under the control of the President. Removing the DAP funds on the other hand would free the Supreme Court from continuing threats from Malacañang.

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