Humility

Humility goes a long way in diplomacy. Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada shows us how.

From the day he assumed leadership of the capital city, Estrada was determined to make amends for the bloody 2010 Luneta hostage incident. He immediately won a resolution from the city council expressing profound apologies for what happened. Then he raised enough money from private donors to give as a token for the victims’ families.

The clumsy handling of that incident, and the even clumsier handling of its aftermath, drew an emotional backlash from the people of Hong Kong. More important, it helped shape attitudes towards our government in all of China —  as we see in the poisoned diplomatic waters on other unrelated concerns such as the South China Sea claims.

Recall that even as the hostage taking was in progress, Hong Kong’s chief executive tried calling up President Aquino. He failed to get through as someone from the presidential staff failed to realize the importance of that call. We were never told who that was.

In the wake of the bloody rescue effort, Hong Kong demanded a full investigation of the incident, including full penalties for those who failed in their jobs. To appease Hong Kong, government formed an investigation panel that included Leila de Lima and the late Jessie Robredo. The panel found culpability in the city and police officials who should have more adeptly managed the hostage situation.

The report of that panel might have been found sufficient by the authorities in Hong Kong who even sent a legal team to observe the proceedings. The panel report recommended administrative penalties for a number of personalities led by then Manila mayor Alfredo Lim, a close Aquino ally.

Strangely, Malacanang organized a second panel to “review” the findings of the original panel. No one was penalized. The report somehow found its way to the archives.

When no action on the recommendations of the panel seemed forthcoming, Hong Kong began to express disappointment. Soon, both the government of Hong Kong and the families of the victims demanded an apology for what happened.

President Aquino, for some reason, decided he would not apologize for the incident.  From that point on, our diplomatic relations with Hong Kong began to deteriorate badly.

First, our fruit exports came under tighter scrutiny. Then an advisory against travelling to the Philippines was issued for Hong Kong citizens. Finally, holders of official Philippine passports were required to have visas before allowed entry to Hong Kong.

Unless some solution was found, diplomatic tensions would continue to escalate. Since President Aquino declared we will not apologize for the incident, something short of that will have to happen.

Mayor Estrada’s willingness to apologize on behalf of his city opened an opportunity to finally let this bothersome issue rest. With the appropriate ceremony, the Manila mayor apologized profusely. Secretary Rene Almendras, representing the national government, expressed deep sympathies for the loss of life —  although not an outright apology.

This was a finely calibrated ceremony, given President Aquino’s refusal to apologize. It was enough to bring closure to the matter, however. The sanctions imposed by Hong Kong were lifted. Things should be better —  although the resolution of this problem might have been a lot simpler were it not for an abundance of arrogance and pigheadedness on our side.

Jenny’s list

For two days, I have been bugging my sources to get my hands on the list of politicians named by Janet Napoles. I know I will eventually get that. Few secrets are kept in this town.

By the number of politicians hurriedly calling press conferences to deny involvement, we know that Jenny’s list is already making the rounds. Secretary de Lima, after all, briefed the President of the meeting she had with Napoles. Rehab czar Panfilo Lacson, it turns out, was given a copy of Napoles’ draft affidavit much earlier.

Lacson made broad hints about the much-sought after list. He mentioned there were enough names of senators in that list to constitute a quorum in the upper chamber. Some news organizations began speaking of 12 senators. The correct number for a quorum is 13.

In addition, there are about a hundred others — congressmen and executive officials — supposedly named. That is an impressive number, especially considering that these are only those involved with the Napoles operation. There are about a dozen other roughly similar operations involved with laundering pork barrel funds so that public money ends up in private pockets.

In a word, we are looking only at the tip of the iceberg, an aspect of a much larger universe. Recall that in the now-famous COA “special audit,” only about a tenth of the questionable NGOs named were linked to Napoles.

The public wants all of those names revealed immediately. De Lima has spoken of some sort of “evaluation” that has to be done, giving consideration to those who might be unjustly named. While the names continue to be withheld, however, everybody becomes suspect.

The actual magnitude of the plunder is only now becoming obvious. It includes not only the PDAF but also congressional insertions, special funds such as the one from Malampaya royalties and this strange animal called the “disbursement acceleration program” (DAP).

Whenever Jenny’s list is finally made public, what is now clear is how the political class has been trying, over the past months, to limit the scandal and diminish its significance as much as possible. Janet’s list brings that effort at grand deception to naught.