Resignations: South Korea —1; Philippines — 0!

The biggest maritime disaster in South Korea has given us an idea of how true leaders of a nation must act in times of disasters. When the Ferry Sewol sank off Jindo with 300 passengers on board, mostly high school students, South Korean President Park Geun-hye immediately issued a statement that this was act akin to murder…and its Captain still wet in his clothes was immediately arrested for his possible criminal responsibility in the sinking that has taken more than 180 lives. But the unexpected fallout from this sea disaster was the sudden resignation of South Korean Prime Minister Chung hong-won because it was the right thing to do.

Unfortunately for us Filipinos, this act of “delicadeza” even in the era of “daang matuwid” the backbone slogan of President Aquino, hasn’t resulted in his resignation in the aftermath of Super Typhoon “Yolanda” when the international news organizations that came with the international relief efforts swooped down to Leyte, Samar and Northern Cebu. They saw for themselves the total ineptitude of the Aquino regime whose first reaction was to sack the police director for Region 8 Supt Elmer Soria for suggesting that the death toll would reach 10,000.

To date, the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) has not come up with the total number of dead or missing. Somehow it has stuck somewhere in the 8,000 plus mark and we gathered that every now and then they still end up finding dead bodies in Leyte. Yet no one from the NDRRMC has resigned because of this faux pas.

A month ago, we saw the tons of relief goods in Tacloban City that was bulldozed and buried, yet another visible proof that the ineptitude of our government agencies like the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). All of this has happened even after the United Kingdom (UK) held its own investigation of relief goods sold in the stores in Manila. We don’t know what was the result of that investigation. We only know that DSWD Sec. Dinky Soliman has not yet resigned because of this faux pas.

Lately, there were extremely long lines in the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) which photos became viral in the social media circles. But Malacañang spokesmen gave the flimsiest excuse that those people riding the MRT should seek other forms of mass transportation like the jeepney or taxi. But then MRT GM Al Vitangol hasn’t resigned because of his ineptitude. He should have resigned when his name was embroiled with the highly-controversial Czech Rail deal. But like most of the Aquino Cabinet members, they cling on to power because their slogan “daang matuwid” protects them.

Remember that infamous phone call by then Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) to a Comelec officer where she was suspected of “dagdag bawas”? It resulted in the resignation of the Hyatt 10, where her Cabinet Secretaries resigned en masse hoping that it would topple her government. It did not. Instead, Hyatt 10 gravitated to the Aquino Yellow team and embraced P-Noy’s “daang matuwid” program for honesty in government service.

But now that they’re in power, even if a non-political person named Prof. Alex Muga of the Ateneo de Manila’s IT Center discovered the infamous “60-30-10” result from the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) where 60% favored the Liberal Party candidates, 30% for UNA candidates and 10% for the rest, this did not result in any resignation by any Aquino Cabinet members (many of them belonging to the Hyatt 10) because their fellow Liberal partymates benefited from this massive “electronic dagdag bawas.”

If you want to know why the Aquino Cabinet members have become so thick faced? It is because we Filipinos allow them to do so. Today, thanks to Janet Lim Napoles, we now know that the Senate and the House of Representatives have become the largest organized crime syndicate to steal billions of pesos from the government, and it is happening only because the Filipino people allow them to do so. Remember that old saying, “For evil to flourish, it is enough that good men do nothing.”

Sure, the Philippine economy is doing better than most countries. But how come we are woefully lagging behind our ASEAN neighbors in terms of infrastructure and direct foreign investments (DFI)? The answer lies up the fact that our political system which has kept our greedy politicians in power has failed to share the loot to the poor Filipino people.

I had already written that in the 1986 EDSA Revolt we booted our Alibaba…but kept the 40 thieves. Today the number of thieves in politics has nearly doubled and the people do nothing. President Aquino ought to resign in shame. But he does not because he loves to be in power. In my book, P-Noy shames his own father who died to bring back democracy. Look at our democracy today… we could no longer trust the Legislative branch.

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