The next secretary of transportation and communications, Arthur Tugade, has dared the public to kick him out of office if he is not able to accomplish anything in two years.
Tugade said he intends to overhaul the work attitude of the department’s employees, eradicate corruption in the agency, continue the phaseout of old public utility vehicles, ease airport congestion, and improve the distribution of vehicle plates and driver’s licenses, among others.
At the end of his term, he says he should be able to present a 30-year transportation road map.
This same incoming official also supports the granting of emergency powers to President-elect Rodrigo Duterte—who will assume office in two days—to solve the worsening traffic problem in Metro Manila.
Given this long list, we find it superfluous that Tugade would say he would dare others to remove him for being useless if he fails to show results within two years.
The public cannot be blamed for being suspicious of such pronouncements. We remember the day when President Benigno Aquino III said he would have himself run over by a train if the extension of Line 1 of the Light Rail Transit, from Baclaran to Bacoor, Cavite is not completed by 2015. In fact, he would take current transportation chief Joseph Emilio Abaya, with him.
But it is Mr. Aquino’s second-to-the-last full day in office. Not one inch of the rail extension has been built, and both the colossally incompetent Abaya and his boss have never said anything about that dare.
Recall, too, the many revocable, or courtesy, resignations offered by various officials at several points during the Aquino administration. “Offering to resign” has become fashionable, primarily because the appointing authority is almost always expected to reject the offer. “So-and-so continues to enjoy the confidence of the chief executive,” has become a common response.
Mr. Tugade and all other incoming officials who wish to be taken seriously should stay away from this habit. If they do not think they can do their jobs, they should not accept them in the first place. If they do, and yet fail after trying as hard as humanly possible, they should not announce that they will quit. They should just do so, their heads bowed in shame.