“Ineptitude, Corruption, Insensitivity. The hallmarks and legacy of this leadership where only two among 10 Filipinos still cling to some reason to hope”
ICI is in ICU, Kalookan’s Egay Erice corrected his previous declaration that ICI is dead, hoping against hope that Congress, awaiting a presidential certification of urgency, will pass pending bills in both houses that would give the Independent Commission on Infrastructure some “teeth.”
Congress has just about five days left before it goes on a holiday break. Malacanang is silent, but for the senseless babble coming from its resident spokesperson.
Meanwhile, the newly crowned Ombudsman has already sentenced the ICI to inevitable death, saying, “I believe it only has about a month or two, and then, they can turn over the work to us. That’s the direction because the ICI is not forever.”
No wonder Remulla’s boss, El Presidente mismo, has not deigned it fit to even respond to the Nov. 15 letter of former DPWH Secretary Rogelio “Babes” Singson tendering his resignation as one of the commissioners of the ICI.
Is this another case of “I will not dignify,” as El Presidente reacted to Zaldy Co’s revelations, or the week of silence following his Manang Imee’s cri de coeur over her ading’s addiction to Coke?
Babes Singson, one of two or maybe three secretaries of the DPWH whose management is a center of excellence amidst the cesspools of corruption in government, the other being Ping de Jesus, never received fitting response regarding his three-week old letter, which is why the ICI chair had to publicly reveal it last week.
Singson later bared his frustrations: an operating budget which was released only after he left (tinatawanan lang sila ni Henry Alcantara, who could easily fork over 150 million as partial restitution of his purloined kickbacks); a staff that was composed of assignees from the DOJ and a powerful lady; and an absence of powers needed to conduct effective work.
The gentleman called Babes was kind enough to describe resignation as because of health reasons and senior-life happiness.
He and his fellows in the ICI waited for El Presidente to move Congress into granting it legal powers other than those temporarily granted by an ineffectual executive order, but they waited and waited for nada.
First, the “palengkera” in the palace caused an ICI investigator-adviser, Benjamin Magalong, to resign, after he accompanied the DPWH secretary to La Union where they found anomalies in the Ortega fiefdom. That was quite close; would Ilocos Norte be next?
Best to rid itself of an independent, therefore unreliable investigator. Baguio’s city mayor took the hint from the palengkera’s pronouncements. He did not volunteer for the thankless job anyhow. He was co-opted because he was convenient in a campaign against corruption that is fueled purely by optics.
El Presidente’s executive secretary, a former chief justice, received a text message from someone not in government but acknowledged in select circles as very, very powerful, that he had to go.
Then the palengkera announced his resignation even if he had yet to write a formal tender.
“Insensatez,” Astrud Gilberto would have warbled over the mouthpiece jumping the gun. In Pilipino, “bastos.”
The cohorts identified by Zaldy Co in his series of cameo performances quietly left, with Malacanang announcing their “resignations,” one after the other, the latest being a long-time chief aide of El Presidente before the more than 34 percent Bisaya joined the 11 percent Ilocano-speaking legions plus other “nabudol” to give him the crown.
Guilty much? Was Zaldy telling the truth, or El Presidente’s foreign experts told him these kitchen-close minions who knew too much had to go? Likely both.
Our “kind-hearted” leader (Senator Lacson’s description) could not fire his closest “collabs” so they quietly “resigned”?
How about Magalong and Singson? Surely their cold-shoulder treatment was not about kind-heartedness. They were never in “collab.” How these competent men were treated was pure insensitivity.
Ineptitude, Corruption, Insensitivity. The hallmarks and legacy of this leadership where only two among 10 Filipinos still cling to some reason to hope (per WR Numero’s Nov. 23-28 data).
Erap was accused of involvement in jueteng, which neither cost lives nor taxes any. Now, ICI apart from trillions of public funds, has cost 269 recorded deaths, and that’s only from Typhoon Tino.
Which recalls to mind another Ping Lacson bon mot, that often, “incompetence is worse than corruption.”
Ineptitude rules over many agencies, including the DTI, where intelligent long-timers describe their “feeling entitled” head as “inept and moronic,” the one with the insultingly patronizing idea of a P500 noche buena.
Not for noche buena, but for a simple nilagang karne, this writer bought “kamto” and I was charged P500 per kilo. Ouch!
