IT was refreshing to hear President Rodrigo Duterte apologize last week for the recent mishaps on the MRT 3 commuter train system.
“We offer no excuse, but apologies… to the public for the inconvenience caused,” the President said after a car uncoupled on Nov. 16, necessitating the offloading of about 140 passengers, who had to walk on the rails to the nearest stop.
The President’s reaction, which spoke of empathy for working men and women, contrasted sharply with the dismissive arrogance of his predecessor, who once quipped that the worsening traffic in Metro Manila was a sign of a healthy economy, or his former Transport secretary who said that congestion on the roads was not fatal.
Mr. Duterte’s straightforward apology also contrasted with the finger poi
nting that his own officials resort to when they are pressed to explain why public services remain so bad, one year after the current administration took over.
Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade, for example, has constantly harped on the anomalous maintenance contract that the previous administration had approved. Yet it was only this month that the Department of Transportation terminated that contract and took over the job temporarily, until a new contractor is appointed. In the meantime, service on the commuter train system has continued to deteriorate.
Nor has the department under Tugade done anything to address the unjust collection by the Land Transportation Office of millions of pesos in fees for new license plates that until today have not been delivered. Again, there is no doubt that the mess was created by the previous administration, but the least that this administration can do is to acknowledged that a wrong has been committed and that the public needs to be compensated, regardless of which specific officials were to blame.
In the same time, the Justice secretary has bemoaned the proliferation of illegal drugs in the penal system, a state of affairs that he blamed on his predecessor. Yet we learned only this month that a 72-year-old Taiwanese woman was running a lucrative drug business inside the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City, which falls under the purview of the Justice Department. What, we are constrained to ask, outside of prosecuting his predecessor, has the Justice secretary done to actually keep illegal drugs out of the country’s jails?
We welcome the President’s sense of responsibility and wish he could impart it on the men and women in his official family.
But empathy is just a start. To have a real positive impact on public services, the President needs to demand more of his official family. It is not enough to say that they still enjoy his trust and confidence. They must show that they have earned these by their performance—or they must be shown the door.