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Friday, November 18, 2005
Roperos: Mangaoang syndrome
By Godofredo M. Roperos
Politics Also
WHAT appears to be happening to District Customs Collector Ma. Lourdes Mangaoang is something that the Filipino civil service has long been afflicted of.
If we are to believe all the good things earlier written about her, then the counter-information tending to discolor the positive statements should not surprise anyone, least of all those who have keenly observed the standard pattern of behavior of the national society in relation to the key personnel of the civil service.
Our social scientists have long been talking and writing about the debilitating Filipino behavior termed as "crab mentality." Crabs, when placed in a pail or box, strive to get our and escape. But each time a crab reaches the rim of the pail or box, another pulls it down.
It seems to us that while Mangaoang has been doing a fairly good job at the Port of Cebu, she has stepped on so many sacred toes. That is, toes of people who have become fixtures at the customs bureau, doing not only "fixing" jobs but also helping stockpile nest eggs for some key people there.
It always happens that when something good that has been going on for some people is suddenly stopped or curtailed, those that would be affected would not take it lying down. And from what I understand from Mangaoang’s "defense," this is exactly what happened.
There is no doubt that there was "malice aforethought" in the timing of the release to the media of the information regarding a Manila group's complaint against Mangaoang for "maintaining a lifestyle impossible to maintain with a government paycheck."
The complaint, it seemed, was filed on Nov. 8 but was not released to the media until the 11th, the day before the plenary session of the Asean Directors General of Customs 14th International Assembly in Cebu City.
It was clear that whoever was the prime mover of the efforts to cut Mangaoang to size and embarrass her and her country was a wily sort of individual. It also showed that he/she was really hurt by the moves Mangaoang earlier did so she can "do a good job in the Cebu Port."
I believe there is something our well-meaning top leaders of government should draw from the Mangaoang complaint. It's a case against the lifestyle of the lady collector who is clearly a middle-level government executive.
If such a check should be conducted on public officials of her level, a friend from the civil service suggested it might as well be undertaken on all middle level public officials. Graft and corruption in public office, it seems, appear to be more perceptible at ground level.
The nation's junior executives include heads of provincial and municipal governments, public school superintendents, district supervisors and principals, regional directors or their equivalent regional managers of government owned or controlled corporations.
I believe doing a lifestyle check on all of them would go a long way towards curtailment of the proliferation of graft and corruption in public office. As the saying goes, "Puslan man maligo, manglugod na lang."
It does take two to tango. And as the Mangaoang case indicates, there are good things that can come from acts with malicious intent, such as arousing awareness over the need to bring the "lifestyle checking" program down to the middle level public officials where graft is covertly more prevalent.
(November 18, 2005 issue)
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