Wednesday, June 25, 2008 Carvajal: Frankly speaking By Orlando P. Carvajal Break Point
WE read in the papers that cheap NFA rice will be called GMA rice and will bear her picture on its packaging. Ironically, her government’s incompetence, irresponsibility and corruption to a great extent caused our share of the global rice crisis. Yet here she is (and what a perversion) buying brownie points by selling cheap rice with her name on it. One wonders where is the money coming from and how it will be accounted for.
She also called home to ask lawmakers if they could come up with a law that would criminalize hoarding and price manipulation. But is it not a little too late? Or is it just a veiled excuse for the fact that all this angry talk about going after rice hoarders and price manipulators has not produced yet a single arrest? How many of these hoarders and price manipulators are really endangered species of animals under the special protection of corrupt government officials?
What good will laws do when our top officials invariably act like they are above the law? The first ones to violate our laws are government people.
Policemen do not wear helmets, run red lights and worst of all plant evidence.
Government agencies do not bother to register their vehicles. A government official angrily puts aside a no parking sign so he can park his vehicle.
And top officials rescue protégées who violate our laws to mention some common examples of government’s despicable disregard of our laws.
And along comes Frank running aground and bellying up more than just the Sulpicio ship but the ship of government.
President Arroyo scolds the Coast Guard now but she’s been there long enough to know that the guidelines for the release of air and sea transport during typhoons have to be improved. Her decisiveness now cannot make up for her government’s failure to be proactive in the past.
The Coast Guard might be following new guidelines but I do not think that should get them off the hook this time. I hope the relatives of the victims of this sea disaster do file a class suit against the owners, the Coast Guard, and maybe even Pag-asa. They ought to know that typhoons can change course without warning and it is certainly no excuse that the typhoon was not forecasted to pass through Cebu. Well, it did and GMA’s scolding of the Coast Guard is not bringing any of the dead back to life.
It is time people do something about government inefficiency and corruption.
Frankly speaking, had government been doing its job, this tragedy should never have happened. Frankly speaking, had government been doing its job, there would not be any need for GMA branded cheap rice. How many more will have to die before something is done about the irresponsibility of government bureaucrats?
