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Friday, January 20, 2006
Lee: New level of incompetence
By Kelvin King Lee
Babble On
LOOKS like the Armed Forces (AFP) is operating on a whole new level of incompetence. According to news reports, the AFP had advance warning of the escape attempt of those 4 Oakwood Mutineers. And did nothing.
And because they did nothing, we now have 4 more mutineers on the loose. They are intelligent, disgruntled and more than ready to try and take down the government. So country now has 4 more reasons to lose sleep at night. As if rising costs, continuing NPA attacks and political foolishness wasn't enough.
My question is this: how could the AFP let this escape happen?
This leads any reasonable mind to presume that the escapees had help from the inside. And if mutineers had help from the inside, that means that the AFP itself, the institution charged with the national defense of the country, is seriously (as if it wasn't already in the past) compromised.
The more stuff like this happens in the national scene, the more ineptness and stupidity I observe, the more inclined I am to shifting to a more localized system of government. Perhaps strengthening local government through various reforms like the possible Federal form of government won't be so bad.
At least that way, we are truly the master of our destinies, and the levels of incompetence can be minimized. If perhaps we go Federal (and I am not saying I am entirely convinced of the idea), accountability may well be easier to hold on to. As it is now, I bet people will just pass the blame for this sordid escape from one to another.
Or we could do this: have Mayor Duterte take over the jailing of those mutineers or let the boys of Task Force Davao handle them. If they were in charge, I am sure those escapees wouldn't have gotten away. If they had tried, they may have to be carried away, in stretchers.
* * * * *
Well. The Senate seems to be at it again. After the great showing of our country at the 23rd Southeast Asian Games, the Senate has decided not to drastically increase funding for our athletes. This despite the fact that most of our national athletes get little to no funding at all from the government already.
The House of Representatives had already marked 250 Million Pesos for the athletes, which, though a large number, was much smaller than the original 304 million proposed by national sports associations through the Philippine Sports Commission.
The Senate through its committee on finance decided to give them even less than what the House of Representatives had recommended. A whopping 28 million pesos for this year. But hey, at least the Senate had increased it by one million pesos. I am sure the athletes are real happy about that.
So if we win anymore prizes in international sports competitions, we can thank our wonderful senate and the money they decided to give our athletes. All 28 million of it.
* * * *
I have been particularly reclusive the last week due to my midterm examinations (which, as of this writing, are still ongoing). Exams are always horrible because the student, whether he be a law, med or even undergraduate student will soon realize the limitations of his intellect. Countless hours of study, though enough to ensure that you will hopefully pass, sometimes do not seem commensurate to all the effort exerted.
I am a prime example. I've been studying nearly nonstop for the past two weeks and I still find myself intellectually challenged when it came to exam time. I knew and understood the concepts for my taxation midterms for example, but somehow, I couldn't seem to get the answers into the bluebook.
Oh well. I guess I have to chalk it up to experience and force myself to study even harder. Trouble is, I can't imagine finding anymore time to study, not unless I were to skip sleep altogether, even though I already am suffering from a lot of missing hours of sleep. So that's my excuse for not sending in a column last week. Midterms. And I swear, if I get my hands on the crazy fellow who created the whole concept of examinations in the past, I will make him or her suffer!
email me at babbleoncolumn@yahoo.com
(January 20, 2006 issue)
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