To-do lists

At the start of the year, people are drawing up to-do lists, with an order of priorities.


From our little corner of the planet, here’s one suggestion: the lazy morons who head traffic management in the city of Manila for the police and the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) should be fired.


Last New Year’s Day until late evening, there was no traffic enforcement to speak of around
Rizal Park and thereabouts. Traffic was at a standstill all the way to the street behind the headquarters of the Manila Police District. A crush of people crossed streets anywhere and any time they pleased, and vehicles were parked wherever watch-your-car boys directed them to, which was pretty much anywhere along no-parking thoroughfares. Jeepney drivers turned the streets into one big terminal as they waited for passengers.


Motorists wouldn’t mind if there had been a traffic rerouting scheme. But traffic management was non-existent; every traffic cop and MMDA aide must have been out partying or nursing a New Year’s Eve hangover.


It wasn’t as if the crowd was unexpected by traffic enforcement units. A week before, on Christmas Day, there was also a massive crowd as families even from nearby provinces spent the day in the park and along Manila Bay. There was no excuse for being caught unprepared for a repeat on New Year’s. What the public got, on the first day of the year when traffic management was most needed, was chaos.


That was hell in a very small place. If the traffic cops of Manila can’t do their job in that small area, they have no business being traffic cops.


This weekend, traffic in the city will again be disrupted by three days of activities to mark the feast of the Black Nazarene. City traffic managers should not wait for miracles to do their work for them.


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Traffic management is a responsibility of the local government. But in the National Capital Region, blame for traffic jams tends to be laid at the doorsteps of the president of the republic. In other countries such as Thailand, the national government had to step in to untangle the traffic mess.


People measure the efficiency of government in terms of the delivery of basic services: garbage collection, keeping the public safe, traffic management, speedy processing of licenses and other transactions with the government without the need to resort to fixers.


If President Aquino is enjoying high approval ratings in his anti-corruption efforts, it surely has something to do with the idea that clean government means more efficient services.


People are tired of slow, inefficient justice; people are sick of justice for sale. A family driver I know spent over a year attending court hearings in northern Metro Manila before a minor case, which could have been settled at the barangay level, was finally dismissed by the judge.


The average Pinoy might not be aware of the intricacies of the impeachment case against Chief Justice Renato Corona, but President Aquino is giving the impression that he wants to clean up the judiciary, and so far he seems to have public support.


At the start of 2011, I was told that there was no way the House of Representatives would impeach Merceditas Gutierrez; too many lawmakers owed the Ombudsman favors.


Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, elected to the House, looked radiant and relaxed as she attended parties.


The year ended not just with Gutierrez out of office following her impeachment, but also with the Chief Justice impeached. GMA, in a “Minerva vest” and ailing, was under “hospital arrest” without bail for electoral sabotage. Before the year was over, a graft case against her and her husband was added to her legal problems, this time in connection with the aborted broadband deal with ZTE Corp.


The administration that was swept to power on an anti-corruption platform didn’t hit the ground running in 2011, but it managed to end the year with a bang.


Gutierrez resigned before she could face an impeachment trial by the Senate, so her guilt or innocence in relation to the impeachment charges has not been established. Corona, meanwhile, still has to face the impeachment court.


The latest buzz is that two more Supreme Court justices, one of whom has developed a notorious image for corruption, may soon ponder the option of resigning or facing impeachment.


So it looks like some folks are starting to deliver on campaign promises. The administration is undeterred so far by criticism that President Aquino is vindictive or on a rampage. It’s either that, or he gets criticized for being too wimpy to hold anyone accountable and make good on his campaign promise. For P-Noy I guess the choice wasn’t difficult to make.


You can call P-Noy names, but for the remainder of his term, the fate that has befallen several of the nation’s once-powerful individuals should make those now in power think twice before using public office for personal gain.


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For reforms to take root, there should be changes all the way to the lowest levels of government.


Leadership by example is crucial in cleaning up government, but it works best when other sectors are supporting the campaign.


It needs a committed and competent ombudsman. It needs a clean, competent and dedicated judiciary and prosecution service.


The Commission on Audit should also do its part. The COA plays a crucial role in uncovering and preventing graft and corruption.


It can order its personnel assigned to local government units, for example, to check how expenditures for Christmas decoration or beautification were actually spent.


In Parañaque City, the principal Christmas street décor are streamers of Mayor Florencio Bernabe Jr. and his son, Councilor Benjo; Rep. Edwin Olivarez and his son, Councilor Eric; and barangay captain Jeremy Marquez, greeting their constituents – of course not with “this is where your taxes go” but with a merry Christmas. Olivarez is painted as Santa Claus on some walls.


If there’s no specific law against shamelessness in government, there ought to be one.


I’ve been told that the practice is also common in several other places, but in my long daily drive to and from the office through four or five cities, the only greetings I’ve noticed in such profusion are those in Parañaque.


As the previous year’s scandals have shown, many cases of corruption have occurred because of the failure of government auditors to do their job, or because of their collusion with crooks.


Changing this should be high on the to-do list of COA this year.