Owning up

Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade recently apologized in front of the national media for a mistake his administration didn't make, early this week. He sincerely said sorry to the riding public and to the president. The best part of it was not blaming the previous administration for the dilemma they are facing right now.

He blatantly said that they will fix the errors of the past. He owned up to the mistakes of another. Wow, such a bold move. If we have lived in the olden times, those appointed would race to point fingers and pass the blame on.

If there is one thing I have learned in this industry and in the company I am in right now is to own up to our mistakes. I learned it the harder way but there is no better relief than to admit to your lapses, learn from it, move on and never do it again. There is a process called learning where sometimes, the best way to teach it is to let the experience do its job.

Like many other Filipinos, most of us are calisthenics learners where life lessons are remembered and best learnt when we go through it ourselves. Pain will always be a part of it. Like an old adage went, "no pain, no gain."

I hate to admit that we are going through a process of breaking ourselves so we may become new again. There are complaints left and right of how the new administration is trying to fix things, others saying that it is not proper.

There is no perfect answer to that as people will always have their views. Yet, the way I see it, it is a time where we are beaten up so we can become new again. Like the logic of a diamond, many times it goes through the toughest material and the severe pressure to become the beauty that it is known for.

In the next few days, we will be hearing our new President give the State of the Nation Address for the year. It would be a daunting message as we listen to his promise of change come to life in the first few weeks of his administration.

Will there be a blame game?

I hope not and I don't think so. His leadership style never dwells on the past but he tries to find a solution to the already given problem. Given the situation, I don't think we have time for all that drama. There is so much to be done in such a little time.

It is a shock even that thousands have voluntarily surrendered and admitted their dependence to illegal drugs. What is more shocking is a Chinese national trying to smuggle in drugs to Cebu.

Why Cebu? I don't know either.

I don't even know if I am happy that Peter Lim, the alleged drug lord has submitted himself to the National Bureau of Investigation.

The act of owning up is the most mature thing anyone can do especially with the state of society. Slowly, we will realize who we are at a people and the triangle will soon turn itself apart.

Slowly. Just slowly.