EDITORIAL - Government impervious to brewing anarchy

There is a brewing anarchy in this country that, if left unchecked, could eventually lead to chaos and the Philippines becoming a failed state. It may only not look that way because many of the country's institutions are still functioning. But great collapses often result from very small unattended hiccups. And while many of the country's institutions may indeed still be functioning, they are not functioning at optimum levels. They are themselves in danger of disintegrating.

Of particular concern is the brazen takeover by the urban poor group Kadamay of a government housing project intended for other beneficiaries. That they are poor and deserve government housing assistance is not an excuse to take over projects intended for others who had to go through specific processes in order to qualify. The assumption of rights does not necessitate the denial of the same rights from others.

Other members of the same group also forcibly took over their old places from where they have been asked to leave, for more or less the same reason - that as poor people, they have the right to government assistance which, if it is slow in coming, they have all the right to hasten up by whatever means. We are still not at a dog-eat-dog situation, but this group is pushing in that direction, unless government puts its foot down but which damnably it hasn't.

But worse that government not swiftly acting to arrest this slide to anarchy is its seeming failure to recognize that this is not a spontaneous action by a group of poor people. Poor people anywhere are by nature reluctant to engage in any confrontation. These moves are therefore not the spontaneous action by the poor but a well-orchestrated move instigated by forces that are moving to destabilize the country.

What is scary is that the longer government refuses, for whatever reason, to act on the matter and arrest the momentum before it becomes unstoppable, there is really a huge resource from where momentum can be secured very quickly. In a country that is at least 80 percent poor, there is actually plenty where Kadamay is coming from. The possibility for quick combustion is very real and government doesn't have a pail of water ready.

But this is just one area of immense concern. Another budding anarchic situation is the mass departure of immigration officers in protest against a government crackdown on illegal overtime pay. This refusal to submit to authority is similar to the refusal of many police officers to be deployed to Mindanao. It seems that lawful authority is slowly being ignored and tested. And when lawful authority doesn't work anymore, in steps anarchy.