Humility in governance. A very rare trait!

A week ago, we wrote about the problems besetting the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) especially what happened to Sachiko, the mother of my brother-in-law, Yuki Kono. Well, they're back home from their short trip from Japan and things seem to fall in the right place for Yuki and his mother. First, the immigration officer who overlooked that Sachiko was a holder of a Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA) visa, went out of her way to rectify that error… and apologized for that faux pas.

Last Wednesday morning, I accompanied Yuki and his mother to the Immigration Office in Mandaue City to personally meet with Regional Director Geronimo Rosas and to my complete surprise, Director Rosas also apologized for the mistake of his people… and he told us that he would never tolerate arrogance or discourtesy under his office and he meant what he said.

It turned out that Director Rosas was the reason why the Philippine Immigration Academy was created in Clark International Airport, the very office that provides training and seminars to new immigration officers and the rudiments of good manners and right conduct. In my book, a man who apologizes for the wrongs under his office is a man clothed with humility, a very, very, very rare trait with our elected or appointed public officials.

Reading a magazine article from Business Profiles about Director Rosas, I realized that he is a very religious man and completely understands the need for leaders of private or public organizations to be servants first. This was exemplified when our Lord Jesus Christ washed the feet of his Apostles despite their protestations. That's humility in governance for you.

Director Rosas also told us that he has ordered Immigration Officer Acari Datu-imam to be relieved of his duties from the immigration counters at the Mactan International Airport so as to send a message to our tourists that they would only be greeted with the warm and friendly smile of our immigration officers; after all, the Filipino smile is legendary to many foreigners and like it or not, immigration officers are the first in the long line of Filipinos that our tourists would meet when they come for a vacation here. My heartfelt thanks to Director Rosas for his letter and his immediate action on this problem. I can only hope that other regional directors of government agencies would follow his good example in governance.

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With the world prices of oil or crude skyrocketing faster than the Space Shuttle, it is time to push the panic button and act swiftly before this problem gets out of control. When the oil crisis hit us way back in October 1973, the Marcos Dictatorship moved quickly to implement a nationwide rationing of fuel. Back then, the problem we faced was not only high fuel prices, but also a serious lack of petroleum products. I'm sure many people won't forget the kilometric lines of cars, waiting their turn at the gas pump. The long lines to the gas station soon disappeared when the fuel rationing was put in place. Perhaps the only lucky ones were motorcyclists because we did not have to line up for gas.

Well, at least we heard one good idea from Malacañang for a change. I gathered that this energy saving measure would be given to Congress so it can be passed into a law… that's if this Congress can get their eyes off the ongoing impeachment deliberations. But as we've learned from that old saying, "The devil is in the details". While the proposed fuel rationing scheme will be patterned after what we did during Martial Law, it just makes me wonder how they would implement this scheme; after all, like here in Cebu, back in 1973, there were much fewer cars then. Today, we've got so many cars on the road, implementing a rationing scheme could be nightmarish.

When we think of rationing fuel, one also thinks of gasoline coupons. Meaning, you can't purchase gasoline unless you have these coupons. This just brings to mind the front-page story of The FREEMAN yesterday about that computer printing shop, which was busted for manufacturing fake SRP passes. Now that the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has collared these scammers, I'm sure those who are into this kind of shenanigan would not refocus their plan to make fake gasoline coupons!

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Today, we bid a good friend, Neil Rumbaoa a warm farewell as he is leaving the Shangri-La's Mactan Island Resort for something even bigger. Replacing him as the new Director of Communications for the Shangri-La is Ms. Sharon Samarista. So there you are… farewell to Neil and we sure will miss your company. So here's a warm welcome to Cebu, Ms. Sharon Samarista.

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila's columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com