Why pass the buck to others?

Looking at incidents that have been happening and how they are dealt with, I cannot help but be upset with those who pass the blame on others.  Whatever happened to command responsibility otherwise known as Yamashita standard or the Medina standard?

Who is liable? Who is responsible?  Who is accountable?  Why do government officials easily wash their hands of on some failure committed by their department personnel or by them to say the least? For instance, why point fingers solely on a driver who was obviously driving an old decrepit and run-down train?

Whenever there is a passenger bus that falls off a cliff, a passenger ship that sinks or a plane that skids off a runway – the tendency is to point fingers to the weakest link. Why not the owner of the company (who did not check on staff competency and invest in better equipment) or the government official who gave them permits? 

Last week, a car drove through a wall of a parking lot building.  When the car fell from the third floor, parts of the wall followed.  The wall was very thin. There were no steel bars to act as barriers, no cement blocks to fortify the wall.  The wall looked like a piece of cardboard.  In this case, who signed the building permit? Why didn’t the city officials inspect the safety of the building?  Why did they allow a thin wall to be the shell of a parking lot on the third floor?  Why didn’t they foresee accidents that may happen?  Why didn’t they think of the pedestrians down below who may be in harm’s way if a car falls?  What happens next?  Will it be business as usual without any accountability on the owner’s part or on that city official who signed the building permit?

What about the MRT-3 train accident? How can Secretary Abaya easily pass the buck to the driver saying that the accident was caused by “human error.” He should look at the bigger picture.  Sure the driver may have not followed the right procedure and that’s bad but the present condition of MRT-3 is already very, very bad.  The train shouldn’t even be running.  It should be impounded due to severe problems.  Officials allowing this train to run should be punished.  They are disregarding the safety of the public.  This is actually a crime.  Who will protect the people from such mishaps?  Allowing the train to continue its services is like forcing and pushing a sick horse to run despite its ailments.  Sanamagan!  Why not stop operations totally until everything is safe? How pathetic!

P-Noy signed EO 126 last year instructing DOTC and the Department of Finance to buy out MRT 3 from MRTC in accordance with the build-lease-transfer agreement covering the system. The Department of Budget and Management has set aside a P56-billion budget for the complete government takeover of the MRT 3 in the 2014 national budget. A government buyback of the full ownership of MRT 3 is said to be the cleanest way of initiating any real rehabilitation of the system. Apparently the DOTC and DOF has done nothing all this time. So, the riding public continues to suffer the consequences of such inaction. And when the MRT had skidded off the rails last week, the blame was put on operators and controllers. No one, not even Abaya admitted to the maintenance problem and poor condition of the train.  Where is the command responsibility in this situation?

Whenever we encounter anomalies or accidents, we naturally want to know who should be accountable.  We want them to accept their responsibilities instead of running away from them.  We want them to give solutions and assure us that such will not happen again.  How can a citizen feel safe in his own country when public officials can easily wash their hands off the problem?  Why don’t they learn to stand up for what is right and have the courage to admit their failure?  Why will they try to run away and hide from the problem? Men who are cowards run away and hide.  They are not worthy of their positions.

Just read the newspapers and listen to the news.  How many accidents have happened in this country and continue to happen. Yet it seems that nothing has ever been resolved. A lot of covering up happens within agencies of government.  Cases are filed daily in the Courts but it takes years until they are resolved. Why is our government allowing these conditions?  Why can criminals easily get away with the law? And why do families of victims have to beg for justice?

Tomoyuki Yamashita was an Imperial Japanese army general during World War II.  He was tried for war crimes and sentenced to death.  The accusation was that he failed in his duty as commander of Japanese forces in the Philippines to prevent his men from committing atrocities. But he said that due to a breakdown of communications during the chaotic battle, he could not have controlled his troops even if he had known of their actions.   But the US Supreme Court has never overruled its 1946 Yamashita decision. The precedent the decision established was that a commander can be held accountable before the law for the crimes committed by his troops even if he did not order them, did not stand by to allow them, or possibly even know about them or have the means to stop them. 

Yamashita was charged with “unlawfully disregarding and failing to discharge his duty as a commander to control the acts of members of his command by permitting them to commit war crimes.” This doctrine became known as the “Yamashita Standard” which was later added to the Geneva Convention. And most recently, this doctrine on command responsibility was also added to the International Criminal Court.  Don’t you wish our leaders follow this doctrine?      

Our government past and present has been a smorgasbord of inconsistencies, innuendos and indecisiveness.  Our leaders are weak. They lack political will. They continue to destroy the very foundation of our nation gnawing like termites.  Who will stand up for our nation?  Who will fight for what is right and not for what is wrong? 

Quit passing the buck on to others. Start taking full responsibility of your actions. The buck must stop with you!