Scene from ‘The Walking Dead’

Can you imagine Metro Manila turning into a back lot for the filming of the TV series “The Walking Dead”? If film makers and TV series producers want to do so, all they have to do is talk to the tenants of Malacañang and I have no doubts that they would be more than happy to oblige. They have prior experience with the Jason Bourne series and after hosting the APEC Summit on November 17 to 20 the PNoy Misadministration will have a lot of experience turning a metropolis of 11 million plus into a ghost town.

But before we go into movies, we should first ask the question: Is the PNoy Misadministration simply preparing for a summit for economic leaders or putting up pretensions as a modern, organized and functioning nation in order to refute the well-known operational breakdown in Metro Manila?

Uninformed observers might actually be impressed with all the efforts, given how the PNoy Misadministration has suspended classes for 4 days, declared a 4-day non-working holiday, banned delivery trucks from passing through Metro Manila during the event, and essentially advising airlines that NAIA could and will prioritize aircrafts of APEC participants over the thousands of civilian air travellers wishing or needing to fly in or out of Metro Manila.

On the other hand any current resident of Metro Manila will surely come to the conclusion that all those steps are merely intended to make sure that the APEC participants don’t get a taste of what we go through as a day to day experience. With most flights cancelled during the 4-day event, delegates won’t experience the “normal” or regular hover or flying around scenic Metro Manila for 30 to 45 minutes that everyday air passengers experience as a result of the “Air Traffic Congestion.” By convincing one if not both major Philippine carriers to cancel or limit flights, the CAAP and NAIA instantly solves the problem of aircrafts stuck on the tarmac for 30 to 45 minutes before takeoff.

By declaring a 4-day school holiday, 4-day non-working holiday and banning all forms of “trucks” from passing through Metro Manila, the PNoy Misadministration instantly removed 75% of vehicular traffic around Metro Manila except maybe around the malls where students and parents converge during such unplanned holidays. With most trucks garaged, students and families locked down or out of town, Metro Manila will certainly look tranquil and traffic free, all that in order to impress APEC delegates. Perhaps we should campaign for everyone to stay out of sight to create the impression of a ghost town or better yet lets all have an extended Halloween party and go around Metro Manila dressed and made up like extras in the TV Series “Walking Dead.” That ought to be better than “Thrilla in Manila”!

We shouldn’t be surprised with all the efforts and pretensions because all of the traffic reduction solutions are typical of the PNoy Misadministration. Rather than forego hosting the event because of our obvious congestion problems, the PNoy Misadministration will not miss the opportunity to pretend or put up pretensions of greatness. It is their mindset. To impress the global community they under spend and call it savings. They prioritize credit and investment ratings to attract foreigners but fail to properly invest in their own backyard. To sustain their credit rankings they stubbornly oppose tax reform measures and use veiled threats and intimidation to pressure tax payers.

Now in order to impress APEC delegates they inconvenience the citizens of Metro Manila, they disrupt the school calendar of students whose Christmas holidays will have to be shorter as payback, they disrupt logistics and operations of supply sensitive businesses, they rob daily wage earners of vital income for four non-working days, and disrupts civilians from air travel to and from Metro Manila. In the interest of putting up a front, the PNoy Misadministration once again chooses to inconvenience the Filipino public.

We already know the cost in terms of inconvenience, but does this misadministration know the peso value of what we stand to lose just for the PNoy Misadministration to pretend and to impress? Please don’t answer that question with guesstimates on the peso value of good impressions because ordinary Filipinos won’t be collecting on those claims and promises. We only want to know how much is this latest pretension going to costs us?

Given the level and extent of hypocrisy in preparing for the APEC Summit, how much different then is the PNoy Misadministration from the Marcos era that relied on white washed sawali fences used to hide squatter shanties? Back then the poor were hidden in plain sight, today it seems the plan for the APEC Summit is to keep the people, the traffic and the flights in and around Metro Manila hidden from sight!

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It is easier to blame the sinner than the system.

When PNoy first came to power he declared war on the corrupt and said “Kung walang Corrupt, Walang Mahirap!” Now that the President admits his administration has not managed to defeat corruption, is he doing so because there are more poor people or more corrupt officials in his government?

The President is quoted as saying that there would be less corruption if there were less “corruptors.” Responding to this someone posted on Facebook that his statement was equivalent to someone saying there would be fewer rapists if there were fewer women to rape. Apparently the President does not go through the experience of ordinary Filipinos who have to deal with Red Tape, the multiple requirements of the antiquated system of public service and the reality of non-competitive compensation for public servants that neither motivates them or incentivize them to preserve their integrity.

Corruption in the Philippines often times is not about turning wrongs into rights or covering up illegal acts. It is about convenience, efficiency, and complying with a system that is so complicated you need lawyers, accountants, IT specialists and stand-ins in order not to waste your life dealing with lines and low life’s. No Mr. President it is not about corruption, it is about fixing what’s wrong with the bureaucracy. More on this in a future article.

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