Plates

I have seen this many times on makeshift car plates containing the vehicle’s conduction numbers: Republikang walang Plaka.

This is so Filipino: to be angry and witty at the same instance. To seethe with pointed humor. To protest and yet carry on.

The bureaucracy failed our motorists. Massively. Five-year-old cars remain without license plates.

During the Noynoy Aquino administration, government entered into a P3.6 billion supply contract for license plates with a private party incapable of delivering the goods. As early as 2013, the COA raised red flags on this deal. The procedure for government procurement was not fully met.

The bidding and award of the contract was done without a budgetary allotment. While the contract said the new plates would be manufactured in the Netherlands, it turned out they were made in India and proved substandard. Notwithstanding the anomaly of awarding a contract ahead of a budgetary allotment for such a project, former president Noynoy Aquino allowed the DOTC to release P487 million as “advance payment” to the contractor.

The rules specify that the financial statements of the winning bidder be submitted within three calendar days after the award was made. In this case, the winning bidder took over a year to comply.

The anomalous contract was questioned before the Supreme Court because it was entered into without an approved budget. The year after, with the budget containing an allocation for the purchase, the Court decided to save Aquino’s neck by declaring the case moot.

The COA subsequently asked that the contract be suspended. Delays in the delivery of the contracted plates exceeded the 10% threshold. According to the law (RA 9184), such a delay automatically terminates the contract.

To compound things, the first tranche of plates delivered were held up at the ports. The contractor could not afford to pay for the Customs duties due the cargo.

The late Sen. Miriam Santiago questioned the quality of plates being delivered. The contract specified the plates should be 1mm thick. The supplier was shipping in plates that were only .008 mm thick. They bent with the wind. The paint peeled off them. The security code printed on them could not be read.

Things just moved inexorably from bad to worse for our hapless motorists.

At the start of the Duterte administration, the LTO was ordered to remedy the plate problem as expeditiously as possible. The agency decided to buy the stamping machines and make the plate right at the central office.

That seemed to be a workable solution except that because of the volume of the backlog accumulating since 2013, the LTO could only provide plates for vehicles registered from late 2017 to the present. The capacity of the stamping machines could not supply the plates that should have been issued from 2013 to early 2017.

Now the LTO is considering going back to the Aquino-Abaya supplier to purchase those substandard plates the company failed to deliver during that period. In short, the anomalous contract will be honored after all.

That does not seem just. The substandard plates are covered by a five-year manufacturer’s warranty. For the earliest batches, the warranty period has expired.

More important, this supplier (along with Aquino and Abaya) should be charged instead of paid.

Patriot

John S. McCain is the greatest American never to have been elected President of the United States.

In 1999, he lost the Republican primaries to George W. Bush. In 2008, he was the Republican Party’s candidate against Barack Obama.

In 1967, McCain (whose father and grandfather were both admirals in the US Navy) was shot down over what was then North Vietnam while on a bombing mission. He broke both arms and a leg. He was captured and heavily tortured, spending over five years in severe conditions in a Hanoi prison. The injuries remained with him for the rest of his life.

 After two years in solitary confinement, McCain had the opportunity to be released earlier. He turned down the offer, preferring to remain in detention until those capture ahead of him were released. That is a measure of his courage and principle.

He served a term as congressman and five terms as senator representing Arizona. Through that long time in politics, McCain distinguished himself as both a maverick and a deeply respected voice in American politics. He crossed the aisle when necessary to get legislation done. He was a man of dignity who respected his rivals and honored those who deserved it.

Donald Trump, who could not win McCain’s respect, taunted the authentic war hero for being captured by the enemy. Having dodged the draft, Trump did not even deserve to stand in McCain’s shadow.

To his last days, McCain remained a steadfast voice for reason and respect in American politics. Needless to say, he was extremely critical of the sort of crass politics Trump personified.

McCain represented a profound sense of duty, honor and love for country that Trump can never comprehend. The officer and gentleman lived a life trying his best never to let anyone down. Despite the vagaries of political life, McCain was deeply admired even by those who were his adversaries. He was well-loved and his friends were most loyal to him.

True to form, a gravely ill McCain planned his own funeral. He wanted both George W. Bush and Barack Obama to deliver eulogies – never mind that both men dealt him his most painful defeats.

He specified that Donald Trump not be invited to his funeral. This is as it should be.