Apologies are healthy

Upon his return from China, one of the first things that President Bongbong Marcos did was meet with aviation officials to find out exactly what happened and what caused the system shutdown at the CAAP operations center. From there he met with members of the media and issued an “APOLOGY.”

For whatever it’s worth, I commend the President for apologizing to the thousands of passengers and their families who were directly or indirectly affected by the unfortunate incident at the CAAP facility. Most people were so focused on the incident that very little attention was given to the presidential apology. It was not his fault, but he owned it because that was expected and the least he could do.

I make mention of this because we live in a culture that avoids apologizing for things going wrong. Unless we are the ones directly responsible or who caused an unfortunate or undesirable event, we won’t apologize even if we are the leader, the boss or the business owner. The blame has to be pinned on the donkey but never the owner!

Perhaps it is high time that the Civil Service Commission and the Office of the President develop a policy, a system and most especially a culture of taking ownership of responsibility and publicly expressing apologies for inconvenience to the public, even if we have to copy the Japanese way of bowing really low as a sign of how deep our regret and shame or humility goes. Don’t wait for results from fact finding teams; if you have caused inconvenience to the public, apologize immediately while the problem is being dealt with.

We must bear in mind that for government officials as well as business leaders, apology is also a form of honoring the public and those we have inconvenienced. Just a point to remember – saying “I am sorry” is not enough. It is often construed as a shallow form of contrite regret. If necessary, confess or restate the inconvenience or error as a form of public recognition and then express the apology, accompanied with a commitment or a promise to do better.

As someone once said, “No one ever died from eating their pride” and no one dies from giving an apology. The Koreans and the Japanese do it regularly and they are culturally respected and admired for it.

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The Senate committee on public services and its counterpart in the lower house have now initiated investigations and hearings concerning the New Year failure of equipment at the CAAP. As expected, they claim it is all in aid of legislation. In short, it takes investigation to produce legislation.

A number of people have reacted by saying that lawmakers should rely on consultation instead of investigation and should do such things behind closed doors instead of public hearings allegedly in the interest of transparency. Quite honestly, the series of upcoming investigations on the CAAP incident might end up as nothing more than another grandstanding opportunity for members of Congress and the Senate, particularly those who are running for re-election or who have had very little legislative accomplishments in the last six months.

To be frank, what else is there to be discussed that has not already been reported, discussed, analyzed, dissected and commented on by mainstream media, social media and the very officials directly involved? Judging from the guest lists or invited resource persons, the Senate in particular might be hosting a public debate or grudge match between the former and present DOTr officials.

A few phone calls and sending out staff members would be sufficient to ascertain certain issues, rumors or allegations. But at the end of the day, what can legislators accomplish other than be on camera? So many investigations have taken place in both houses of Congress that amounted to nothing. President Bongbong Marcos himself went to the NAIA/CAAP, met with the officials involved behind closed doors and was satisfied with the explanations and data presented.

Why rehash the same story? Even we in media avoid recycling the same old stuff. What legislators don’t realize is how they waste the time of government officials and employees who should be at work correcting, replacing or upgrading the system that failed. The rest on the guest list could be going about running their businesses or looking after corporate investments instead of waiting in line to be “grilled.”

When the legislators call for their grand investigations, they make everybody attend but never manage to speak to everyone on the list on the day they are invited. So many man-hours are wasted sitting in Congress and the Senate waiting for their turn, often never getting to speak because the congressmen and senators are all over each other to throw their sound bite for the evening news.

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Calling the attention of the Office of the Ombudsman, COA and the DILG. During the Christmas holidays, a number of senior citizens called my attention to the haphazard manner by which barangays distributed the Christmas cash gift that was supposed to be given to senior citizens in most cities and barangays in Metro Manila.

One senior complained that they received short notice that their barangay was giving out the cash gift and that they had to go to the barangay to collect the money in person. By short notice, I meant 24 hours before the scheduled date. The short notice apparently affected many senior citizens who could no longer fit the event to their schedule or find someone to take them. They had to walk to the barangay or take some form of public conveyance which was not easy during the Christmas rush.

Most barangays did not give other options on how the seniors could collect the cash gift or were there other dates announced. Others ask why they can’t be issued ATM cards or have the cash deposited to their account. The question now is: Where’s the money that many seniors could not collect?