Short noses

Former Senator Orly Mercado used to say that the problem with most Filipinos is that we can see things only up to the tips of our noses. In short, no foresight; we think and plan only for the moment.

His punchline was, “ang sama mo niyan, pango pa ang mga ilong natin.”

The New Year fiasco caused by a “technical glitch” in our airport landing systems is symptomatic of Orly’s observation.

We think for the moment, and bahala na si Batman.

When there is a problem, “remedyo” is our solution. Pwede na ‘yan. Then follows the finger-pointing.

Someone once quipped that a statesman visualizes in terms of 50 years (think Lee Kuan Yew and his Singapore), while a politician thinks only of his re-election.

Politicians win their election by spending far too much. On the first year of his elected term, his focus is on recovering his money.

On the second year, a bit of sound governance comes up. Just a bit, because on the third year, all energies are on his re-election, and generating the funds to buy votes once again.

That is the sad story of Philippine politics. Sorry, sad for the governed, but always “win-win” for the governors, mayors, congressmen, and the like.

No amount of explaining after the airport fiasco can repair the damage done.

The most recent revelation that surfaced is that the back-up power system failed, which is plain and simple negligence on the part of CAAP maintenance, even as the agency says they need new equipment.

Every airline that services us, and there are fewer and fewer, with all European airlines shunning the NAIA, will take note of what happened on the first day of 2023.

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Errata: There were quite a few in my first column for the year, from wrong spelling to wrong choice of adjectives — call them New Year blues, when you dash an article after a long night of merriment to beat a deadline.

Mea culpa.

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We define democracy in terms of frequent elections.

The substance of democracy is equal opportunity in a land which respects individual choice and freedom. Our democracy is all form and little substance.

What substance there is in our government system goes to the elite, whether political or economic. Only the scraps are left for the common man.

“Mumo, ” the late Senate President Neptali Gonzales Sr. called these. Like slaves scrounging scraps of meat from the king’s table after the feast is ended.

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A forest despoiler turned politician in a Mindanao province used to tell his sidekicks that it is better to keep progress out of his province.

Keeping the people poor was his formula for political longevity. Then he would buy votes every election, with money from contractors and his logging empire.

He would shift political colors every time a new president was elected, and, these days, vote buying as election strategy is the rule almost everywhere in this benighted land.

It all started in a Mindanao province. Success, no matter how despicably reached, has become a template.

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The first president to win a majority of votes in a pluralistic contest of 10 (including the nuisance candidates that Comelec still allowed) should have his work defined for him.

He should be a transformational president.

His pink and yellow enemies said this cannot be done by one who is not even apologetic for his family’s sins against the people.

But then again, when it was their turn at the bat, they too failed to correct the situation.

They wrote a vaguely worded and ineffective Constitution, shortened terms of office, and virtually perpetuated governance by the rich taking advantage of the poor and middle class.

President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr., by the grace of God and the choice of the sovereign people, should realize that this is not only his historic chance at familial redemption.

It ought to be his mission in the next six years to transform the politics of this nation if he wants a better economy for his people.

2023 started on the wrong foot, by accident of happenstance and the result of bureaucratic neglect and indifference.

What if it happened on January 5, when the president and his party would be traveling back from China, and his plane is unable to land?

Senator Grace Poe was right, when she said the “glitch” is a matter of national security.

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“Carowninbgbusrider” wrote a suggestion in the comments section after our article last Monday. His wish, and I fully agree, is for our metropolis to have more parks and greenery amidst the concrete urban jungle.

There are talks about selling off the Veterans Memorial Hospital in QC, just as government privatized the adjacent areas for Trinoma and Seda. Best to create another green park for our harried urban residents instead.

I have always frowned on a golf course surrounding the historic walls of Intramuros.

But when I got appointed by President Erap to head the Philippine Tourism Authority, the agency had just redesigned and renovated what used to be the Muni Golf Links of the City of Manila, at a huge multi-million cost.

I could not waste that sunk investment and spend more to create a people’s park. Insiders at the now named TIEZA tell me the golf course hardly churns out a profit.

For me, it would be better to transform that into a people’s park, recreating the old Spanish-time moat, and adding open spaces with plenty of foliage, as a foil to the now mostly concrete Luneta.

That is why I think Manila officialdom should have a bigger say on the way the Intramuros Administration and the NPDC is run.

Long have I been advocating for the transformation of the present NAIA, once Bulacan and Sangley or either one is up and about, into a huge well-designed green park, something like New York’s Central Park or London’s St. James, or the Tuileries or Jardins Luxembourg in Paris.

If tiny Singapore (Laguna de Bay is bigger) can do it, why can’t we?

One more wish to my long list for 2023.

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Then again, we began 2023 with another holiday, celebrating the “morning after” the first of the year.

Popular though that may be, it sends the wrong message.

Work inertia will be sacrificed for holiday inertia.

The legendary Lee Iacocca, Ford Motors CEO, used to advise friends not to buy a car that was assembled on a Monday or Friday. Monday the workers are still sluggish; Fridays they are looking forward to the weekend break.

Kung sabagay, this is the Year of the Rabbit. Rabbits are not known to work hard. They just laze, and multiply.