The Year of the Dragon list a majority of Filipinos, 95 percent, are convinced this will be a more productive, fruitful year. Jobs statistics are up, investments are up, and there is a clear path towards good governance. People responded positively to the government campaign to hold public officials accountable under the law, and to remove or reduce the incidence of corruption.
Sri Mulyani Indrawati, one of the managing directors of the World Bank said: “Corruption hurts people’s trust, it affects the respectability of public officers, diminishes the self esteem of those in public service”.
P-Noy is faced with the challenge of dismantling the financial architecture of crony capitalism, reducing private and public debt, paying fair wages to public servants and enforcing tax reforms. He has to advance policies to enable the country to wisely use its natural resources and to share their bounty with its citizens, while implementing environmental management coupled with responsive public finance.
Prudent policy, accountability are the standard principles like ”Spend within your means” and “Do not take anything which is not yours”. followed with “You committed the crime, you do the time!”
Yet, the Year of the Dragon started with another environmental catastrophe — the landslide in the mines of Pantukan, Compostela Valley. It followed the storm Sendong episode even before all the victims were found, and the consequences of economic and psychological dislocation abated.
Indeed, the government is facing all the sequelae of these natural calamities, which seems so overwhelming, stretching its resources to the limits.
While there is an overwhelming private sector response, we have to ask ourselves, is there another one coming? Or is there a big one coming?
It was a surprise to note that the researchers in the DENR and UP had geohazard maps, and there had been previous warnings to the concerned LGUs. Presumably, they knew about the area’s potential for flash floods, landslides, and the like. How come they were still caught unprepared?
It is said that some old folks prevailed, when they said that major floods happen only once every 50 years so there is no urgency. And many did not accept the Inconvenient Truth
promoted by Al Gore.
Recent events hopefully would make everyone sit up and heed the warnings of Mother Nature. It is not good to mess with Mother Nature because when she hits back, there is no measure of her fury.
And yet, inspite of all these catastrophes and calamities, we declare: “It’s more fun in the Philippines!”
