Diversionary tactics?

Credit to Author: BEN KRITZ, TMT| Date: Mon, 05 Aug 2019 16:16:47 +0000

BEN KRITZ

WITH increasing frequency, it seems weekends in the Philippines are to be marked by one or more puzzling headlines about current government policy, and this past soggy weekend was no exception. Along with taking time out to complain about a critical op-ed column in the New York Times, the government served up not one but head-scratchers over the weekend. While they look silly enough on the surface, they have some rather alarming implications, and should be looked at more closely.

The more harmless-sounding of the two was the announcement by freshman Senator Christopher “Bong” Go that he has filed a bill that would impose criminal penalties on those who make prank or otherwise inappropriate calls to emergency numbers.

Go’s Senate Bill 400, grandiosely titled the “Anti-Prank Callers Act of 2019,” at first looks like another example of President Duterte’s former sidekick’s uncanny affinity for low-hanging fruit, but he should be given more credit in this instance for exposing, perhaps unintentionally, some persistent process flaws in the way governance is done here.

The president established the nationwide 911 emergency hotline number by way of an executive order last year, and by all accounts, the system is working reasonably well.

Of course, it is in some people’s nature, because they are either mean or stupid, to abuse an emergency number with fake or irrelevant calls, which is a potentially dangerous waste of everyone’s time. Most normal people would probably assume that there are penalties for doing such a thing, and in fact there were; the helpful information signs one used to see in various places reminding people about the old 117 emergency number sometimes pointed out that misuse of the service was punishable by law.

Go’s filing of SB 400 tells us two things, neither of them very reassuring. First, the need to address crank calls was obviously overlooked in the issuing of the executive order creating the 911 hotline. If the president himself didn’t think of it, he has people working for him whose job is to do so; somebody dropped the ball.

The second thing that is a bit off-putting about the filing of SB 400 is that what should be a relatively simple bit of management requires an act of Congress. There ought to be, among the 11,000 or so laws on the books in this legislation-addicted land, something that can be applied to the unsociable act of making an illegitimate phone call to the emergency number, but there is apparently not. That lack of attention to detail, even when legislation is fleshed out over weeks or months of creating “implementing rules and regulations,” is why the wheels of governance grind slowly and produce unsatisfactory results.

The other disturbing headline that emerged from the halls of power was the ecstatic support expressed by the leadership of the PNP for the bizarre suggestion by President Rodrigo Duterte that firemen be armed. Duterte made the comment during an address to personnel of the Bureau of Fire and Protection (BFP), telling the firemen they had a duty to assist the police and the military in maintaining public order.

That is technically true, although Duterte was taking things a little out of context. According to the local government code, the PNP, the BFP, and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology can be called upon by the president “in times of national emergency” to assist the armed forces; it is essentially a “last resort” sort of provision that at best simply allows for better coordination among agencies by allowing the military to take charge of a situation such as a major disaster or armed attack.

The PNP picked up the ball and ran with it, however, with its spokesman gushing about how firemen can be a “force multiplier” for the police. Besides, the spokesman said, firefighters have been hesitant to enter fire scenes “on many occasions” because they have sometimes been “attacked by angry mobs.”

The idea is completely ludicrous, of course, and displays a serious deficit of awareness of the letter and intent of the relevant legal provision, the actual roles of police and firefighters in organized society, and basic reality by all concerned. It could be written off as just another clumsy attempt by the president to make an otherwise sensible point (in this case, that public services ought to work together more smoothly), but the implied preference for violence to maintain peace is a bit jarring.

And not surprisingly, the provocative statement was immediately taken by even the rational critics of the administration to be a smokescreen for something more
important that the government has not yet got a handle on. Even if that is just a perception, that is worrisome because that sentiment is growing, and rather rapidly at that.

Instability is bad for business; investors don’t like surprises, markets don’t like surprises, and consumers don’t like surprises. The more they feel they may get surprised, the less likely they are to take risks and plan for the longer term, and that is not a reaction a government suddenly struggling to keep up with its own growth forecasts should be encouraging.

ben.kritz@manilatimes.net
Twitter: @benkritz

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