Weekend of wrong ideas
AS my birthday provided an excuse for me to enjoy a long weekend, I spent some time away from the metropolis, which was an altogether pleasant experience. Getting away from the commercial and political gravity well of Metro Manila from time to time is a necessity, and as far as I’m concerned, no one who lives here capable of moving around and at least occasionally has a modest amount of disposal income has any valid excuse for not doing it. It’s a beautiful country; go see some of it.
Of course, until the new airport in Bulacan is built, if one’s journey requires travel by air, it is inevitable that an otherwise enjoyable adventure will be marred to some extent by the thoroughly unpleasant experience that is the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Why the surviving members of the Aquino family did not petition the government long ago to have their famous relative’s name taken off that dump is a mystery to me, but I guess some people define selfrespect differently.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: NAIA is Asia’s LaGuardia, although the last time I said it, one reader messaged me to complain that it was an insult to the worst airport in North America. NAIA is dirty, lacks services compared to other airports of its size and volume of travelers, and is poorly organized. Terminals 1 and 2 at least somewhat resemble airport terminals, and the Domestic Terminal has the excuse that it’s really old, but Terminal 3, which I have the misfortune of passing through more often than the others, was evidently designed by someone who has never been in an airport, or on an airplane. Terminal 3 is so useless, in fact, that the flight out of Manila on Thursday morning began with a bus ride from the gate to an aircraft that was parked on the other side of the airport in front of the Domestic Terminal.
Fortunately, travelers from NAIA can usually count on a compensating, nicer experience at their destination airports, which includes most of the other airports around the Philippines. They vary in size and availability of amenities, but on the whole, they are generally well-kept and efficient, and more importantly, they are staffed by people who seem to genuinely appreciate customers and take some pride in their work.
That is why the comments of
Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista last Friday that personnel of the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) would not have to worry about losing their jobs once operations are turned over to the San Miguel-led consortium were alarming. Of the many, many problems of NAIA that the new management needs to fix, the awful staffing is number one, and why the consortium agreed to absorb that handicap, especially given the generous revenue-sharing deal with the government, is beyond me.
At most, they should have only agreed that anyone who would be let go would receive the legally required separation package; not being allowed to make staffing decisions in the interest of efficiency and professionalism and not treating paying customers as a nuisance could be viewed as a restraint of trade. Hopefully, the new management will find a workaround to that very stupid condition because any improvements that might be made will simply be undone if the same people are to carry out the work.
* * * Another news topic that filtered through my cloud of holiday bliss over the weekend is the ongoing drama involving the efforts of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality led by Sen. Risa
Hontiveros to compel Davaobased cult leader Apollo Quiboloy to appear before the committee. Quiboloy, whose cult is officially named the “Kingdom of Jesus Christ” (KOJC), is on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Most Wanted List for charges ranging from sexual assault to human trafficking to money laundering and is subject to an arrest warrant unsealed last week by a federal court, which allows the Interpol system to pursue his arrest. The Department of Justice here has also ordered the filing of similar charges against Quiboloy and several of his associates.
All of which makes Senator Hontiveros’ insistence on pressing the issue a bit ridiculous. Quiboloy has repeatedly snubbed her committee’s hearings, leading her to issue an order for his arrest to enforce the committee’s subpoena. A few senators have disagreed with this, a couple for reasons that do not reflect well on them morally or ethically, but a couple of others because the order is objectively unreasonable.
In one of his columns last week, Yen Makabenta argued that there was a need to revisit the powers of Senate committees and set some limits on their authority, and he is exactly correct. Other commentators have said the same thing, and while the senators objecting
to the arrest order on rational grounds have not exactly questioned the Senate’s assumed prerogative to act as judge and jury when it chooses to, they have raised a sensible question of relevance.
To be sure, Apollo Quiboloy is a horrible person and an obviously dangerous criminal; one can see that simply from his occasional public appearances in the form of video rants on social media. The formal allegations in the charges against him here and in the US are, of course, still allegations until properly handled in court, but there is certainly nothing about his personality or behavior otherwise to even hint that they may be baseless. However, his awful character does nothing to make Hontiveros’ insistence on dragging him forth reasonable or necessary.
The reason that would certainly be given that his presence is necessary for hearings “in aid of legislation” is cynically idiotic. Does this country not have legislation against things such as sex or labor trafficking, fraud, extortion, gunrunning, or money laundering? Obviously, it does, or else the Department of Justice would not have already found charges that could be applied against Quiboloy here, in addition to those already lodged in US courts. Senators’ using the undisciplined and excessively broad powers of a Senate committee to engage in grandstanding at the expense of a prejudged witness/subject is wrong, no matter if the latter is a hapless innocent or a piece of human garbage. If the leaders and members of such committees were sincere in seeing justice done instead of burnishing their public image, then they would instead focus on supporting and assisting the work of law enforcement and the judicial system rather than compromising it.