‘Blame-passing’ is not ‘Good Governance’

THE collapse of the Cabagan-Sta. Maria Bridge in Isabela province last February 27, less than a month after its opening on February 1, is the latest in the increasing series of scandals under the present administration that has become added fodder to the cannons of its critics.

Visiting the site afterwards to see for himself the scale of the disaster, President Marcos Jr. put the blame squarely on the bridge’s “design flaw,” going to the extent of stating it is the only “suspension bridge” that he has seen “without any cable.”

He then went on to order that “all” bridges built under his predecessor, that is, under President Duterte, would have to undergo rigid inspection, thereby stating, without actually saying it, that if blame is to be made, let us put it squarely under the Duterte administration.

Not mentioned in that ‘sound byte’ is that it is precisely due to concerns about the bridge’s design that its construction was ordered stopped by then Secretary Mark Villar, DPWH chief at the time, and that it was continued under his administration for the final total cost of P1.225 billion when it was inaugurated last February 1.

Narratives that we have heard and read regarding this bridge from the mainstream media claimed it was indeed a ‘bridge too far’ from being built dating back to over a decade ago, in 2014, and now it has become, like the London bridge in the nursery rhyme, a ‘bridge that has fallen down.’

Corruption is an issue that has always been of great concern to the public that has exempted no administration and which was foremost in the public’s mind as a contributory factor, if not the main factor for the bridge’s collapse.

And given the fact that it was completed only recently, if there is corruption, it happened under PBBM’s administration.

But instead of being true to himself by declaring that he wants all angles pursued and vowing to punish anyone involved as warranted by evidence, the way he used to say  and act in the early days of his presidency, President Marcos decided to play politics by pinning the blame, once again, on his predecessor.

This is clear case of blame passing that, for yours truly, is not going to solve anything; it would only embolden his officials to continue with their “merry ways,” knowing that no less than their Chief Executive has now also resorted to that overused and worn-out template to sweep any scandal under the rug— blame the past administration.

We have seen it all before—Marcos Senior blaming the Communists, Cory Aquino blaming Marcos Senior, PNoy blaming Gloria Arroyo and now PBBM blaming Rodrigo Duterte—for all the misgovernance and all the bad things happening or that has happened. Well, this is never the way forward for our country, is it, dear readers?

Meanwhile, the problem remains as the Cabacan bridge, for example, remains unusable and the President’s credibility suffering along with it.

PBBM can endlessly blame Duterte for the collapse but for the ordinary people the issue is very simple: it happened under his watch.

Thus, if the “solution” is to seek out scapegoats instead of “manning up” in facing the problem and making sure it won’t happen again, then we would just be caught in a vicious cycle of repeating the same mistake, again and again.

And that is not Good Governance.