Why did Lapeña not sue Faeldon?

Batas Mauricio

IT looks as if the government is suffering some kind of a paralysis nowadays, first on the fight against corruption, and, second, in responding to the ever-growing disintegration of the country’s mass public transport system, and in giving security to ordinary citizens who are being victimized by criminals and lawless elements roaming around with impunity.

On the issue of corruption, especially that which afflicts the Bureau of Customs, Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapena had just confirmed in an interview with Sen. Panfilo Lacson that former Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon received some P107 million as a “welcome gift” from the Bureau’s smugglers shortly after his installation in his post.

The question is this: if Lapena came to know that Faeldon truly accepted the P107 million (which evidently was a bribe money) from the smugglers plying their trade at the Bureau, what is preventing him (Lapena) from suing Faeldon for graft and corruption? Why did Lapena deem it more important to report first to Lacson? Was it not his obligation to file a case against Faeldon right away with the Ombudsman? Oh well…

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Now, on the issue of our ever-degenerating mass public transport system, I wholly agree that the old vehicles being used to ferry passengers in the different cities and urban centers of the country should already be changed, starting with the phase-out of equally old passenger jeeps. But, Transportation Secretary Art Tugade, can you tell us what will you replace them with in the meantime?

If President Duterte will stop the use of old passenger jeeps to serve our countrymen already, is there a sufficient number of vehicles that could be utilized to transport all those who were previously riding in jeeps? Would this not merely aggravate the acute shortage of mass transport vehicles that we are now experiencing, even with jeeps proliferating in the country?

Indeed, are not the LRT and MRT similarly dilapidated by now, too? Is not the present rail service very prejudicial to our countrymen on account of breakdowns among their trains daily? The same problem of reliability afflicts taxis and passenger buses, so that these means of transportation are really insufficient to cater to the needs of Filipinos who commute mornings and afternoons. Shall we just tell the passengers to walk, as a lawmaker was suggesting?

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Now, on the issue of security for our people in the face of freely and boldlyoaming bandits and criminal elements, drug addicts, and other malefactors in the country today, we should all recognize that our policemen and soldiers have become almost useless in assuring the safety of the four corners of the archipelago.

I am saying “almost useless”, not totally useless, because of the many other concerns they have, and this is a compelling reason to provide each and every Filipino with the capacity to fight criminality in their environs. One of the most effective means to do this is arming our people, with guns and grenades, if need be.

Yes, this could be abused by some of our countrymen, but this is not a reason to deny others something that they could use in times of trouble. They are not congressmen and senators, or occupants of any other highanking positions, who have bodyguards to protect them from attackers round the clock. Somehow, if our people are armed, criminals would have to think twice before victimizing them.

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On the basis of the reported decision of the College of Law of the University of Sto. Tomas (UST) that it will no longer accept as its law students those who belong to the  fraternity that is now embroiled in the death by hazing of Horacio Castillo III, other schools, colleges, and universities in the country can now follow suit, and impose the same punishment to their own erring students.

The problem at present is that, because of the Juvenile Justice Law that was authored by Sen. Francis Pangilinan, teachers and other school authorities from elementary and high school institutions are prevented from doing anything to confront their students who are without discipline, abusive, unruly, and grossly discourteous to others, even towards their teachers.

But the example shown by UST proved that there is something that can be done by desperate school authorities to “hit back”, as it were, against their students who refuse to obey them, who do not want to be disciplined, and who think they cannot be punished in any way. It now clearly appears that teachers and other school staff can stop the offensive children from pursuing further education.

The truth is that, I have been advocating this kind of a “retaliatory tactic” among teachers and educational institutions against their students who lack good manners and right conduct, who do not study their lessons anymore, and who even display brazenness in the commission of grave crimes in the presence of other people.

When my wife, former Judge Angelina Mauricio, was the president of the Rotary Club of Intramuros between 2016-2017, we came face to face with hundreds of teachers from public elementary and high schools, especially those from Pasig City, who were battling children who lacked manners and who routinely fought their teachers back, during gatherings which Rotary called “peace and conflict seminars”.

In each and every seminar that we conducted, teachers often complained: their hands were tied by Pangilinan’s law (or the law that prohibited the arrest and imposition of disciplinary action against youngsters committing an offense), disabling them from doing something that would turn the children around from their abusive and delinquent ways.

The solution my wife and I offered to the teachers was simple: while Pangilinan’s law prevented them from arresting or disciplining students lacking in good manners with the clear tacit permission of their parents, they, the teachers, could nevertheless build a record of the students’ infractions or displays of delinquency and, using this record, present an administrative case against the children concerned with the Department of Education.

The objective of this is to make sure that a record exists attesting to the lack of discipline of the students that is kept by the Deped itself, so that it would not be too difficult convincing Deped officials later to issue an order disqualifying the erring children from admission in any public school forever. If the parents still have any concern for their children, they will act to prevent such a grave misfortune befalling their offspring.

It cannot be denied that almost every Filipino youth nowadays no longer have fear of anyone–their own parents, the elderly, and even of God Himself. If we do not act now to change this mental disease of Filipino children, and bring them back to the folds of discipline, they would become curses of the country instead of the hope of the fatherland, as Dr. Jose Rizal once said. Indeed, for progress to come to us, discipline is what we need.

E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com