The truth behind the purge

Title

Creator

Valencia, Teodoro F.

Language

English

Source

The Republic I (6) 1-31 December 1975

Year

1975

Subject

Philippines -- Politics and government

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

ni LADISLAO BELLA SUBANG Inutil Man Ay May Puwang Din Sa Alinmang Lipunan IKINAGALAK NG mga magsasaka sa bansa ang utos kamakailan ng Presidente sa Court of Agrarian Relation, na idaos sa mga baryo ang pagdinig at paglilitis sa mga magsasakang nasasakdal dahilan sa lupa. Ang layon ng liderato ay mapabilis ang paggagawad ng katarungan at mabawasan pati ang mga alalahanin ng pamilya ng nasasakdal. Lalong nagalak ang mga magbubukid nang ihayag ng Presidente na bibigyan niya ng aksiyon ang rekumendasyon ng Free Farmers na pagkalooban ng tunay na kalayaan ang mga magsasakang Pilipino, pati ang pagtitiwalag sa mga hukom ng CAR na nakikipagtulungan sa mga may-ari ng lupa sa kapinsalaan ng mga magsasaka. Sa hakbang na ito ni Presidente Marcos ay isang katotohanan ang masasalamin ng lahat — na talagang kaibigan ng mga magsasaka at manggagawa ang puno ng Republika ng Pilipinas. Ngayon, ang tanging hinihintay ng Presidente ay tulong ng publiko sa lahat ng programa nito sa kaayusan, katahimikan at pagpapaunlad ng ekonomiya, laluna ang tulong ng mga kabataan. SIMBULO at inspirasyon ng mga kababaihang Filipino ang First Lady, Ginang Imelda RomualdezMarcos. Simbulo rin siya ng lahing kayumanggi sa bagong panahon. Ito ang bigay-katuturan ni Luis C. Diez, isang mataas na opisyal ng Second Bulacan Development Bank sa Meycauayan, sa larawan at katauhan ng First Lady, base sa tinungkol na maseselang misyon sa ibang bansa, at bilang espesyal na sugo ng Presidente, na naipagtagumpay na lahat. Sa lokal na pagsasakit, ang mga kilusang pangkawanggawa, mga kilusang bayan na laging ang masa ang nagtatamasa ng mga bunga, ay isang tagumpay na maisasama sa istorya ng Pilipinas. “Ngayong tang gapin niya ang pagiging gobemador ng Metro Manila”, THE REPUBLIC Isang Bansa, Isang Diwa Board of Editors Chairman: Francisco S. Tatad; Vice-Chairman: Reuben R. Canoy; Members: Lorenzo J. Cruz, Florentino S. Dauz Managing Editor: Luis V. Ople; Editorial Staff: Juanita G. Trinidad, Marcos D. Agayo, Gloria Jane Bayion, Rosalinda G. Roxas Art Director: Micaelita C. Almendral; Art Con sultant: Larry Z. Alcala; Photo Editor: Wilfredo G. Avila; Production Manager: Marcelino N. Palisoc■,Production Assistant: Cesar B. Tablason THE REPUBLIC is published fortnightly by the Department of Public Information, Malacanang, Manila, for government managers. The Editors welcome contributions of manuscripts and photographs which should be sent to THE REPUBLIC, Tuason-Gonzalez Bldg., Intramuros, Manila. While they will take reasonable care, the Editors assume no responsibility for the re turn of unsolicited manuscripts. Entered as a second-class mail matter on March 5, 1973 at the Manila Central Post Office. sabi ni Ginoong Diez, “ay tinitiyak ko, na ang pinagsakitan ng maraming nagdaang ehekutibo ng mga siyudad at bayang saklaw ng Metro Manila, ay magkakaroon ng kaganapan. Sa pagkakataong ito ay mangungusap ang kahulugan ng bayanihan o pagtutulungan.” Isang malungkot na rebelasyon ang aking tinanggap kamakailan. Na, marami sa mga magsasaka sa Northern at Central Luzon na nakautang sa programa ng Masagana 99, ang nakademanda at inuusig ng Gobyerno dahilan sa hindi pagbabayad kahit ma raming taon na ang nagdaraan. Narito ang isang anggulo ng katotohanan sa pagkakautang ng mga magsa saka. Ang iba ay hindi magsasaka, nguni’tnakautang, magsasakang nakautang, ngunit hindi nakababayad . . . at ang iba ay dahilan sa “Lucky 9”, isang uri ng sugal na sinasabing siyang bumiktima sa mga magsasaka. Ito ang isang “tip” na kailangang gawing anggulo sa muling pagsisiyasat ng mga maykapangyarihan sa mga hindi nakababayad na magsasaka. Ngunit kung tala gang ang dahilan nang hindi pagbabayad ay ang hindi pag-aani sa kagagawan ng bagyo at baha, bigyan pa sila ng maraming pagkakataon. At sa mga nagpabaya The truth behind the purge by TEODORO F. VALENCIA THAT COMPUTER which was supposed to say who were to be dismissed or forced into retirement in the on-going government clean-up failed. The com puter, after all, is just a processing factory. You get what you feed into the robot thinker. It does not think like humans but it adds, subtracts and divide perfectly. You feed it garbage, and you get garbage even if the product is deodorized. Now, we’re looking for scape-goats. The people who were entrusted the job of im plementing the President’s LOI 309 to rid the govern ment of corrupt and undesirable employes goofed. The error started with the lists prepared by heads of offices. This, in turn, we attributed to a communications gap. They did not know by what standards they were to go in the preparation of those lists. Charges were lumped regardless of their nature and motivations. The computer, as we know, cannot evaluate. Not all government personnel who had been previously charged or are facing charges deserve to be dismissed. Some such employes are among the best —that’s why they are charged. Minor charges, no matter how many, do not call for dismissals. Many charges are without basis or, even if true, do not constitute misbehavior. You all know that often, when an employe is exonerated, he is commended by the investigating panel. The people who fed the computers made no distinctions among light charges, heavy charges, charges generated by active pursuit of duties, etc., etc. Many agencies were reluctant to submit names of employes with pending charges, but they were told to do so; mechanically obeying, they lumped all those with charges. The instructions were explicit that the names of these government personnel were to be included —the form was prepared for them just to fill. Many who submitted names tried to categorize charges saying, for instance, that the employes had already been exonerated of those charges. But the computer, which did the rest of'the job, was not programmed to take these factors into consideration. The lists, therefore, turned out to be completely mechanical. The names of officials and employes purged did not all come from the official lists required in LOI 309. Many names were supplied via telephone, via anonymous letters and telegrams. To fit the operations of the computer, a points system was adopted to evaluate and give relative naman, kailangan ay ibilanggo at bawian ng karapatan sa pagmamay-ari o pamumuwisan ng lupa. ISANG uri ng sakit ang nagiging tatak ng mga nagiging bilanggo . .. sakit na pinandidirihan at aayaw pagtiwalaan. Ngunit sila’y tao ring katulad natin nagkakasala at nagsisisi pagkatapos. Isang eksperto sa kriminalidad, si Komisyunado Teodulo C. Natividad ng National Police Commission, ang nagsabi sa akin ng ganito: “Dapat na tulungan sa pagbabagumbuhay ang mga naging bilanggo.” Tama. Karamihan sa kanila ay may pamilya na dapat na buhayin. Ngunit dahilan sa naging bilanggo sila ay walang ibig na magbigay ng trabaho upang kumita ng marangal. Napapanahon nang dapat na repormahin ang ugaling ito ng Sinauna. Kapag ang kanilang pagbabagumbuhay at pagtitika ay hindi natin kinilala, pinahalagahan at tinanggap, ang ibig sabihin ay itinutulak natin sila upang maging masama uli. At kapag nagkagayon, ang pang arap ni Presidente Marcos na pagpapairal ng kaayusan at katahimikan sa lahat ng dako ng bansa ay hindi matutupad. Maituturing pa ring tayo’y kalaban ng mga nagpapakabuti. Alalahanin natin si Maria Magdalena. Bakit siya naging Santa? □ weight to various sources. Thus, an actual administra tive charge was given 10 points, a telephone call was given five points, a telegram was given four points and an anonymous letter 2.5 points, etc. After an employe accumulated a certain fixed number of points, he was earmarked for “slaughter.” Now, the victims know how they were decapitated. The names announced by President Marcos at the Quirino Grandstand Sept. 19, 1975, came from that computer. Necessarily, there were spectacular hits and spectacular misses. They could have done better if they had not relied on the computer. But they did this to make it appear impersonal. So nobody was hurt. But the end-result was worse—too many inno cent people were slaughtered, in a manner of speaking. Since that dramatic announcement of Sept. 19, 1975, many who were among those “purged” havereturned to their old jobs. They were innocent from the start. The effect has been negative for the President— it now appears that they are being returned surrepti tiously when, as a matter of fact, they are being vin dicated. No announcement is being made to hide the original mistake. The effect is far from what had been anticipated. We’ve learned a lot from the mistakes of that in ternal computer. One, that the computer can’t really think—can’t evaluate and is incapable of an opinion; two, that while the universal clamor is for weeding out the bad eggs in government, people will not stand for injustice. The strong public opinion against the manner the computer worked was fanned by the scattered examples (all over the country) of men of integrity and honesty who were included among those fired for graft, corruption or dishonesty. A few mistakes negated the overall plan. The government cleanup drive has been slowed down. We learned, too, that some people who are do ing their jobs with courage are the ones who get the most number of anonymous denunciations, ugly ru mors, administrative charges. Even the bosses of the upright employes often don’t like them, specially if these bosses are crooked. If such employes were ever included among those fed to the computer for evaluation, they would be the first to go. That computer fiasco was unfortunate but some good happened because of it. Now, we shall be more careful. Now, we will no longer entrust to a robot the job of evaluating public service efficiency and honesty. O Not So Funny - Larry Alcala

pages

15

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