Raising our standards

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor CHERYL CRUZ Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

South Korean President Park Geun-hye formally apologized on Monday for her country’s worst civilian maritime disaster in 20 years and the seemingly slow and ineffective rescue operation that followed. Aside from the apology and taking the ultimate responsibility for the poor response to the accident that killed 286, most of whom were high school students on a field trip, she also vowed sweeping reforms to improve oversight as well as tough punishment for bureaucrats and businesses whose negligence endangered public safety.

One of the reforms the South Korean President discussed was the dismantling of her country’s coast guard, an agency that she says “failed to fulfill its original duties” and one that in its current form would be unable to prevent another large-scale disaster. The rescue duties of the coast guard’s will be transferred to a national emergency safety agency that will be set up and its investigative functions will be taken over by the national police.

The circumstances that ultimately caused the sinking of the Sewol ferry and the weak government response, has resulted in the resignation of South Korea’s Prime Minister, its President apologizing and taking ultimate responsibility, and the dismantling of the country’s coast guard. Yet these actions that could never happen in the Philippines where maritime disasters regularly take hundreds of lives, are still being criticized in South Korea.

If we compare the South Korean coast guard and the maritime industry regulatory bodies involved in the accident with their equivalents from the Philippines, their record would be virtually spotless.

 For South Koreans, losing 286 lives at sea constitutes their worst maritime disaster in 20 years. That would pale in comparison to the death toll from Philippine maritime disasters in the past decade alone. And yet our coast guard and the Maritime Industry Authority continue to survive unscathed. No agency has been dismantled and no bureaucrat has been fired or his willingly resigned.

With that in mind, have the Filipino government agencies whose mistakes have cost the lives of hundreds of Filipinos actually improved since the last deadly maritime accident in this country? And will Filipinos continue to be as forgiving (or callous) when another accident or scandal comes up as a result of either corruption or incompetency or isn’t it time for us to raise our standards as far as our government and its officials are involved?*