Clueless

BY ANTONIO CONTRERAS      DECEMBER 18, 2018

IF there is one common theme weaving through some of the significant events happening recently in our country, it is an abject state of cluelessness among many of our officials, from the Philippine National Police (PNP), to the Budget Secretary and some elected local government officials, to the entire House of Representatives. Being clueless appears to be so pervasive that it can also infect citizens, ordinary and otherwise.

Take the case of the PNP in relation to the death of Richard Santillan, the aide of Glenn Chong, a former Biliran congressman and an anti-election fraud crusader. Santillan was killed by operatives of the PNP in Cainta, Rizal in the early morning of December 10. According to the PNP, they had solid intelligence that Santillan was a member of a criminal gang operating in Rizal. They further claim that Santillan and the car he was driving were the subjects of careful police surveillance.

Now, if this was the case, and if indeed the intelligence the PNP had on Santillan was a solid one, and that he and the car he was driving were under surveillance, then one has to ask why the PNP appeared clueless as to Santillan’s real identity, as well as who really owned the car he was driving. Records show that the car was not Santillan’s, but was in fact owned by Glenn Chong, and was registered under the name of his sister. What is even more interesting is that the PNP appeared not to have any clue that Santillan was working for Chong as his all-around aide, driver, and security and personal assistant. For one claiming to have solid intelligence information about a person, this cluelessness is laughable, if not for the fact that it ended with the death of Santillan.

But apparently, cluelessness is also infecting even other public officials, which, in this case, is the entire membership of the House of Representatives. Reacting to the revelations made by Sen. Ping Lacson about unwarranted insertions in the 2019 budget. The House leaders, in particular Majority Leader Nonoy Andaya, pointed their fingers at Budget Secretary Ben Diokno. Minority Leader Danilo Suarez accused Diokno of making the insertions to allegedly favor a political family in Sorsogon which is related to the spouse of Diokno’s daughter.

Now, this one is for the books in terms of cluelessness on the part of an entire institution.

House leaders allege that billions of insertions were made on public works projects in one congressional district in Sorsogon where this political family, the Hamors, have significant interests. To further aggravate the matter, it was alleged that these projects appeared to be cornered by a contractor who is running a single proprietorship with possible ties to the Hamor family. And all of these were happening unbeknownst to the representative of that particular district.

Unbelievable cluelessness. Had Congress conducted a detailed examination of the budget, they would have seen these billions of insertions much earlier. In particular, the district representative who now claims ignorance about the insertions must have detected these huge amounts appropriated to construction projects in the district. This would have also alerted the respective House committees, and even other members, particularly those who are as eager to get a slice of the budget pie. Even if other members can deploy as an excuse the voluminous documents and beg to be forgiven for missing such a detail, it would not excuse at least the chairmen of the House committees in charge of the budget, and the representative of the recipient district.

House leaders make it appear that they are entirely clueless about these budget insertions that they alleged had been masterminded by Diokno, and that it is only now that they discovered it. After all, the House has already approved the proposed 2019 budget. What makes the cluelessness remarkable is that this is apparently not the first time this happened, and that insertions were already made in the same district in the current national budget for 2018, which has just been re-enacted.

Ben Diokno appears to be in the middle of the controversy, with the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passing a resolution asking President Duterte to fire him, which the President ignored.

Diokno may indeed be guiltless in this entire affair, but what gives the impression that he is hiding something is that he also appears clueless not only about the insertions, but also about the nature of his relationships to the Hamors of Sorsogon. The implausible clueless unfamiliarity appears to be mutual, with the male Hamor even expressing doubt if his wife and the budget secretary know each other, which is simply hard to believe considering that their children are married to each other.

And then you have the cluelessness of Nicanor Faeldon Jr., the son of Nicanor Sr. who is also the current chief of the Bureau of Corrections and former head of the Bureau of Customs, who was apprehended in a raid of an alleged drug den in Naga City. While testing negative for drugs, Faeldon Jr. remains detained for violating the law that penalizes presence in or getting involved in the running of a drug den. The house happens to be owned by the father of Faeldon Jr.’s girlfriend, who was also one of those arrested. Unlike Faeldon Jr., his girlfriend’s father and two others all tested positive for drugs.

The only valid excuse that Faeldon Jr. can raise is that he did not know that the house of his girldfriend’s father was allegedly being used as a drug den, or that the latter is allegedly a drug user. There are reports, which have yet to be validated since I only saw this in the Facebook post by one of the relatives of the Faeldons, that Faeldon Jr. was even living in the very house with many other relatives of his girlfriend. If this is true, then the younger Faeldon will have to really admit to being totally clueless for not having any knowledge of the alleged vices of its owner.

Cluelessness can be genuine, and in fact can further affirm an innocent state of mind, and the only fault that one can have for being genuinely clueless is being too trusting or too naïve. This is the type of cluelessness which Isidro Lapeña seemed to appeal to be guilty of when billions of pesos worth of drugs passed through Customs without his knowledge, which the President labeled as simply “nalusutan.”

Feigned cluelessness can be a weapon of the weak, as James Scott painted it when he referred to feigned ignorance as one of the available modes of resistance by the oppressed in the face of overwhelming power. Saying “I don’t know” despite having committed an act that undermined the powerful is an effective weapon to survive in the face of a highly imbalanced and oppressive power relations.

But when cluelessness becomes an appeal made by people with power and influence, and with obvious ability and resources to know better, it then becomes an undeniable and unbelievable marker of a maliciously oppressive, if not a criminal, lie.

https://www.manilatimes.net/clueless/484393/