If you read archaeologists and others researching our prehispanic past, some theorize the best way to understand old regimes is less by calling them kingdoms and more by understanding them as authorities that demanded toll from anyone passing through doing business, etc. So...
it’s no surprise that in #LuzonLockdown, with the national government having for days thrown up its hands and devolved all authority to the barangays and mayors, there is an epidemic, it seems, of barangay chairmen and mayors instituting requirements for passes snd permits...
which of course is driving everyone crazy because its multiplying opportunities for pulling rank (and extortion) without ensuring any efficiency as its one petty power after another asserting authority. Meanwhile, the military and police are unevenly managed or briefed, so that..
transport of goods and materials is only as efficient as the local checkpoints trucks must go through, leading grocery associations to warn of looming shortages while others warn of supply disruptions. The response of DTI is to try to expedite trade by imposing a new system...
of permits in the hope that these will lead to trucks being less hassled by the PNP or AFP but it involves a stampede to get permits by the deadline and the hope that cops and soldiers will suddenly respect a new civilian form when they have existing orders from their chain...
of command. So, old habits die hard: the barangays and mayors are filling the power vacuum created by the President and the Executive Department is trying to subdue an armed forces and police empowered by the President. Meanwhile public remains uneasy not just about #Covid19ph...
but looming insecurity among all and I mean all sectors: most basic are daily earners deprived of livelihood and facing hunger; middle facing economic disruption and running short on reserves; and upper alarmed st seething social resentments. So all are getting upset.
The fundamental lesson in a crisis is nature abhors a vacuum: authority low as well as high will rush to fill/provide it but when coordination/cooperation required, a broad overview has to be enforced and maintained otherwise a logjam of competing petty authority is rhe result.
