Ben Contreras
WHEN the President said that some cities are very dirty and that the local governments are not doing anything about it, the first to respond to it came from a mayor who I once criticized for allowing vendors to occupy and put up structures for trade along the sidewalks.
Divisoria in Manila and Baclaran were said to be so messy and chaotic that they became havens for petty crimes. Today, one might be surprised by how these places have become, judging from what I see on Facebook.
Lately, another place has been cleaned up of sidewalk vendors and their makeshifts destroyed without much resistance and the streets look much wider, the traffic flow more fluid. Can we not do the same for our city?
After three years, nothing much has changed, and may even get worse. There’s no more excuses for an unfriendly city council and “zero” budget. In fact, the author of our Traffic Code belongs now to the administration. That should see the implementation of the Traffic Code with ease.
Perhaps, too, we can look forward to ridding our streets and sidewalks of vendors. “Hapsay” impressed us with its lightning operations and made our streets clean and wide. But it wasn’t meant to last long. Politics still reigns.
And by the way, many are wondering why Egay Uy has not been very visible these days. Is he still in charge or not? If not, the president of CDO-CRCD can be a good replacement.
An attempt to form a new group of volunteers was made. Councilor George Goking was invited. Although Goking politely asked that we hold it in abeyance because, according to him, the mayor has other plans that would soon be implemented, a few days later, we heard of the signing of an agreement with three volunteer groups that would assist in the traffic management. Well, it must be the personalities in our group who are known critics of this administration...
Anyway, there is a serious need to clean up our streets and sidewalks, and for the strict implementation of the anti-littering law.
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This is what I heard of the newly opened overpass near Gaisano and the Ayala malls: “Grabe ka hugaw kay ang mga tawo, galabog sa ilang basura diha sa taas.”
It’s a question of attitude. If we don’t clean up a pile of garbage, people think that it’s a garbage dumping site. I want to say more but nobody’s listening.
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There will always be two sides of a coin.
When Bong Fabe posted something about a allegedly abusive motorists, the reactions varied from the nasty to the more level headed. Bong’s allegation is just one side of the coin. What is the other side of the story? And that is what we really need to know before we pass judgment.
There is one observation though that’s quite obvious. The post drew more than 400 reactions while issues on quarrying drew only a handful. Are we going to wait for another quarryelated disaster to happen before we open our mouths? Another “Sendong,” perhaps?
