Undone and bygone wish list re-emerges in 2013

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

 The list noticeably returns at the start of a new year. And the only reason why it keeps coming back is because the wishes in the list are never fulfilled. Agsubli-subli. Pinoys had the same wish lists in the past and hold the same for 2013. I also know for a fact that what they commonly have are far from what PNoy has in his mind.

           

First on the list of some, especially the underprivileged is to gain financial stability or simply to become a little richer in the new year. Contrary to the poor’s wish, we know of many wealthy Filipinos who, despite their financial status, still aim to have all the money they can get – whether they get it in all honesty or wickedly. In a cruel world, people resort to any means when it comes to acquiring money.

There are cases where people get the money at the expense of others. A glaring example is the money that will be awash for SM owners, their investors and those who would benefit from a parking lot and expansion of business stores that will be constructed on a mini forest. In connection, PNoy who came over to Baguio for his Christmas holidays avoided the media. Either he did not want to be asked questions related to his total log ban executive order or the “killing” of the trees behind SM.

One wish in the hearts and minds of people was for PNoy to fully implement EO23 or the total log ban and stop all tree-cuttings and earth-ballings anywhere, including Luneta Hill, but that is what President Noy Aquino and the most powerful man in the Philippines cannot do. There is also the wish that after an initial fight in court by Save 182 Movement and tree huggers for the stopping of the “killing” of the Luneta Hill trees was “partially” concluded, I hope it is not too late for other judges to write decisions based on the future of the environment and not based on technical scheming that supports the interest of tree-cutters.

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Before every year ends, LGU chief executives and legislators talk about banning the sale or otherwise of firecrackers in their localities. Eventually, the mayor and his council decide to finally disallow the sale of the New Year commodity, but as expected, the law that has finally been written is withdrawn “mas mabilis sa alas kwatro,” after firecracker traders and apparent election financiers mount a strong lobby.

In total disregard of what has been experienced and reported in the press in the past, in addition to a new threat to life and limb, the law is pulled out in favor of other obvious considerations. In disregarded of the fact that just a few years ago, the whole stretch of firecracker dealer stalls along Harrison Road literally went up in smoke due to a lighted cigarette butt, a simple regulatory measure is swept under the rug in the name of “awa” for the businessmen. “Lastiko” is how the awkward official action and the absence of political will is described.

The ban on guns and the firing of the same during Yuletide season is definitely prohibited. For show, police authorities in front of newsmen’s cameras plug the muzzles of police guns with masking tape as a means to restrain one from firing his gun during the season. A broken muzzle tape means the gun was fired. This has been the scenario for years, but we have yet to see a single policeman being reprimanded for firing his gun. By the end of 2013, we will again go through the same moro-moro. 

The wish is for authorities to be really strict in implementing simple orders on firecrackers and gun ban. And if there is no political will to enforce simple orders involving the prohibition of firecracker sale and the firing of service firearms, how can public officials therefore stop other crimes that have been staring them in the face ever since such as illegal gambling, anak ng jueteng, squatting in private and public lands, and many more? The pinoy wish list seems to appear longer than I thought.

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I was wrong. After I wrote about Gov Pack being opened to two-way traffic and praising city police traffic czar James Logan for bringing back traffic on that road to its former set up, I find that the road was returned to its one-way status. Why? I do not know. Maybe, the traffic authorities are playing on us, making us think that they really are doing something to alleviate the situation. What I am sure of is that they are doing a traffic experiment again that will lead all motorists to that giant store atop Luneta Hill.

A clearer study of the traffic problem in that area would reveal that what has been clogging traffic flow at the Gov. Pack-Harrison intersection was the tolerated bus parking below Luneta Hill from the Comelec gate to the Baden Powell building. I bet every centavo I have, when the parking area to replace the Luneta Hill mini forest shall have opened, we will certainly have more traffic jams. Observe this: everytime the roads around SM get clogged, the rest of the road intersections in the central business district also get clogged. That is the domino effect.

The most practical solution is to open the road intersections that have been blocked by unreasonable but vote-getting and money-making infrastructure projects. A reluctant wish is to make use of road intersections for what they were intended to be. Another wish that will not be fulfilled unless God makes a miracle is that the proposed construction of a parking lot behind SM be permanently stopped.

Proceeding with the plan will only invite additional volumes of motor vehicles resulting to more traffic jams, which translates to more money for the Luneta Hill giant box, of course. Now I find it easy to understand that for many unprincipled elected and government agency officials, money is far more important than sustaining our remaining tree stands, especially in an election year. Even environmental court judges know that. Happy three Kings! –marchfianza777@yahoo.com