Light up those lampposts or get rid of them!

I went to The Philippine Star head office in the Port Area in Manila Friday afternoon. I left our head office after my meeting when it was already evening. It always gets me how beautifully decorated Roxas Blvd (formerly Dewey Blvd) is at night. As Friday’s rush hour traffic crawled, I couldn’t but help notice that Roxas Blvd. also has its own share of decorative lampposts. I have already seen this a year ago and wanted to mention it, but at this age we start to be forgetful.

While we may not know where the Manila lampposts were bought and at what price or whether they bought these at a higher or lower cost, at least I have seen those lamppost lighted whenever I pass by Roxas Blvd at night. In short, whatever the Manila City government paid for these (whether it is overpriced or not… or whether they are made in China or not) decorative lamps, at least I know for sure that these lampposts are still in a very good working order after years of use.

This is what gets my goat about the lampposts in Metro Cebu; almost all of it no longer works. It’s bad enough that these supposedly decorative device were involved in a celebrated corruption case of this new millennium just after one of Cebu’s proudest moments. We played host to the 14th ASEAN Leaders Summit where for the first time, Cebuanos were able to get a glimpse of many of the leaders not only of ASEAN, but also of our Asian neighbors. All of the sudden, we were dragged into the mud of corruption.

This is why I fully concur with Vice Mayor Michael Rama and the Cebu City Council if they want these offensive lampposts removed from our city streets. But then surprise of surprises, the Office of the Ombudsman isn’t very cooperative. Perhaps they do not realize that these lamppost do not only remind us of the corruption in government, it also remind us of the inefficiency of the Office of the Ombudsman! How many times have we said it here before that if corruption thrives today, part of the blame goes to the very people whose job is to throw these crooks to jail as an example to other government officials who may want to follow the corrupt and the damned.

City Hall officials were able to find out from City Building Official Josefa “Joy” Ylanan that these devices were installed without permits and obstruct our sidewalks. That should be more than enough reason to uproot these damn devices and return them to the DPWH, who claims that they are still the owners of these lights. Sure, no one among the accused have yet been convicted of any wrongdoing connected with these lights. But that these devices no longer work for what they were intended for should be more than enough reason to remove them. Light them up or let’s get rid of them!

***

Two weeks after our annual Press Freedom Week, I got an email from Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr. (PDP-Laban) who underscored the need to set limits on the amount of fine imposed by the courts on accused journalists and other persons in libel cases. Indeed, one of the advocacies by all journalists and media practitioners is to decriminalize libel.

Two weeks ago, House Speaker Prospero Nograles also spoke in one of the Press Freedom activities and was open to suggestions by journalists. He even suggested that in the Right to Reply bill that they are pushing, newspaper columnists should be exempted because he said that we are merely expressing our opinion and more often than not the reply of the affected people is longer than the article written on them.

Well, we can only hope that the Senate would get its act together. Sen. Pimentel said, “This bill puts a cap on the amount of fine that a judge can impose on erring media practitioner. We cannot tolerate a situation where an unreasonably excessive fine is slapped on the guilty parties because of too much discretion given to the judge in determining the amount of the fine.” Sen. Pimentel also pointed out that the Constitution prohibits the imposition of excessive fines for violations of law or offenses punishable by law.

With the year 2008 ending very soon and with too much squabbling and politicking in the Senate, I’m not optimistic that the bill to decriminalize libel would be passed. Meanwhile journalists just have to pin their hopes on the directive of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Puno to all the courts in this country to refrain from meting out prison terms to journalists convicted in libel cases. Let’s just hope that judges throughout the country have been briefed of this directive from the Chief Justice. Too often, judges forget those directives and make decisions on their own. But nothing beats the enactment of a law that would decriminalize libel. So we all wait with bated breath!