No human rights for mutilated soldiers?

It makes my blood boil to hear on tv and read in our national dailies that Moro Islamic Liberation (MILF) rebels mutilated the bodies of our soldiers whom they already killed and planted booby traps around the dead bodies! This happened in Barangay Bialong, Mamasapano, Cotabato City. Seven soldiers who were killed or wounded in an encounter with MILF rebels were finished off and their bodies mutilated beyond recognition. Where’s the Human Rights Commission when we needed one huh?

We’ve written it here before that the Moros fought in the same way in the early 1900s when the Americans got their taste of Moro treachery. How did they solve this problem? Legend goes that US General John “Black Jack” Pershing captured 50 Moro rebels, made then dig their own graves and poured pigs blood in those graves and executed the Moros, except for two who escaped to tell the tale to their fellow Moros. Peace soon reigned in Mindanao. I’m not advocating that our military follow Pershing’s footsteps, but this is why we are calling for the Human Rights Commission to condemn this despicable and barbaric act!

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I’m willing to bet my life savings that our government agencies will never ever get to solve the never-ending problem that was brought to our attention in the town of Naga when a mini-bus overtook another vehicle and instead rammed into a ten-wheeler truck on his proper lane killing 14 of its passengers including a young girl. The reason ugly accidents happen in our roads is due to the fact that our government agencies tasked to find solutions to prevent accidents from happening do not seem to know how to take the bull by the horns and fix the problem.

For instance, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) suspended EDC Bus Liner for 30 days. Come now, what good will this 30-day suspension do to improve the safety of bus passengers? Some years ago, it was the Rough Riders Bus Line that always figured in accidents, yet the only thing that the LTFRB did was suspend the operations of this bus company and when the smoke cleared, this company is still plying our national roads. I can’t understand why our government regulators like LTFRB cannot seem to stop the licenses of erring bus companies.

Then there’s that misconception by the Land Transportation Office (LTO) that speed freaks are driving that way because they are high on illegal drugs. So what the LTO is doing is they will soon conduct roadside urine test to catch shabu users. The problem on our roads is not that we have drug-crazed drivers manning our buses, but rather, we have speed demons who drive so recklessly simply because the towns of Cebu Province do not have motorcycle cops that would catch speed freaks and get them off the road.

In the USA, even long before the advent of the freeway, thruway or parkway, motorcycle cops were the order of the day, hiding either in buses or behind advertising billboards, waiting to pounce on speed freaks. In areas where there are long stretches, the police patrol it through radar detectors or even from small police airplanes. But in Cebu, you’d hardly see a cop along the road, unless that cop is driving towards the town.

Suspending the bus company will not change their drivers to become safety conscious. Today all bus drivers are driving like meek lambs because the incident involving the deaths of 14 people are still fresh in their minds. But when that memory starts to fade, I guarantee you that those bus drivers will once more drive their usual way, regardless whether they are taking drugs or not.

If the LTO and LTFRB are serious in ensuring that future accidents like what happened in Naga would be prevented, it is time for them to act quickly and force bus owners to install governors in the engines of their respective buses. These mechanical governors limit the engine speed to not more than 70 kilometers per hour, thus forcing these bus drivers to follow the vehicle in front of them because they know that their bus do not have enough power to overtake a faster vehicle on the road.

But the best solution to this problem is for the respective towns in Cebu Province to come up with a local municipal ordinance allowing a maximum speed limit for buses and other public transportation and coming up with traffic enforcers on motorcycles to ensure the implementation of their ordinances. If these municipalities take the cudgels from the national government, it is also one way of increasing their revenues and hopefully when they start apprehending erring drivers, they would avoid running fast on the areas that are patrolled by the various towns in Cebu Province.

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