Letter To The Editor: Who is to be blamed?

Another tragedy that should have never happened had occurred again in the highway to the south of Cebu. People who should never have died are now dead.

True to its word, our government had made big progress in its developmental works in the south. The highway to and from the south now boasts of well-paved roads that make traveling a lot comfortable. Travel time is also drastically cut short.

 Yet, these same well-paved hi-ways are also the reason of many road accidents that resulted in the death and permanent disability of motorists and commuters. The accident on the dawn of March 28, 2009 when a minibus slammed into a 10-wheeler in a head-on collision and resulted in the untimely death of 14 passengers once again showed how dangerous these roads have become. It also showed how our government had once again failed in its very basic duty: To protect its people.

 The story was so sad. More sad was that this was not the first time these types of accidents happened. Road accidents that caused loss of lives and limbs are mostly, if not all, caused by reckless and irresponsible drivers who don't care about the safety of their passengers. Everybody knows that. The government knows that too. Yet the government is not doing anything to prevent these accidents from happening again.

 How come after all these accidents, the government has not improved in the enforcement of traffic rules and regulations to ensure that roads are safe for motorists and commuters?

 Is our government really so poor that:

• it can not afford to pay salaries to maintain traffic personnel to monitor our highways?

• it can not afford to provide transportation and communication equipment to every traffic personnel to effectively enforce rules and regulations?

• it can not afford to spend for the training and orientation of traffic personnel?

 Or do all these inaction simply mean our government has abandoned us at the mercy of reckless drivers? And that the people in our government simply don't care?

 We read in the news of how our police force are trained in anti-terrorist courses and how they are ready to deal with terrorists. That's good news. But how come they can not protect us from reckless drivers?

 The laws of our land are good. We only need to enforce and implement them for the good of the people.

Glenn Lim

ML Quezon Ave.