EDITORIAL - Go for broke

A city councilor was alarmed on learning that some of the dormitories that were burned in a recent fire did not have fire extinguishers. Alarmed? If there is one thing that is alarming here, it is that the city councilor did not know.

That many dormitories have no fire extinguishers or other fire-fighting equipment is as common knowledge as the fact that the city council is made up of city councilors. Not having fire extinguishers is anything but alarming.

It is difficult to judge the sincerity of people and the councilor may be genuinely concerned about the plight of those who live in virtual death-traps. But please spare us the insult of being told he was alarmed.

If the good councilor truly wants to do something about the problem, fine. We doff our hat to that. It is not often that a city councilor gets truly moved by the plight of those living in dormitories that do not have fire extinguishers

But since the city councilor is into it, maybe he should also be told that not only do we have dormitories without fire extinguishers, we in fact have dormitories that never passed any true fire inspections at all.

So our good councilor should not just file a resolution looking into the absence of these fire-fighting equipment in dormitories, he should look into the larger picture of fire safety in the city as well.

Cebu City is a large city. There are a lot of establishments that, owing to inefficiency or plain corruption, have managed to get overlooked by authorities tasked with performing oversight functions over them.

Good if the luck of these establishments hold out. But more often than not, they do not. So while our good councilor is in the mood for such things, maybe he should just give it the works as well.