Individual Pinoys should change their habits

I got two text messages that are worth commenting. First from my good friend Mr. Hernan Streegan who texted his comment about our article on stopping the use of plastic bags yesterday “Re ur article 2day maybe our leaders 4waiting 4 d plastics 2 rot”. From another friend, Mr. Tony “Chico” Lozada, he sent this text message, “Bobit, Mnl just confirmed when GMA declared d entire country under state of calamity d callous arrogance of der imperialism…dat the Phils is Mnla.”

While I fully agreed with the President’s decision to place the entire nation under a state of calamity in order to assure that the prices of basic commodities will be frozen, this has somehow resulted in a negative effect from some people who understandably believes in what we’ve always believed, that “Manila is the Philippines and the Philippines is Manila”. Last year, Typhoon “Frank” (the typhoon that sunk the Princess of the Stars) struck in Iloilo, the entire nation wasn’t placed in a state of calamity. All this is happening because we are not a Federated States.

When Hurricane “Katrina” struck New Orleans three years ago, the State of Louisiana was placed under a state of calamity, but not the entire United States. Hence. If you want this changed, the only way for this change to happen is when we call a Constitutional Convention (con-con) and change our basic law to introduce a Federal system of governance in RP.

As for the use of plastic bags, well, in absence of any laws, it is up to the individual Filipino to change their habits. One can either opt to use a buri bag to go shopping for grocery items or live with the present system in using the plastic bags that our stores still use. But keep all plastics in store and dispose of it, without throwing it to the garbage dump where it can clog our creeks and waterways. If only every other Filipino would do this, we could solve half of our nation’s problem.

With the declaration of a state of calamity, the cities and municipalities in Cebu could avail of the monies that are made available for immediate use. Already, the City of Mandaue has gotten flak from potential mayoralty bet Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz that P10 million to fix Mandaue’s floods was a pittance and a “band-aid” solution. I fully agree with Rep. Soon-Ruiz. P10 million should be used to immediately declog the drainage areas; after all, that money is too small to be used for the gargantuan task ahead of truly coming up with a clog-free drainage system that Mandaue City needs.

If there is anything that Metro Cebu cities need to do, it is to get back the 5-meter easement that many informal settlers or squatters have occupied. You can see a lot of them in the Lahug Creek and Guadalupe River and along the Subangdaku and Butuanon River and their tributaries in Mandaue City. What Metro Cebu needs is a masterplan that would rid our waterways of squatters and informal settlers and more importantly that they are kept out permanently.

This is where the Gawad Kalinga programs can be put to good use. If only our political leaders can see further than their present terms of office which are expiring next year, then we can truly fix the problems we’ve had in Metro Cebu for many generations already.

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With things returning back to normal - unless that other typhoon threatens the country - let’s once more look at the problems plaguing the nation for the past months. Remember the H1N1 virus? Suddenly, this issue disappeared from our local and national headlines, literally swept away by Tropical Storm “Ondoy” and Super Typhoon “Pepeng”. As we would say in our Cebuano language, “Maayo ra sad” because too much national (no thanks to the international attention given to it) attention was given to the H1N1 virus where only a handful of Filipinos died, while hundreds have perished because of the dreaded and more deadly Dengue epidemic.

This just gives you an idea of how out of focus is the national government to our problems. If only the Department of Health (DoH) gave the same kind of publicity and attention to the fight against Dengue fever, then perhaps fewer children would have died from it. If only the DoH Secretary spent less on his infomercials and instead used the money to buy medicines, then the DoH would have at least saved a few souls from dying unnecessary because of lack of medicine. However with the return to normalcy, once more the attention of our people will be “diverted” from their present plight to perhaps the political arena which will once more resume with more ferocity before T.S. “Ondoy” and Super Typhoon “Pepeng” put a halt to it.

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