Old habits never die

First of all, allow me to congratulate my good friend, Mr. Jose “Joe” Soberano, our incoming President of the Rotary Club of Cebu (Mother) who will be formally inducted tonight at the Marriott Hotel. The inducting officer and guest of honor is former Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. We also thank outgoing President Boni Belen for a great and fruitful Rotary year. Under the leadership of Joe Soberano, you can expect more activities in Cebu’s oldest Rotary Club, which is also the country’s second oldest Rotary Club.

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When Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, III attended the 63rd anniversary rites of the Philippine Air Force (PAF), he saw the 30-year-old presidential plane, a Fokker F-28 Jet. Right there he decided that for his domestic travels within the country, he would be flying on commercial aircraft. I don’t blame Pres. Aquino for making that decision because as he said, his comfort will be a low priority under his watch. That means the Philippines won’t be buying a replacement for this aging presidential jet. If so, they might as well sell it; after all, the President no longer wants to use it.

As far as the President’s international travels, Pres. Noynoy apparently hasn’t made any such plans yet, giving foreign travels a very low priority in his administration. However, whether he likes it or not, he is still obligated to travel to our neighbors during the ASEAN Summit as the Philippines is a senior member of the ASEAN.

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Didn’t we write yesterday that the killings of media personalities haven’t stopped? Well apparently, the political killings haven’t stopped either! The other day, Mr. Fernando Baldomero, a provincial coordinator of Bayan Muna was shot and killed in Iloilo City in front of his 12-year-old son by an unknown assailant. Call this the first political killing under the new Aquino administration. I’m sure it won’t be long before the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) would now pin the blame on Pres. Noynoy, the very same way that they blamed the media and political killings on the Arroyo administration. So what can we say about this except, old habits never die!

As we read in Proverbs, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” The only thing that has changed is the coming to power of the Aquino administration. Sure, the PNP are now searching all vehicles for sirens or “wang-wangs” which is a good thing. But meaty issues like political killings and the killings of our fellow media go unstopped. This is one issue that Pres. Noynoy must address under his watch.

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Because of too many bus accidents, once again, it’s the season for fault finding and the favorite of our reckless bus drivers is “faulty brakes.” In many other accidents, the usual excuse is drunk driving. These excuses are somehow being peddled in order to escape responsibility. Whenever there is a road accident, which always causes a traffic jam, you will hear the uzzizeros say that the driver was drunk, as if drunken driving was excusable! Alas, we do not even have any penalties against drunken driving in this country.

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), the Land Transportation Office (LTO) and the PNP Traffic Management Group cannot escape their responsibilities because since the horrifying bus accident last June 13 that killed 21 Iranians and the driver, the bus accidents continue to haunt us. But I guess our government regulators or enforcement agencies too have their own set of excuses on why bus accidents continue to happen.

One such suggestion coming from the government agencies is to put up more warning signs along the road, as if drivers read signs. Indeed, one of the things I learned about a good number of Cebuano motorist is, they just don’t read or heed traffic signs. When Sammy Darza was CITOM Chief, he told me about this phenomenon. To prove it, we stood at a busy intersection. Indeed, drivers were turning left in violation of a “No-Left Turn” sign that was put in a location that the driver couldn’t have missed the sign.

This is why putting up signs won’t work for as long as there is no one making sure that those who violate traffic laws would be penalized. One of the numerous requests brought up to the CITOM Board was a request to put up a “No-Parking” sign along a particular street. When the CITOM Board agreed to put up the sign, the next thing we heard was a complaint from the same people who made the request on why there were no enforcers to apprehended the motorists who violated the No Parking sign? Hence, the CITOM Board has learned its lessons by denying those requests where they cannot put in additional enforcers to man those signs.