Between a rock and a hard place

I salute the MMDA for its determined campaign against illegal parking and illegal structures on roads and sidewalks. I would however counsel certain MMDA officials against shooting their mouths off passing judgment or generalizing that Barangay officials and Mayors are being negligent of their duties and that the MMDA will file charges of dereliction of duty. First walk in their shoes, live in their barangays and find out exactly why local officials find themselves “between a rock and a hard place.”

The MMDA is an extension of the Office of the President. The officials of the MMDA are either political appointees or career personnel who applied for the job and are not elected, appointed or vote sensitive. They do their job as a “National” agency, have no long term daily relations with people and families like LGU officials do and they are not vote-dependent to keep their jobs.

Local officials are vote-dependent, live within the community they serve or at least that is the idea! They have personal relations within their community and unlike the MMDA, local officials MUST be accessible to constituents physically and personally. Very few of them have organized security that filter out potential threats or angry neighbors, which in fact explains why many Barangay officials are shot right in front of the Barangay hall! The Barangay officials are the front liners but they are also dependent on “City Hall” specifically their Mayor and the city council for direction and support. Relationships are not always ideal.

If the Mayor or city council wants things done, then the Barangay officials simply implement those orders or directions. However, if the Mayor / city council have other priorities, don’t agree with things such as the MMDA clearing operations, or don’t like the incumbent Barangay captain, most Barangay officials are powerless and penniless in terms of backing and budgets. Their calls for assistance or manpower to implement campaigns will get you one guy on a motorcycle for two days or none at all. Mayors should certainly head such clearing operations and traffic discipline programs but they also don’t have the extra money, land and as well as the legal defense fund and team to face off with residents who decide to sue them in court.

Above all these, Mayors and Barangay officials are generally hog tied or in a political symbiotic relationship with certain organizations and businesses that have numbers and money, so much so, that tricycle organizations, mall operators, homeowners association can and will vote you out of office for doing the right thing. In the city of Lipa, we once had a former Congressman/Mayor named Oscar Gozos who served the city well but lost in a subsequent election because he tried to introduce parking and road discipline. The group credited for his defeat was a loose network of TODA’s or Tricycle Operator-Drivers Association. Locals say na-Toda’s si Gozos.

Whether it is Cebu. Tacloban, Bacolod or Pasig, locals know that messing with TODA’s and jeepney associations can cost you your job or your life. In Pasig, a series of officials appointed by the Mayor’s office to head traffic management have had death threats or chose to resign because it’s a “deadly” assignment. If it does not kill you, traffic law enforcement will reduce the number of your friends or can land you in front of the Office of the Ombudsman or get a call from the Office of the President because so many people did a telephone campaign against you on 888. One former Barangay Captain of Barrio Kapitolyo tried to implement a street clearing operation at the start of his term and sent a memo to a resident and businessman of Barrio Kapitolyo informing him that his numerous trucks were both obstruction and road hazards. The resident and several others like him filed complaints with the Ombudsman that took about two years to clear. The trucks are still there.

Right now a major eyesore in the Barangay are a hundred or so construction workers of a condominium project called The Vantage, whose workers literally change into their work clothes along the sidewalk for women and children to see. You would think that the contractors would assemble their people inside the premises instead of obstructing and littering on the road and sidewalk. There are also piles of hollow blocks six to eight feet tall occupying the sidewalks, and the first time I wrote about a similar situation the developers of Vantage called a “friend” to intercede and promised to fix things. If they try that shit again, they will regret it. The Barangay really can’t do much about it because their tanods are tied up with traffic management and peace and order so residents like me simply take it on ourselves.

So what should be done about the situation? If the MMDA and the public want local officials to do something about traffic management, clearing and traffic discipline at the LGU level, the right agency to spearhead this would be the Department of Interior and Local Government under Secretary Eduardo Año who ideally has a reputation for being an action man whose motto sounds like: “Lets do it: NOW!” 

Secretary Año would and should assemble a demolition army, a battalion of tow trucks and wreckers in every city and first class municipality, tie up with a “Justice League” type of lawyers, the Land Transportation Office, the League of Mayors, etc. The campaign and operations should be “led” as a national campaign so that local officials won’t be targeted or blamed as the author or instigator. DILG can generate revenues from fines and towing charges just like the MMDA.  It might even be better if President Duterte issued an Executive Order or Presidential decree ordering the DILG – DOTr etc. to institute such a campaign! 

Many local officials want to clear their streets and enforce the law, but sometimes, they have to “Call A Friend” at the Executive Branch. Action Año; the year we see action!

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