After a long wait, the Department of Public Works and Highways finally got the budget to paint our road markings. But a little bird apparently told me that the officials of DPWH did not coordinate with the Cebu City Traffic Office. I learned that CCTO Chairman Ruben Almendras invited the DPWH officials to the CCTO board meeting, but no one from the DPWH came to attend this coordination meeting. So in the end, DPWH contractors without any advise from traffic authorities started painting our roads that did not follow the old traffic lines we had in the past.
To name a few, just look at the whole stretch of Sergio Osmeña Ave. where the pocket left-tuning lanes disappeared. Along the corner of V. Sotto Ave. it now has 1-1/2 lanes for turning left. Along V. Rama Ave. it used to have three lanes, now it has been reduced to two lanes. The same is true to Gorordo Ave. near the University of the Philippines where the left-turning lanes just disappeared. In Escario St. I used to have a dedicated left-turning lane to go to Juana Osmeña Ext. that too has disappeared.
A cursory check with the CCTO Planning Office and I was informed that DPWH officials and their contractors did not sit down with them before repainting our streets. This is why we need reforms like what Mega Cebu is proposing because DPWH should be talking with the traffic management on how our traffic lines should be painted in order to have orderly traffic.
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The so-called "Tanim-Bala" incident is without a doubt the most talked about topic in the cemeteries nationwide. Almost all the people I talked to over the weekend celebration of All Saints Day wanted to give me their comments of how embarrassing this incident has caused our nation and to all Filipinos in general. Most of the comments focused on the inability of Malacañang to contain the damage this incident has caused all over the world, especially when Time Magazine featured this in a report this week entitled "Airport Security in the Philippines have been putting bullets in luggage to extort passengers."
Many people believe that if low-level bureaucrats can be corrupt, it is only due to the fact that the political leadership in this country is just as corrupt. Yet Pres. Benigno "PNoy" Aquino III continue to espouse his Daang Matuwid slogan, "Kung Walang Korrupt, Walang Mahirap." Well if the Social Weather Station is to be believed, the BusinessWorld came up with this headline yesterday, "Hunger worsens in third quarter." This report only tells us the real truth on what has happened to Filipinos under the Aquino regime, that the rich has now gotten recognized by Forbes 500 while the poor continues to starve because of corruption.
Yet no matter how many embarrassing episodes that has marked the Aquino presidency since he took the reins of power in Malacañang from the August 2010 Hong Kong hostage where eight Hong Kong innocent tourists died to the incompetence of the Aquino regime to help the victims of typhoon Yolanda (according to the latest COA reports, P384-million in disaster donations were found in the banks, all unspent) to the January 25 Mamasapano massacre where 44 Special Action Force troopers were massacred by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and now this incident at the NAIA.
I just can't understand why many Filipinos still call Pres. PNoy Aquino incorruptible when the evidence shows that he is surrounded by his very corrupt close-in aides. Do I need to remind you of the closeness of Pres. PNoy to former Philippine National Police chief Alan Purisima who was removed from office by the Office of the Ombudsman for that corrupt delivery deal he hatched for the firearms licensing? COA hasn't even finished investigating him on his mansion in Nueva Ecija or his land grabbing case?
Yesterday, the Inquirer headline screamed, "Ouster of airport execs in 'tanim-bala' pressed." When US President Harry Truman bagged the US presidency, he placed a plague in front of his desk, which blared, "The buck stops here!" In short, Pres. Truman will no longer pass the buck and accept responsibility for anything happening in his presidency. This is very much unlike the Aquino presidency where he has perfected the art of blaming everyone for all his woes, except himself.
Perhaps only a few people know that Ninoy Aquino International Airport General Manager Angel Honrado was very close to Pres. PNoy. He handled the Benigno Aquino Security Arm that was contracted by Hacienda Luisita when it figured in the Hacienda Luisita massacre. Under General Manager Honrado, NAIA got the unenviable title of "Worst Airport in the World." While thanks to the rehabilitation program in NAIA, it was taken of the number one list of worst airports in the world. But with this "tanim-bala" episode, I reckon NAIA will be back to the number one slot in no time. So will Pres. PNoy have the guts to fire his very corrupt bata-bata?
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For email responses to this article, write to vsbobita@mozcom.com or vsbobita@gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.