New measures, the LRT and Mega Cebu

Ricky Poca

Our government approved some bold measures last week. These are namely the Anti-Distracted Driving law, the ban of children from riding motorcycles and the ban on smoking in public areas.

The Anti-Distracted Driving law, which prohibits distraction of any means of vehicle drivers like the use of cell phones while driving and the ban of children riding motorcycles, will affect especially those children riding motorcycles with their parents.

These measures, however, are welcome because they are for the safety of the drivers, the children and, in the case of the smoking ban, the public.

My personal take on the Anti-Distracted Driving law is that this will seek to address the behavior of drivers of public and private vehicles from using their cell phones while driving whether it be accepting a call, engaging in a phone conversation while driving or placing gadgets in the vehicle that will obstruct the drivers’ vision and endanger their lives as well as that of the public.

The second measure seeks to prevent motorcycle owners, who seem to be insensitive and inconsiderate of the safety of children such as those who allow children or adults carrying babies while riding a motorcycle.

The law, however, allows children to ride motorcycles provided that the child can reach the motorcycle’s foot peg and the child can embrace the driver. Another requirement is that the child should also wear a helmet.

The third measure involves the executive order of President Duterte that bans smoking in public. This will address the bad effects of smoking on the health of the public, especially the health hazards that secondhand smoke poses on the public.

The big question now is will these measures be implemented and enforced and for how long?

These three measures are advantageous to the country and the people, and there will be a need for political will to see them succeed.

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Some government officials are in disagreement with the kind of mass transport for Cebu. Like in the case of the planned light railway transit system (LRT) in Cebu, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is against it because he believes that the LRT is expensive to the riding public, especially the poor who cannot afford to ride it.

Osmeña believes that this kind of mass transport will only benefit the rich. But Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino disagrees with Osmeña’s view.

Dino said that the LRT is a mass transport that is available for all.

Despite these opposing views, for me, what is important is that we have a mass transport that can bring the people to their destination unhampered by traffic. And if the rich will ride the LRT, then at least there is a mass transport available for everybody — for the rich and the poor alike.

The city is also planning and putting up other mass transport systems like the train or the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). The good news, however, is that the LRT won’t cost the city a single centavo.

Aside from opposing the proposed LRT project, Osmeña is also against joining Mega Cebu, which is an organization aiming to coordinate public services of the local government units in Cebu like garbage, traffic, flooding and many more.

Osmeña is against joining Mega Cebu because he wants leaders to be elected by the people.

For me, however, I believe that Osmeña only wants to dominate the Mega Cebu organization, but it will be difficult for him to do so because all the local government units (LGUs) in Mega Cebu only have one vote regardless of how big the LGU is. I believe this is the reason for Osmeña’s objection.

But Mega Cebu, which was founded by the late Bobby Aboitiz, aims to provide collective solutions to the problems of Cebu City and other LGUs like flooding, traffic and garbage. Coordination plays an important role here especially with LGUs adjacent to each other.

Dominance has no place in Mega Cebu because of the principle of coordination and cooperation in doing things like in rowing a boat — that if leaders coordinate in rowing the boat then the organization will reach its destination faster and solutions to problems will be better.