CAPILLAS
A news story on a motorist who fired at the clamp attached to his vehicle after he parked in a no-parking zone in Cebu City showed just how defiant some motorists can be even when they are obviously in the wrong side.
This is not unlike the female motorcycle back rider that was caught on video hitting and cursing a traffic enforcer of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) who stopped her after she failed to wear her crash helmet.
The female motorcycle rider got ticked off after she saw the MMDA traffic enforcer wearing a body camera and recording his confrontation with her.
Apparently she wasn’t aware of this new method of monitoring and recording violators and made a futile attempt to stop the enforcer from recording their confrontation.
In the case of the motorist whose vehicle got clamped, there was probably no way for Cebu City Traffic Operations (CCTO) personnel to see the motorist shoot down the clamp and extricate his car long enough for him to flee the scene.
You have to wonder how the violator managed to carry a gun with him/her in the first place. As of this writing, the driver’s identity had not been disclosed, but I have little doubt he will be caught.
Yet, this incident only fuels the argument on tougher measures against errant motorists and public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers. And it’s not just about parking in a no-parking zone.
The 30-day impounding of vehicles of those who continually and habitually defy the counterflow ban now looks and smells like something the riding public needs to punish these ill-disciplined, arrogant road hogs.
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President Rodrigo Duterte’s comments about family planning during his audience with returning overseas Filipino workers from Kuwait were the source of much comment from netizens which ranged from bemusement to outrage.
His comments that drew the most fire presumably from women’s groups and the Catholic church were on the use of the condom which he advised against using since, in his own words, “hindi masarap (not pleasurable).”
To illustrate his salacious point, President Duterte took out a piece of candy and placed it on his mouth, wrapper and all.
“Try eating the candy with the wrapper on. That’s what a condom is like,” President Duterte quipped in Tagalog.
I don’t know if the President said that during his speech to launch the Malasakit Center at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) in Cebu City last Monday but if he did, he would have drawn a lot of chuckles and giggles from the audience.
The Filipinos by now are used to President Duterte’s street lingo, folksy monologues laced with expletives and green humor though feminists and militants were quick to denounce the President’s message to troops to shoot the private parts of female New People’s Army (NPA) rebels.
But the President is already set in his ways and will speak his mind regardless of how anyone feels about it.
That is perhaps the one quality that endeared him to those who voted him to office and the one trait that his critics have long known and despised.
And for the President, it’s high time for Filipinos to follow the government’s family planning program which promotes contraceptives and other birth control methods to the chagrin of the Catholic church whom he said should not dictate on how Filipino couples should plan their family.
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While I won’t engage in a protracted debate about family planning, it cannot be denied that overpopulation or the concentration of too many people in one area as is the case of Cebu City and its fellow big siblings Mandaue City and Lapu-Lapu City is the cause of much of its persistent problems like traffic, power and water supply shortage and the deterioration of its existing infrastructure network.
In lieu of family planning, the one other solution would have to be spreading out Metro Cebu’s population to the countryside, which is easier said than done since there are no other obvious growth centers that can supplement and rival Cebu’s Big Three cities.
Former Cebu Governor Lito Osmeña laid the groundwork for developing the countryside and so far his successors including the current top occupant of the Capitol, have yet to fully realize his vision, much less improve on it.
With Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia of Cebu’s 3rd district hinting at a possible run for the Capitol anew, Cebu residents are wondering what Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III can possibly offer them that can convince them to vote for him again for a final three-year term in next year’s elections.