Sad news shattered the equanimity of the shocked family, friends and admirers of comedian Arvin “Tado” Jimenez, musician David Sicam and visual artist Gerard Baja and 11 other passengers. They died when their bus plunged into a ravine in Mountain Province.
We now know from the sharing of colleagues and media reports that young as they were, they chose to live meaningful lives with the gifts that they possessed.
Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat is set to file a resolution calling for an urgent inquiry into the operations of provincial buses.
This tragedy should not only be investigated but should finally move regulators and enforcers into action.
The standard of “extraordinary diligence” required of common carriers has become largely a myth. Ask commuters who have to contend with an overloaded jeepney and with co-passengers and even drivers who smoke and speed each day.
Some do not complain and choose to be uncomfortable. But a lot more do not even know that their welfare and safety are primordial factors in the issuance of the Certificate of Public Convenience.
Advertisements and posters enumerating the rights of the public in all jeepneys, buses, cabs, trains, vessels and terminals and ports in simple language and local dialect are necessary. Not many are aware that overloading and driving beyond speed limits can lead to a revocation of the carrier’s franchise.
Common carriers have the burden of proving the exercise of extraordinary diligence. In a ruling reiterating numerous precedents on the issue, the Supreme Court held that:
“Under the Civil Code, common carriers, from the nature of their business and for reasons of public policy, are bound to observe extraordinary diligence for the safety of the passengers transported by them, according to all the circumstances of each case. They are bound to carry the passengers safely as far as human care and foresight can provide, using the utmost diligence of very cautious persons, with due regard for all the circumstances. When a passenger dies or is injured in the discharge of a contract of carriage, it is presumed that the common carrier is at fault or negligent.” (Cruz v. Sun Holidays, Inc. G.R. No. 186312, June 29, 2010).
Measures should be taken to exact accountability from those who are remiss in the performance of their responsibilities to the public. Government is expected to do it. But, if it fails or refuses, then citizens must claim their rights to life, to access information and to participation in decision-making, among a whole plethora of rights that we hold as humans.
It is also a duty of each citizen to know what his or her rights are and to assert them – vigorously, in fact, especially in this land of ours where laws are treated as mere reminders or signages that may or may not be enforced at the discretion of the authorities. Need I cite an example?
Ignorance kills. This is among the most painful lessons that we had to learn from supertyphoon Yolanda and countless storms that hit us badly. If we continue with our trusting-everything-to-fate mentality, the tragedy of preventable deaths will be repeated in the more intense storms that our children and grandchildren will surely face.
While we cannot avoid natural calamities, our response and preparation for disasters are crucial in saving lives, including our own.
RA 10121, the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act (DRRM) of 2010, thrusts the principal responsibility of DRRM as a service to be delivered to the constituents, in the hands of local authorities. After Yolanda, there has been an upsurge of awareness of the law. But, the response is excruciatingly slow.
Climate change and DRRM should already be integrated in making decisions and in development plans, policies and programs. The failure to do so or disregarding such clear provision and state policy by going into projects that will in fact aggravate the impact of climate change will make officials potentially liable.
By allowing more destructive projects such as oil exploration, coal power plants and reclamation to be undertaken even without a baseline data of the health and environmental impacts and the real state of our land, water and air, ecosystems and biodiversity, bereft of plans and public participation and clearly not factoring in the risks and the effects of climate change, and without the equipment and facilities to measure the impacts, do they not compromise our right to a sustainable future?
The time will come when more citizens will not flinch in exacting accountability from those who are seriously neglecting their responsibility to protect the people’s rights and administer justice. It is not in the best interest of those mandated by law for them to be forever complacent.
Let us all help in restoring sanity in governance.
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Happy 16th anniversary to Cebu Daily News and our publisher, Eileen Mangubat. For its unflinching coverage of the burning issues that the public has the right to know, including those that affect our right to a healthy environment. CDN has been a tremendous force in shaping stakeholders’ views and decisions. It is one of the few publications in the country with a column dedicated to environmental governance. It is a rare honor and a privilege for this columnist to part of the CDN family. Mabuhay!