System breakdown

CEBU, Philippines – We’re now in the Big City to represent The Freeman in the annual meeting of the Philippine Press Institute and it felt quite good not to have been in a traffic logjam when we got here.

We’ll be here for a few days only and wish that we’re back in Cebu where life has always been better.

One thing we are thankful for is the Park and Fly which allows us to be at the airport and out of it without having to wait or worry about being duped by drivers of public transportation.

If you are away for only a day or a couple of days and don’t have a driver, then it’s the way to go.

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Last Saturday’s power outage was proof of the incompetence of some people in charge of traffic as we got several complaints about problems in many intersections when power went out.

The reason given by the CITOM was that the outage made it impossible for them to coordinate as their radio was down.

Now, there is a plan to buy an uninterruptible power supply for the base radio of CITOM, which we believe is a purchase that should have been made a long time ago.

But then if a system was in place, it would have been very easy to deploy people when the power outage took place.

Maybe it’s the lack of foresight of the leaders that is the problem. No, not maybe, we believe it really is the problem.

So, are we going to see something happen now that we’ve seen what would happen when the power goes kaput? We hope that it won’t be all talk again.

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A reader complained about people on the highways in areas that are celebrating their fiesta.

He said, “We have come across your column about this matter many times in the past, but nothing is being done. Gahi lang gyud tingali ug ulo ang mga barangay officials who allow these celebrations to spill out to the highways.”

Yes sir, we believe the officials don’t care since no major accident has happened yet.

Look at how they are now all reacting to the incident in barangay Busay where a mini bus fell. Everybody suddenly is an expert in safety and how vehicles should be maintained and how drivers should be hired.

We don’t wish for an accident to happen during fiesta celebrations so we once again call on officials not to allow such activities to spill over to the roads.

The same goes for these tents provided by politicians for those holding wakes that block one or sometimes even two lanes of the road.

These are safety hazards that our government officials are supporting all for political gain.

Shame on you!

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For your comments, complaints and suggestions please feel free to contact us at 2531276 or 2538613 local 237.

You can also send email to [email protected].