Abu Sayyaf: Already a spent force until...

Last Tuesday, we wrote a piece about my cousin, Dr. Edward Rosello having lost his cellphone to the V & F Taxi with plate number GWN-785. It took the whole of Monday and Tuesday to find the taxi. With the help of CITOM and the Metro Cebu Taxi Operators Association (MCTOA) we finally located this taxicab. Perhaps the owners read what we wrote and immediately told the driver to return the cellphone to Dr. Rosello. As they say, all's well that ends well. But in truth, the driver was already thinking of keeping this phone as he even used it to take pictures using that phone.

That the taxi driver returned the cellphone after a whole day of searching for it was due to the fact that he was scared that the traffic police was now looking for him. He returned it out of fear, not honesty! But there are lessons to be learned from this experience. If you ride a taxicab, always get the cab's plate number or even the name of the driver for your own protection and you increase your chance of getting back your forgotten or lost item because of your due diligence.

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I'm totally disappointed with ABS-CBN because for the past three days now, they have imposed some kind of news blackout regarding the fate of their senior reporter Ces Drilon and her tv crew. I have checked and rechecked ABS-CBN TV and not once did I hear a single report about this incident. In my frustration, I checked the ABS-CBN website and finally I saw a report entitled, "Arroyo asks PNP, AFP to find missing ABS-CBN TV Crew!" What was further disappointing was that, this report was placed in "The Other News". Other news? Ces Drilon is their star reporter and when she is kidnapped, it is a big news story!

If this kidnapping happened to other big named personalities, I'm sure that ABS-CBN would go out of their way to get the report of that incident. But since it is one of their own, they have kept this report to the bare minimum for reasons only ABS-CBN executives can explain. In truth, they are not much different from Cable  News Network (CNN) whose star reporter Mr. Richard Quest was caught with drugs in Central Park, New York some months ago. We got this report from other news agencies, but CNN kept mum about this embarrassing incident involving their reporter.

Of course this story is now on the front cover of all the national and local dailies. Kudos to The Freeman for having this story out last Tuesday, another feather in our cap. The latest we heard of this story is that Mindanao State University Professor Octavio Dinampo who also headed the peace advocacy group dubbed the Mindanao Peoples Caucus has been freed and therefore, he could shed more light to what happened to Ces Drilon.

I would like to believe that in her zeal to get a story, Ces Drilon put her person at grave risk. Trying to get an interview with the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) when they are already on the run is quite difficult and in the end, she provided the ASG with another way to promote their terrorism by grabbing her so they could once more make the headlines and tell the world that they are still a force to be reckoned with. The ASG is practically a spent force until Ces Drilon went to Sulu. Now they are back in the front pages of our newspapers.

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Mayor Tomas Osmeña once more apprehended vehicles that were double parking along Fuente Osmeña close to midnight. This is probably the nth time that hizzoner has done this by himself, which only gives us an idea of how frustrating the enforcement of traffic laws is, which for many motorists is nothing but a cat and mouse game. Perhaps the question we should ask everyone is when are we going to get serious in enforcing our traffic rules?

I can only trace this problem to our present unitary form of governance where until now, the traffic rules and regulations enforced by the Land Transportation Office (LTO) have become antiquated. The traffic rules that governs all drivers today were passed in the 50s when the population of the country was nearing 20 million Filipinos and no one knew what a traffic jam was all about. Today we're nearing 90 million people and traffic snarls are not happening only in Metro Manila, but in all the key cities of the country.

Sure you can always blame the lack of traffic enforcers, which allows motorists to double park. But in truth, the real reason why driver violate traffic rules is simply because they only obey traffic rules when they see a traffic enforcer. So when there's no traffic officer around, I guarantee you that you will see a motorist violate at will. What we need are laws that limit traffic violations, like what they do in the US where they too do not have traffic officers all the time. It's called "Strike three, you're out!" After three violations, you are suspended for a year. This is what we ought to do!