Waking up to our present realities

At least we have some good news coming from the Senate, that it would investigate the rural banks of the Legacy Group that went under. There is that time-honored separation of the three branches of the government, but it is time for the Legislative Branch to point to us that corruption in the Judiciary through the reckless and unrestrained abuse of the use a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) prevented the regulators from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Philippine Deposit Insurance, Inc. (PDIC) from looking into the books of the various rural banks under the Legacy Group.

Thanks to the usual snail’s paced delivery of Justice in this country, that court room battle took more than three years to resolve, thus the various investment arms or companies and numerous rural banks of the Legacy Group continued accepting investments and deposits from unwary clients until two weeks ago when seven of their rural banks went under. Perhaps it is also time for the Senate to rethink a law that it is planning to enact to raise the limit for the PDIC. I have learned that scam artist posing as rural bankers are using the PDIC as their way out of the financial mess they create for themselves, anyway this government agency is always there to save those bank depositors within the monetary limits that has been set by law.

It is time for Congress to enact more stringent laws to prevent scam artists from mulcting the money of innocent people who lure them with get-rich-quick-schemes. Back in the early-80’s we saw the fall of Philfinance, where many Cebuanos, including the most powerful official of Cebu during Martial Law, the late Gen. Luis Amor placed his retirement fund and failed to get back a centavo! Today, Mr. Hermie Rodis maybe having a great Christmas somewhere in the USA, but we will never forget what he did to many Cebuanos who fell victims to his failed scheme.

We can only hope and pray that someday, there will be strict laws that would immediately put on hold any investment banker who plays around with their depositors’ money and a special court created just for this type of wheeling and dealing. The biggest problem in this country is, we never learn the bitter lessons of the past, that’s why we are always doomed to repeat them.

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I couldn’t help but notice a short letter that The FREEMAN printed from our dear friend, Mrs. Beling Go Ching Hai that came out last Sunday entitled “No More Sidewalks for Pedestrians”. This is really what our former Bogotá Mayor Enrique Penalosa told us that we should give more roads to those who have less in life. That is in line with what the late Pres. Ramon Magsaysay once quipped, “To those who have less in life, they should have more in law.”

This is something that our political leadership in Cebu must seriously look into. Today, we still live by the rules and regulations embodied in the National Building Code (NBC) which was crafted when the population of the Philippines was only 15 million. Today we are close to 90 million and we still allow narrow sidewalks. Take the case of Metro Gaisano along Colon St. Almost every single night there’s no space for the huge number of pedestrians that wait to cross the street. Perhaps Metro Gaisano ought to redesign its ground floor to make way for more pedestrians.

This is a proactive stand to solve this perennial problem by giving more sidewalks to our pedestrians. Of course, expanding our sidewalks shouldn’t mean that our politicians should allow more sidewalk vending. I hope that someday our Congressmen would find it fit to amend our antiquated National Building Code and attune it to our present times. Cebuanos ought to wake up to today’s realities.

We are still stuck with the policies of the Philippines in 1950s or 1960s when times have already changed and our population has already grown. Today we live in far different times if you compare Cebu during the old days where there was no traffic and you could park anywhere you like because you weren’t causing traffic. Not anymore!

I’ve been asked to comment on the recent row about parking fees at the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) building and all I have to say is, today’s reality is that motorists pay for parking space, whether it is on the streets that CITOM or the Mandaue City Traffic collects or inside our shopping malls. So why all this beef over parking fees? Aren’t lawyers paid on a per hour or appearance basis? If so, they shouldn’t complain about parking fees. If at all, it should be lawyers who provide free legal service that should be exempted from parking fees.