Regular in the performance of duty

For a while I wanted to believe that the conflict between the leaders of Cebu City and Cebu Province would simmer down after the elections. I entertained that thought because I imagined that was really no reason for them to be unfriendly to each other. In fact, they should have realized that because of their antagonistic positions on the issue of the development of the La Ciudad, both the city and the province lost some tax revenues.

But, I was wrong. It must be because of the more fundamental dislike of the power holders of City Hall and Capitol on each other that even the most minor of things and events have the tendency to develop as triggers of the third world war.

Let us take the case of the towing by the city traffic department personnel of the truck trailer admittedly owned by the Cebu Province. Citom claimed that the truck trailer was parked along Don Gil Garcia Street, a "No Parking" zone. And because an ordinance was apparently violated, city authorities went to action.

To me really, the incident, an ordinary issuance of citation ticket, was so minor that could never provoke a start of hostilities. Truth to tell, the item did not merit the prominent space it was given in the dailies, or otherwise, considering that there are many such towing of cars in the city each day, one issue could be filled up with similar stories.

If there was no enmity between the bosses of the city and the province, the reaction of capitol officials could have been less noisy. In a friendly atmosphere, the appropriate officers of the province could have explained that their vehicle was not parked on a road but on a lot owned by the province such that there was no city ordinance violated. In fact, if only they were friends, there would have been no towing at all. Citom personnel could have simply sent notice to the province of their observation of a wrongly parked vehicle, and if true, the province could have moved it somewhere else.

But, the minor incident was no minor at all to both parties as subsequent tales unfurled. Fanned by their mutual disapproval, city and provincial authorities have issued threats of legal action against each other.

In any case, there is this principle of regularity in the performance by government officers of their functions that, at the outset, tends to favor the city. It is anchored on good reason. By this principle, it is presumed that when the Citom personnel towed the truck they were just doing their job.

The province however, can overcome this presumption of regularity of the part of the Citom employees in the performance of their functions. If the province has to do it, it must show that the enforcement of the ordinance is tainted with irregularity.

This is my concern as a private citizen. I would not have given any iota to the claim of the province if it were not for an event last Thursday. While cruising on the Mandaue Reclamation Area, a bus, whose driver appeared to own a Torrens title to the road because he was mindlessly weaving in and out of several lanes, almost hit our old car. We had to go to the farthest lane because the bus driver, by maneuvering his vehicle very close to ours, forced us. I could have shot the chauffeur had I the opportunity.

Anyway, as the bus sped forward, I, minding to bring the recklessness of the driver to proper authorities, tried looking for its plate number. There was none. What I saw was that it was a bus apparently owned by Cebu City. It bore a body number 89.

If Citom is clear in its position vis-a-vis the Cebu province truck trailer, such that it was regular for it to impound the vehicle, it should not allow city-owned buses to roam the streets without plate numbers. It was not regular for the Citom to let loose such a Kaohsiung bus on the streets of Metro Cebu because if it hit my car, (or any other private citizen's car for that matter) and yet still drove away, we would have a hard time identifying the vehicle.

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